Bogleheads.org

I agree intent often matters in interpreting the law. My meaning was to I include this by saying "what the law is" instead of 'what the law says'. You can argue about what the law is and intent may factor into that. But if we know what the law is (e.g. SCOTUS has ruled on it) then the intent is spent and needs no more consideration. Where I quoted you seemed to say that even if we knew the law allows something, we should refrain from doing that thing if it is against the intent of the law (forgive me if I misunderstood). I don't think that's a reasonable standard to hold others to. You are, of course, free to hold yourself to it. My comment about morality has no specific relation to wash sales, but was just in general. I constrai...

It seems blatantly obvious to me that tax-loss harvesting as most often advocated here — using "practically identical" replacement assets — works directly against the intent of the law, but 99% of those commenting on the topic here either fail to see it that way, or won't admit to it. It's like a major taboo to even suggest it. Another alternative is that folks just don't give any heed to the intent of the law, only what the law is and what is moral. Well, I'm no lawyer. But in my estimation, there are some laws for which intent is completely irrelevant when it comes to interpretation and enforcement. A no-turn-on-red sign is a great example. It's literally written in black and white. And it doesn't much matter whether the sign w...

Chris Stapleton Sings the National Anthem at Super Bowl LVII ... ... (really well). Nice. Chris Stapleton has such an awesome voice. I think he is generally considered a country singer. I don't listen to much country but I really enjoy his soulful sound. He really does have a unique and soulful voice. What a striking contrast it was to hear Stapleton's stripped-down, soulful take on the national anthem in the middle of the monster truck show qualities of the hyped-up pregame festivities. It's pretty much the same for me, not really listening to much country music — or even much Chris Stapleton more specifically — but I really appreciating his music. I think I first became aware of Stapleton's unique gifts when he first appeared on SNL. Nob...

I like to keep some amount of cash (~$10K-20K) in my local bank for emergencies, buy a car, bail my kids out of jail (joking), etc...but... My credit union is only paying 0.3%, and I can get close to 4.5% in a MM fund. With only a $10k balance, the difference is $400 a year. Any ideas on where to store that local cash? I'm not trying to get rich, but I'd like to feel like the money is working for me. Before it's suggested...I'm not ready to go to a full online bank. I do like having the ability to make local withdrawals. :sharebeer I've been pondering *exactly* the same question! I use a credit union savings account for a part of an emergency fund, and another separate account to accumulate funds for property tax and insurance, with automa...

I think it's a big mistake to try to figure the spirit of the law since you will never get anywhere trying that argument in your favor. Well yeah, sure... if what you're doing violates the spirit of the law, it's probably not a good idea to point it out. :wink: However, there could be circumstances in which the spirit of the law could work in an investor's favor — as long as they're complying with it. Here's one example. A wash sale is potentially created by the purchase of an asset in an IRA within 30 days before the sale of the same asset in a taxable account at a loss. There are lots of folks who believe there is no way to avoid the wash sale by selling the asset purchased in the IRA first, prior to realizing the loss in the taxable acc...

+1 it's a pretty funny thing to reference the spirit of the law in regards to 401ks or any of these other nuances, while even having the discussion at all, and practicing any form of TLH. Thanks for your comment, mega317. Its good to know there's at least *one* other Boglehead that sees this in a similar light. It seems blatantly obvious to me that tax-loss harvesting as most often advocated here — using "practically identical" replacement assets — works directly against the intent of the law, but 99% of those commenting on the topic here either fail to see it that way, or won't admit to it. It's like a major taboo to even suggest it. The White Coat Investor didn't want to touch it, it seems. Honestly, it always amazes me how muc...

Pretty much reinforces what I've been telling people about TLHing for 20 years. Thanks for sharing. Reading through the 4-2-22 article linked by ivk5 , I'd guess that this passage is representative of your position that now seems to be supported by the ProPublica research: Substantially Identical Rule This means you could swap a Vanguard Total Stock Market Fund for a Vanguard 500 Index Fund, but you couldn't swap a Vanguard Total Stock Market Fund for a Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF. Those are substantially identical. Now, some people think the IRS really dives into the details of these transactions, but I don't know anybody who knows anybody who has ever been audited on this point. The IRS has bigger fish to fry. So, I really wouldn't s...

