Tag Archive for IRS Form 8949

Reporting Capital Gains and Losses to IRS

July 6, 2012 Capital Gain, Capital Loss

In tax year 2011 the IRS created Form 8949, Sales and Other Dispositions of Capital Assets, for taxpayers to calculate capital gains and losses. List all capital gain and loss transactions on this form. The subtotals from this form will then be carried over to Schedule D (Form 1040), where gain or loss will be calculated.

Additional resources about reporting capital gains and losses are the Schedule D instructions, IRS Publication 550 Investment Income and Expenses and IRS Publucation 17 Your Federal Income Tax.

Capital assets include for example your home, household furnishings and stocks and bonds held in a personal account. When you sell a capital asset, the difference between the basis or generally the amount you paid for the asset and its sales price is a capital gain or capital loss.

Almost everything you own and use for personal purposes, pleasure or investment is a capital asset. You must report all capital gains however you may only deduct capital losses on investment property, not on personal-use property.

Capital gains and losses are classified as long-term or short-term. If you hold the property more than one year, your capital gain or loss is long-term. If you hold it one year or less, the gain or loss is short-term. If you have long-term gains in excess of your long-term losses, the difference is normally a net capital gain. Subtract any short-term losses from the net capital gain to calculate the net capital gain you must report.

The tax rates that apply to net capital gain are generally lower than the tax rates that apply to other income. If your capital losses exceed your capital gains, you can deduct the excess on your tax return to reduce other income, such as wages, up to an annual limit of $3,000, or $1,500 if you are married filing separately.

If your total net capital loss is more than the yearly limit on capital loss deductions, you can carry over the unused part to the next year and treat it as if you incurred it in that next year.

No comments , , ,

Sales & Other Dispositions of Capital Assets – IRS Form 8949

April 23, 2012 Capital Gain, Capital Loss

The IRS has a new Form 8949, Sales and Other Dispositions of Capital Assets that taxpayers must use to report most capital gains and losses. Any properties you own for investment purposes and most properties you own for personal purposes (ie your house) are for the most part considered capital assets. Use Form 8949 to report the sale or exchange of a capital asset you are not reporting elsewhere such as Form 6252 or 8824.  Procedure wise you’ll need to fill out Form 8949 before you fill out line 1, 2, 3, 8, 9 or 10 of Form 1040 (Schedule D)

Use as many Forms 8949 as necessary to report all transactions, but make sure that each Form 8949 includes only the type of transactions described in the text for the box checked. Basically at the top of each Form 8949 you file, you’ll need to check box A, B or C, based on what is indicated in box 3 of the Form 1099-B or substitute statement.

  • Check box A if your broker reported the transaction to you and the basis of the securities sold also was reported to the IRS

  • Check box B if the transaction was reported to you but box 3 of the Form 1099-B is blank or your statement says the basis was not reported to the IRS.

  • Check box C for all other transactions.

There has been some confusion surrounding the fact that in order to adjust a gain or loss, you may have to enter a code in column (b) and an adjustment in column (g). For clarification I suggest reading the 2011 Instructions for Schedule D and Form 8949.

No comments , ,

IRS Tax Treatment of Incentive Stock Options Forms 3921 – 6251 – 8949

March 19, 2012 Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), Stock Options

Incentive stock options (ISO) are compensation to employees in the form of stock rather than cash. With an ISO, the employer grants to the employee an option to purchase stock in the employer’s corporation, or parent or subsidiary corporations, at a predetermined price, called the exercise price or strike price. This transaction can happen as soon as the option becomes available to be exercised or is vested. Strike prices are set at the time the options are granted, but options usually vest over a period of time. If the stock increases in value, an ISO provides employees with the ability to purchase stock in the future at the previously locked-in strike price. This discount in the purchase price of the stock is called the spread.

ISOs are taxed in two ways:

1. On the spread

2. On any increase or decrease in the stock’s value when disposed.

Income from ISOs are taxed for regular income tax and alternative minimum tax, but are not taxed for Social Security and Medicare purposes.

In order to calculate the tax treatment of ISOs, you’ll need to know the:

  • Grant date: the date the ISOs were granted to the employee

  • Strike price: the cost to purchase a share of stock

  • Exercise date: the date on which you exercised your option and purchased shares

  • Selling price: the gross amount received from selling the stock.

How ISOs are taxed depends on how and when the stock is sold or disposed. Disposition of stock is typically when the employee sells the stock, but it can also include transferring the stock to another person or giving the stock to charity.

A qualifying disposition of ISOs simply means that the stock, which was acquired through an incentive stock option, was disposed more than two years from the grant date and more than one year after the stock was transferred to the employee (usually the exercise date). An additional qualifying criteria is that you must have been continuously employed by the employer granting the ISO from the grant date up to 3 months prior to the exercise date.

Exercising an ISO is treated as income solely for the purpose of calculating the alternative minimum tax (AMT), but is ignored for the purpose of calculating the regular federal income tax. The spread between the fair market value of the stock and the option’s strike price is included as income for AMT purposes.

The fair market value is measured on the date when the stock first becomes transferable or when your right to the stock is no longer subject to a substantial risk of forfeiture. This inclusion of the ISO spread in AMT income is triggered only if you continue to hold the stock at the end of the same year in which you exercised the option. If the stock is sold within the same year as exercise, then the spread does not need to be included in your AMT income.

A qualifying disposition of an ISO is taxed as a capital gain at the long-term capital gains tax rates on the difference between the selling price and the cost of the option.

Disqualifying ISO dispositions are taxed in two ways:

1. compensation income subject to ordinary income tax rate determined as follows:

  • If you sell the ISO at a profit, then your compensation income is the spread between the stock’s fair market value when you exercised the option and the option’s strike price.