Chris Stapleton Sings the National Anthem at Super Bowl LVII...


... (really well).

Something else I found interesting was that the reporting actually prompted Goldman Sachs to change *their* practices. After inquiries by ProPublica, Goldman said it would halt transactions like Ballmer’s Shell and BHP trades. Goldman conducted a review, according to a statement by the bank, and found that a “very small percentage” of its “tax investment solutions” trades were “inadvertently made in a manner inconsistent with our strategy.” I think this particular situation was responding to ProPublica asking them about claiming losses when exchanging between shares of the same company. The IRS says in Publication 550 Similarly, bonds or preferred stock of a corporation are not ordinarily considered substantially identical to the common st...

My cable TV service has raised prices and reached my breaking point. I'd like to try streaming, alongside cable, for 1 month and if it works out cut the cord for good. My wife wants local news, PBS and HGTV. We watch sports. We DVR a lot. What's the deal with live tv streaming services like Hulu, Sling, and YouTube TV? Why would I want or need that? Seriously, I need an education before I cut the cable cord. I don't know the questions to ask so please offer any information a new streamer may find useful. Thank you. Seems like you guys are good candidates to try YouTube TV. Type in your zip code on their website to see what channels you would get. In my area, I pretty much get every channel that broadcasts locally except my town's community...

twh wrote: ↑Sat Feb 11, 2023 10:42 pm YouTube TV, Wired Roku, 1G Internet, LG OLED TV (not using Roku apps)

YouTube TV is rock solid. Have to reboot the Roku once in a while.

Exactly my set-up (minus the TV).

Also exactly my experience with Roku. At first I was having an issue with playback freezing after fast-forwarding or rewinding, but I started using the TV remote exclusively to power on and off, and that issue went away.

I can't believe people still DVR. I didn't realize it was still a thing. People do, but I haven’t seen that mentioned in this thread. I'll mention it. I use DVR! :twisted: That was the technology available when I last moved. I really like it, but the cost for cable just keeps going up and up and I'm considering moving to YouTube TV. I've been concerned that my internet speed may have to be increased first, but I guess I can try it and see. Pick a good time for a free trial when you can test it out. (They used to offer 2 weeks free, but by the time I got around to it a few months ago it was down to 3 days.) I'm new to streaming, and I couldn't be happier with YouTube TV. As to your concern about internet speed, my impression is that YouTube...

" The clearest sign that these sorts of trades do not, in the IRS’ eyes, violate the wash sale rule is that ProPublica could find no example of the agency challenging one." And if the IRS isn't going after billionaires swapping different variants of of the same company stock, they most certainty aren't going to go after Joe and Molly Bogleheads swapping different mutual funds. Yes, I'd say that pretty much captures the actionable gist of the story for us here: one more data point — from professionals doing their due diligence — building to a preponderance of evidence regarding the IRS practices on the enforcement of the wash sale rule. I'm not as sure as the authors that it reveals the IRS perspective on the legality of the pract...

Yes, TLH can work to your advantage if you have a basket of stocks with losses. Most of this article is typical Pro Publica hysteria. Somehow obeying the tax laws becomes "skirting" and they are shameless about quoting illegally leaked tax documents. You can easily find calmer discussions of TLH, published by honest sources. Agreed, their opinion that vague areas like this ("substantially identical") should be given the interpretation that is least favorable to the taxpayer inevitably leaks in. But that's human nature. Some change their tune quickly here when the topic shifts from tax loss harvesting to Medicaid planning including earlier today. The thing is, their perspective that "leaks in" makes complete se...

This new report on the use of tax-loss harvesting, facilitated by avoiding wash sales through the use of substitute investments that are not substantially identical, is a fascinating read. The big dollars involved might grab attention, but I found the larger context provided in the piece far more interesting. They touch on the historic rationale for implementing the wash sale rule in the first place, how the explosion of modern passive investing products (index funds) and methods (direct indexing) has simplified the way around the law, and even offer a peek at data that seems to provide some clues about how high a priority enforcement of the wash sale rule really is at the IRS. Based on my knowledge of the topic, the article seems to have d...

livesoft wrote: ↑Thu Feb 09, 2023 6:01 am I would not confuse tax-prep software instructions with IRS instructions.

Right. It's best to be confused directly *by* the IRS instructions.

Also, see here (though note that there's a typo that is corrected soon after): https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6596977#p6596977 Yeah, that's a pretty good example too. It fleshes out the ambiguity of the instruction to "Include the results on line 1a..." There's a heckuva lot of heavy lifting that one word, "include," is doing there! 1) Separate the foreign source dividends from all dividends. 2) Separate the foreign source qualified dividends from all foreign source dividends. 3) Multiply the foreign source qualified dividends by one of two possible adjustment factors. 4) Add the result to the foreign source non-qualified dividends found as a by-product in Step 2. *That's* what goes on Line 1a: the *su...

One of my pet peeves is the way many forum members rather dismissively direct confused taxpayers to just read the IRS publications to understand the US tax code. As if it were that easy! Seasoned and savvy investors spend literally hundreds of posts here arguing among themselves about exactly what those publications say, even on some of the narrowest questions. The publications are not clearly written, and the ambiguity leads different people to conflicting interpretations more often than not. I don't disagree but in many cases, posts are made having done no research or having relied on google/media articles and other disreputable sources. Other times someone posts a question that is answered by the simple arithmetic on a form (e.g. Schedu...

As others have said, you need to make manual adjustments. There are 2 lines on the 1116 that need manual adjustments: * Line 1a, gross income from the fund * Mini worksheet for line 18. Here is the gist of a small Excel worksheet I developed for me as MFJ with VTIAX: Row. A B 3 $N1 VTIAX dividends (1099 L 1a) 4 $N2 H&R Block Sched D tax worksheet line 18 (taxable income - qualified div - capital gains). 5 %N3 % of 1099 1a that is foreign source income. Specified in VG forms. Is 100% for VTIAX 6 %N4 % 1099 1a that is foreign source qualified. Specified in VG forms. Is 73.63% for VTIAX 7 =A3*A5 Foreign source income 8 =A3*A6 Foreign source qualified income 9 $N5 Is 32% rate (340,100 for MFJ) 10 20,000 Cutoff for qualified income. Not sur...

Never mind! I found a couple of federal W-4P calculators, one on an AK state site, and another on a WI state site. From the Alaska Department of Administration Division of Retirement and Benefits: Ak DRB > Estimators 1) Downloadable Excel file: retireeNetPayEstimator.xlsx From the Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds: 2) Wisconsin Retirement System Retiree Monthly Tax Withholding Calculator Both calculators return identical numbers for my inputs. The estimated withholding amounts are both slightly greater than what I calculated by hand using Pub. 15-T, but I suspect the minor discrepancy is due to the calculators both using 2022 federal tax figures instead of the newly inflated 2023 numbers. Most importantly, both calculators confir...

I need to make federal withholding adjustments this year for *pension* income. I'd know exactly what to do if I could still use the older 2021 Form W-4P. However, I understand the significantly revised version of Form W-4P will be required this year. If I just send in the new 2023 form, it feels a little like a black box, and getting the withholding right might end up being an iterative process. :| I found the 2023 Publication 15-T , Federal Income Tax Withholding Methods. Using Worksheet 1B in Section 1 based on the *old* W-4P still in effect, I was able to reproduce the amount the payer withheld from the January 2023 payment. However, when I run through the same worksheet based on use of the new 2023 Form W-4P, the withholding amount is s...

I think the main BH approach is to have so much money invested for retirement when retired that one doesn't have to worry about any approach. Simply withdraw as needed whenever you feel like withdrawing. That's the "main" approach? I highly doubt that even here, among Bogleheads, there are enough people wealthy enough for the "Alfred E. Neuman Strategy" to be prudent for the majority of members — or even anywhere close to a plurality of them. Most of us have to think a bit more carefully about it... Per my signature line, I guess I must be an adherent of the "Alfred E Neuman Strategy". But to iceport's point, the real value of retirement financial planning is for those whose assets are ≤25-30x (≈4% withdrawal ...