  • Any profit above compensation income is capital gain.

  • If you sell the ISO shares at a loss, the entire amount is a capital loss and there’s no compensation income to report.

2. capital gain or loss subject to the short-term or long-term capital gains rates.

Be aware that employers are not required to withhold taxes on the exercise or sale of incentive stock options. Accordingly, persons who have exercised but not yet sold ISO shares at the end of the year may have incurred alternative minimum tax liabilities. And persons who sell ISO shares may have significant tax liabilities that may not necessarily be paid for through payroll withholding. Taxpayers should send in payments of estimated tax to avoid having a balance due on their tax return. You may also want to increase the amount of withholding in lieu of making estimated payments.

Incentive stock options are reported on Form 1040 in three possible ways depending on the type of disposition.

1. Increase your AMT income by the spread between the fair market value of the shares and the exercise price. This can be calculated using data found on Form 3921 provided by your employer. The calculated spread is reported on Form 6251. Because you are recognizing income for AMT purposes, you will have a different cost basis in those shares for AMT than for regular income tax purposes. Accordingly, you should keep track of this different AMT cost basis for future reference. For regular tax purposes, the cost basis of the ISO shares is the price you paid (the exercise or strike price). For AMT purposes, your cost basis is the strike price plus the AMT adjustment (the amount reported on Form 6251 line 14). Report the gain on your Schedule D and Form 8949. You’ll report the gross proceeds from the sale, which will be reported by your broker on Form 1099-B. You’ll also report your regular cost basis (the exercise or strike price, found on Form 3921). You’ll also fill out a separate Schedule D and Form 8949 to calculate your capital gain or loss for AMT purposes. On that separate schedule you’ll report gross proceeds from the sale and your AMT cost basis (exercise price plus any previous AMT adjustment). On Form 6251, you’ll report a negative adjustment on line 17 to reflect the difference in gain or loss between the regular and AMT gain calculations.

2. Compensation income is reported as wages on Form 1040 line 7, and any capital gain or loss is reported on Schedule D and Form 8949. Compensation income may already be included on your Form W-2 wage and tax statement from your employer in the amount shown on box 1. Some employers will provide a detailed analysis of your box 1 amounts at the top portion of your W-2. If the compensation income has already been included on your W-2, then simply report your wages from Form W-2 box 1 on your Form 1040 line 7. If the compensation income has not already been included on your W-2, then calculate your compensation income, and include this amount as wages on line 7, in addition to the amounts from your Form W-2. On your Schedule D and Form 8949, you’ll report the gross proceeds from the sale (shown on Form 1099-B from your broker) and your cost basis in the shares.

3. For disqualifying dispositions of ISO shares, your cost basis will be the strike price (found on Form 3921) plus any compensation income reported as wages. If you sold the ISO shares in a year other than the year in which you exercised the ISO, you will have separate AMT cost basis, so you’ll utilize a separate Schedule D and Form 8949 to report the different AMT gain and you’ll use Form 6251 to report a negative adjustment for the difference between the AMT gain and the regular capital gain.

IRS Form 3921 is a tax form used to provide employees with information relating to incentive stock options that were exercised during the year. Employers provide one instance of Form 3921 for each exercise of incentive stock options that occurred during the calendar year. Employees who had two or more exercises may receive multiple Forms 3921 or may receive a consolidated statement showing all exercises. The formatting of this tax document may vary, but it will contain the following information:

  • identity of the company that transferred stock under an incentive stock option plan,

  • identity of the employee who exercise the incentive stock option,

  • date the incentive stock option was granted,

  • date the incentive stock option was exercised,

  • exercise price per share,

  • fair market value per share on the exercise date,

  • number of shares acquired,

This information can be utilized to calculate your cost basis in the shares, to calculate the amount of income that needs to be reported for the alternative minimum tax, to calculate the amount of compensation income on a disqualifying disposition, and to identify the beginning and end of the special holding period to qualify for preferred tax treatment.

Incentive stock options have a special holding period to qualify for capital gains tax treatment. The holding period is two years from the grant date and one year after the stock was transferred to the employee. Form 3921 shows the grant date in box 1 and shows the transfer date or exercise date in box 2. Add two years to the date in box 1 and add one year to the date in box 2.

If you sell your ISO shares after whichever date is later, then you will have a qualifying disposition and any profit or loss will be entirely a capital gain or loss taxed at the long-term capital gains rates. If you sell your ISO shares anytime before or on this date, then you’ll have a disqualifying disposition, and the income from the sale will be taxed partly as compensation income at the ordinary income tax rates and partly as capital gain or loss. If you exercise an incentive stock option and don’t sell the shares before the end of the calendar year, you’ll report additional income for the (AMT). The amount included for AMT purposes is the difference between the fair market value of the stock and the cost of the incentive stock option.

The cost basis of shares acquired through an incentive stock option is the exercise price. Your cost basis for the entire lot of shares is thus the amount in box 3 multiplied by the number of shares shown in box 5. This figure will be used on Schedule D and Form 8949. Shares exercised in one year and sold in a subsequent year have two cost bases: one for regular tax purposes and one for AMT purposes. The AMT cost basis is the regular tax basis plus the AMT income inclusion amount. This figure will be used on a separate Schedule D and Form 8949 for AMT calculations.

If incentive stock option shares are sold during the disqualifying holding period, then some of your gain is taxed as wages subject to ordinary income taxes, and the remaining gain or loss is taxed as capital gains. The amount to be included as compensation income, and usually included on your Form W-2 box 1, is the spread between the stock’s fair market value when you exercised the option and the exercise price. This compensation income amount is typically included on your Form W-2, box 1. If it’s not included on your W-2, then include this amount as additional wages on Form 1040 line 7.

No comments , , , ,