Yeah, same here! And apparently I haven't done a very good job of it! Seems like mastering Form 1116 will be this year's tax project. But we shouldn't feel too bad about it... even The Finance Buff, financial wizard that he is, threw up his hands in defeat: Too Much Hassle in Claiming Foreign Tax Credit on IRS Form 1116 The most frustrating thing about it for me is that I don't pay a whole lot more in foreign taxes than the $300 maximum to be exempt from Form 1116. And as near as I can tell, I'll be able to get a credit for the full amount of foreign taxes paid whether I make a bunch of mistakes on that miserable form or not. :shock: TaxAct will handle 1116 very nicely and easily, including the adjustment for qualified dividends and capita...

I don't have much of an answer to your questions... I only recently (two weeks ago) converted to brokerage so I have been using the old 1099-DIV and supplemental % data in past. I don't know what a consolidated 1099 contains. For 2021 tax year for example, Total International only had ~90% foreign source.. therefore on box 7d of my "worksheet" in TurboTax, it looks like 90% was multiplied by the total. Sorry I don't have better answers... it seems every year I have to relearn how form 1116 works. Yeah, same here! And apparently I haven't done a very good job of it! Seems like mastering Form 1116 will be this year's tax project. But we shouldn't feel too bad about it... even The Finance Buff, financial wizard that he is, threw up ...

Do you have an account at SSA.gov? If you do, then you can get a full record of your earnings history. Then you can copy the history with your browser and paste it into this wonderful third-party tool:

https://ssa.tools/

The calculator really is outstanding.

It was discussed here: viewtopic.php?t=255206 , though website URL seems to have been revised (see last post in that thread). Mike Piper (creator of the Open Social Security planning tool) has always spoken highly of the ssa.tools calculator also.

Is this the one you're looking for?

https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement ... pplet.html

Age at retirement

Enter the age in years and months at which you plan to stop working. Your earnings are assumed to stop at that age.

Taxable account 1099-R Consolidated does detail the foreign tax paid (line 7). I’m a little confused, are you saying I don’t need anything additional info prior to filing? (I’m filing early because I’m anticipating a refund). Foreign Tax Paid: $1600 I can't think of anything else... I own VTIAX and VEMAX (emerging markets stock index fund) in a taxable account, and as far as I know, everything needed for those funds on Form 1116 is available on the 1099 Consolidated form. For both of those funds, 100% of the income is foreign source income. As far as I know, "RIC" is supposed to be entered for the source country, and no data from individual countries is required. Maybe I'm missing something? Looking at the pdf for foreign sourcin...

PhinanceMD wrote: ↑Fri Jan 27, 2023 10:05 am Taxable account 1099-R Consolidated does detail the foreign tax paid (line 7). I’m a little confused, are you saying I don’t need anything additional info prior to filing? (I’m filing early because I’m anticipating a refund).

Foreign Tax Paid: $1600

I can't think of anything else... I own VTIAX and VEMAX (emerging markets stock index fund) in a taxable account, and as far as I know, everything needed for those funds on Form 1116 is available on the 1099 Consolidated form. For both of those funds, 100% of the income is foreign source income. As far as I know, "RIC" is supposed to be entered for the source country, and no data from individual countries is required.

Maybe I'm missing something?

I always wait til at least mid-February, as history has shown me that brokerages in a hurry to get out a 1099 in January, often send me a corrected form the following month. I'm never in a hurry to file as my tax planning usually has me owing just enough to avoid penalties. Personally, I'm in no hurry to e-file. I created some Excel spreadsheets a number of years ago that I manually enter all of my tax information. I want to be sure that my spreadsheet calculations match what I have imported (from Vanguard) and manually entered into my H&R Block software. If there are any data changes from Vanguard or H&R Block updates, I simply make any necessary changes and usually end up filing sometime in February. Thanks. That's kind of what I...

It's now available online. Yes, but is it safe to use already? In other words, how likely is a revision? :shock: For more than a decade my taxes have involved my sibling "partners" in renting real estate and our tax coordination has taken us pretty much to the deadline every year. Now I'm on my own again, and I'm looking forward to a more timely submission. I have everything I need now to file the 2022 tax return. The question is, how soon is too soon to file one's taxes? The note at the bottom of the first page of the consolidated form gives me pause: "Changes to dividend tax classifications processed after your original tax form is issued for 2022 may require an amended tax form." Is it best to wait until the middle o...

thanks for all the replies ... if it's as simple (in most cases) as LTG rates being lower than deferred ordinary income rates, why would anyone use tax deferred space for equities? Because there is a great benefit to tax-deferral. If you would pay tax at 32% now but can pay tax at 12% or 22% later on the same money, you end up with more money by deferring the tax until later when you are in a lower tax bracket. That's not quite how I'd describe the benefit of tax deferral. That explanation relies on a lower tax rate in retirement. A huge benefit of the tax deferral actually happens even if taxes stay exactly the same in retirement. It's called tax-free growth. Yes, pretty much the same tax-free growth provided by Roth accounts. Assuming ex...

Just to add a smaller consideration to the excellent points raised above, if it does turn out that converting some of your 457b plan to a Roth IRA is advantageous for you — and it very well might be that it is not — I found it very helpful to roll over my target conversion amount to a traditional IRA first. That way, you can roll over multiple years of planned Roth conversions to the IRA custodian at one time, limiting the custodian-to-custodian coordination and time out of the market (1-2 weeks maybe?) to a single transaction. Then the conversion(s) from a tIRA to a Roth IRA can be done seamlessly and directly at the same custodian, with no additional time out of the market. Depending on the fund choices and fees, it might be that converti...

sailaway wrote: ↑Wed Jan 18, 2023 5:09 pm By calculating sinking funds into your budget every year, so that the major purchases are already accounted for.

Ie, it is t 4% plus a new car every tenth year. It is 4% including the new cars you may need along the way.

That's what I did/do, though I'm interested in seeing others' responses. There are potential one-off emergencies of such a magnitude that this method could be strained or broken.

halbschatten wrote: ↑Wed Jan 18, 2023 5:03 pm Thankfully my company 401k option (guideline.com) seems to be pretty cheap, fees-wise (they quote 0.08%/yr), and they have the usual Vanguard funds lineup. My tax rate right now is… medium? Despite the kind of big NW number, my year-to-year income has always been around $120-160k.

So the key question is this: How does your marginal tax rate now, while working, compare to your expected marginal tax rate in retirement?

You're probably using wireless backhaul (connection between nodes), which will limit the speed. At least the Eero Pro 6 has dedicated backhaul (as far as know), which is faster than when the bandwidth is shared between backhaul and the devices. Originally, the two Eeros were connected wirelessly, but now they're connected by a Cat7 cable. It doesn't matter. Either way, the wireless speed out of either Eero unit is limited to about 1/3 of the 1 Gbs fiber connection to the house. My extremely uninformed perception is that wireless technology in common residential use today has absolutely not kept up with the highest speed connections available now, especially fiber optic service. Heck, out of the 5 speed test sites reviewed here: Best Intern...

If you make enough to have accumulated $2M you are almost certainly are in a high enough tax bracket that you should max your 401k. Can't do anything about the past but in the present you want to max tax advantages accounts, especially traditional (pre-tax) options that would otherwise be taxed at a high rate. ^^^^ This seems correct. And a further assumption would be that your retirement tax rate is no higher than your working tax rate — and likely significantly less. The article justifiably raises the concept of tax risk, but it glosses over the most likely scenario: lower taxes in retirement, which strongly favors the use of pre-tax savings plans. OP, please study the "calculations" section of this wiki article: https://www.bo...

If the upload speed is capped or you are on a shared cable with neighbors or you are using WiFi then the high speed they advertise makes little to no difference. (Bolding mine) Wifi is not a bottleneck, or at least it doesn't need to be. Newer wifi standards can support close to 1Gbps or more, as fast as or faster than Ethernet. Interesting. My experience has been different, in that the two-unit brand-new Eero Pro 6 mesh wifi in my house limits my 1 Gbs fiber service to 300-330 Mbs. I recently went from ~0.8 M bs DSL to 1 Gbs fiber, and was disappointed when I measured the service to find I was achieving only 300-330 Mbs. (The Eero Pro 6 system measures the speed to the gateway unit at ~ 945 Mbs download and upload.) I first upgraded the c...

What happened to the shares purchased with the reinvested dividends? According to your description, it was the purchase of those shares that created the wash sale. So they are the replacement shares, right? Not the second half of the originally purchased shares. If you still own the replacement shares purchased with the dividends, then the $100 disallowed loss is still locked up in those shares, and you won't be able to claim that loss until those shares are sold. The cost basis for those shares should be adjusted upwards by a total of $100 to account for disallowed loss due to the wash sale. When those shares are sold, the cost basis adjustment will have the effect of crediting you for the previously disallowed loss — even if it takes the ...

placeholder wrote: ↑Tue Feb 22, 2022 7:02 pm

iceport wrote: ↑Tue Feb 22, 2022 9:34 am If a wash sale is created by the purchase of substantially identical shares in an account other than than the account in which the loss was incurred, and both you and your broker(s) follow the law, then that's exactly what is supposed to happen.

I don't believe that this is accurate in that brokers only are required to report wash sales in the same account not across accounts.

Well, seeing that you edited out the context in which my statement was made, I really have no idea what your point is.

Wash sales only apply to tax loss harvesting. There is no concern with what you plan to do. Cheers Doesn't the correct answer depend upon whether there are any individual tax lots sold at a loss, and whether the average cost basis method is used? If a separate lot cost basis method is used, and one or more individual tax lots are sold at a loss, then a wash sale could be created, even if the net result of the transaction is a small gain. And in the OP's circumstances, the loss would not only be disallowed, but permanently disallowed. The OP's description — "The stock mutual fund sale will result in a relatively small capital gain..." — doesn't provide enough detail to know whether a wash sale would be created. I think they could ...

Wash sales only apply to tax loss harvesting. There is no concern with what you plan to do. Cheers Doesn't the correct answer depend upon whether there are any individual tax lots sold at a loss, and whether the average cost basis method is used? If a separate lot cost basis method is used, and one or more individual tax lots are sold at a loss, then a wash sale could be created, even if the net result of the transaction is a small gain. And in the OP's circumstances, the loss would not only be disallowed, but permanently disallowed. The OP's description — "The stock mutual fund sale will result in a relatively small capital gain..." — doesn't provide enough detail to know whether a wash sale would be created. Good point. Thanks ...

Silk McCue wrote: ↑Tue Feb 22, 2022 8:20 am Wash sales only apply to tax loss harvesting. There is no concern with what you plan to do.

Cheers

Doesn't the correct answer depend upon whether there are any individual tax lots sold at a loss, and whether the average cost basis method is used? If a separate lot cost basis method is used, and one or more individual tax lots are sold at a loss, then a wash sale could be created, even if the net result of the transaction is a small gain. And in the OP's circumstances, the loss would not only be disallowed, but permanently disallowed. The OP's description — "The stock mutual fund sale will result in a relatively small capital gain..." — doesn't provide enough detail to know whether a wash sale would be created.

(And now I feel even worse for never being able to bring myself to round to whole dollars.) I switched over to whole dollars a few years ago (It was a major update to my spreadsheets), completely out of pity for the data entry folk. I should probably do the same — after I'm done with reporting on a rental real estate property that we just sold last year. But I'm not as industrious as you are ! I used to use a cruder method, but similar strategy to the one you use. Then I started using tax software for some reason. I used it primarily as a check of my arithmetic. Then my returns became much more complicated, and rather than using the software as a check of my own work, over the course of a few years the tax software became my primary data e...

Roly wrote: ↑Tue Feb 22, 2022 9:13 am To be safe -

Stop all auto-investments to all accounts (retirement and taxable, both spouses).

Taxable - Exchange Zero funds. FZROX to FSKAX and FZILX to FTIHX. Does this exchange cause a wash sale?

For more than 31 days. All accounts - Invest in FSKAX/FTIHX.

After 31 days, go back to Zero funds in retirement. Stay in FSKAX in taxable. Next time I have losses, I won't have to worry about retirement accounts. Correct?

This is complicated

That looks like a good strategy. The taxable exchange will not create a wash sale, according to a commonly held interpretation that index funds tracking different indexes are not substantially identical.

UpperNwGuy wrote: ↑Tue Feb 22, 2022 7:54 am Would Fidelity report it as a wash sale? I would hate to have my tax return contradicted by my brokerage's tax document.

If a wash sale is created by the purchase of substantially identical shares in an account other than than the account in which the loss was incurred, and both you and your broker(s) follow the law, then that's exactly what is supposed to happen. It's a very common occurrence. Individual taxpayers are legally required to report transactions as wash sales that brokers are not required to report. It's an unfortunate fact. And the need to resolve the inconsistent reporting of wash sales created across different accounts seems like a pretty good reason just to avoid those wash sales, especially, in the first place.

In the hope of reducing the inefficiencies associated with paper filing, I download and fill out the PDFs available on the IRS website. The thought is that the agency's own paper format might facilitate the use of automated scanning, assuming it's even used at all. The paper printouts from commercially available software are still so crude and hokey-looking, I'd be amazed if they can be scanned effectively. For state returns, I use a standard (paid) copy of Adobe Acrobat that lets me carefully type in the data directly onto the dumb state paper forms. I doubt my state uses OCR scanning, but at least the forms are clear and easy to read with electronically typed-in data. The IRS does not scan in individual tax returns, but many of the state...

Do any of you know if the information I received from VG is correct? I don't know for sure. However, I recently came across an explanation of the options for changing cost basis methods, written by a tax attorney at Fairmark.com, and this part was news to me: Limitations. <...> In addition, you can’t make this retroactive change after the time limit set by your broker or mutual fund company expires. They’re required to allow at least a year, but permitted to allow a longer period, and many mutual fund companies have indicated they’ll be lenient, perhaps even permitting these changes for an indefinite period. Be aware, though, that the first sale of shares terminates your ability to make this retroactive change, even if it occurs within the...

I've had this fund well over a year and I assumed that if I kept it longer than the 1 year duration, I would have at the very worst came out even. I'm hoping someone could explain why this fund didn't perform as I expected. Thanks, Jon I'm no bond expert, but I think you are misinterpreting the effect the fund duration has on returns. It doesn't provide a guarantee that the fund will never lose value after being held for the fund's duration or more. It means that *after* a specific interest rate shock, the fund will recoup those specific losses after a period equal to the duration. Because the losses in this fund are recent, within the last 4 months or so, it will take more time before those losses are recouped. And further interest rate s...

I can't think of any reason why in 2022 someone would file a paper return unless there is a scenario not supported by the IRS. I am opposed to the government forcing taxpayers to buy commercial software to file their taxes. The pdf’s I fill out have all the digital data that the IRS needs for my return. I think taxpayers should be able to efile directly with the IRS. Until that’s available, I will file via paper. I agree completely. :thumbsup (But I'm not holding my breath... too much $$$ involved. :oops: ) Yep. Let’s waste our tax dollars transcribing tax returns rather than feeding people,repairing bridges, etc. That will show them. I would propose that folks file electronically and complain to our congressional reps that we need a basic...

Listening to Fleetwood Mac on my Amazon Echo Show. Wondering why I didn't appreciate them as much when the songs originally aired... Which stage / phase of Fleetwood Mac? The Peter Green era, or when Buckingham/Nicks joined? All Buckingham/Nicks era stuff. I love Buckingham's playing. I like Mick Fleetwood's drumming. I also really like Fleetwood's drumming! It's not an instrument I normally focus on, but his style really does add a whole lot to the sound of Fleetwood Mac. On the era, I like the commercially successful sound of the Buckingham/Nicks period just fine, but I find the Green era with the addition of Christine McVie's creative contributions more satisfying. (Never spent much time listening to their earlier straight-ahead blues e...