Can my accounting for Tax Basis differ from my broker's
No. If you didn't specify LIFO on account or sell by specifying the shares you wish sold, then the brokers method applies.  From Publication 551 Identifying stock or bonds sold.   If you can adequately identify the   shares of stock or the bonds you sold, their basis is the cost or   other basis of the particular shares of stock or bonds. If you buy and   sell securities at various times in varying quantities and you cannot   adequately identify the shares you sell, the basis of the securities   you sell is the basis of the securities you acquired first. For more   information about identifying securities you sell, see Stocks and   Bonds under Basis of Investment Property in chapter 4 of Pub. 550. The trick is to identify the stock lot prior to sale.
This was the day traders dilemma. You can, on paper, make money doing such trades. But because you do not hold the security for at least a year, the earnings are subject to short term capital gains tax unless these trades are done inside a sheltered account like a traditional IRA.  There are other considerations as well: wash sale rules and number of days to settle.  In short, the glory days of rags to riches by day trading are long gone, if they were ever here in the first place.  Edit: the site will not allow me to add a comment, so I am putting my response here: Possibly, yes. One big 'gotcha' is that your broker reports the proceeds from your sales, but does not report your outflows from your buys. Then there is the risk you take by the broker refusing to sell the security until the transaction settles. Not to mention wash sale rules. You are trying to win at the 'buy low, sell high' game. But you have a 25% chance, at best, of winning at that game. Can you pick the low? Maybe, but you have a 50% chance of being right. Then you have to pick the high. And again you have a 50% chance of doing that. 50% times 50% is 25%. Warren Buffet did not get rich that way. Buffet buys and holds. Don't be a speculator, be a 'buy and hold' investor. Buy securities, inside a sheltered account like a traditional IRA, that pay dividends then reinvest those dividends into the security you bought. Scottrade has a Flexible Reinvestment Program that lets you do this with no commission fees. I am not a tax professional, only an investment professional, so please take the following with a grain of salt and simply as informational guidance, not a personal recommendation or solicitation to buy/sell any security or as personal tax or investment advice. As Ross mentioned, you need to consult a tax advisor for a final answer concerning your friend's personal circumstances. In my experience advising hundreds of clients (and working directly with their tax advisors) the cost basis is used to calculate tax gain or loss on ordinary investments in the US. It appears to me that the Edward Jones description is correct. This has also been the case for me personally in the US with a variety of securities--stocks, options, futures, bonds, mutual funds, and exchange traded funds.  From the IRS: https://www.irs.gov/uac/about-form-1099b Form 1099-B, Proceeds From Broker and Barter Exchange Transactions A broker or barter exchange must file this form for each person: Edward Jones should be able to produce a 1099b documenting the gains/losses of any investments. If the 1099b document is confusing, they might have a gain/loss report that more clearly delineates proceeds, capital returns, dividends, and other items related to the purchase and sale of securities. We have a house here in India worth Rs. 2 Crores. We want to sell it and take money with us.  Selling the house in India will attract Capital Gains Tax. Essentially the price at which you sell the property less of the property was purchased [or deemed value when inherited by you]. The difference is Capital Gains. You have to pay tax on this gains. This is currently at 10% without Indexation and 20% with Indexation.  Please note if you hold these funds for more than an year, you would additionally be liable for Wealth tax at 1% above Rs 50 lacs. Can I gift this whole amount to my US Citizen Daughter or what is the   maximum limit of Gift amount   What will be the tax liability on me and on my Daughter in case of Gift   Whether I have to show it in my Income Tax Return or in my Daughter's Tax Return. What US Income Tax Laws says.   What will be the procedure to send money as Gift to my Daughter.   Assuming you are still Indian citizen when to gift the funds; From Indian tax point of you there is no tax to you. As you daughter is US citizen, there is no gift tax to her. There is no limit in India or US. So you can effectively gift the entire amount without any taxes. If you transfer this after you become a US Resident [for tax purposes], then there is a limit of USD 14,000/- per year per recipient. Effective you can gift your daughter and son-in-law 14,000/- ea and your husband can do the same. Net 14,000 * 4 USD per year. Beyond this you either pay tax or declare this and deduct it from life time estate quota. Again there is no tax for your daughter. What are the routes to take money from India to US   Will the money will go directly from my Bank Act.to my Daughter's Bank Account.   Will there will be wire transfer from bank to bank   Can I send money through other money sender Certified Companies also. The best way is via Bank to Bank transfer. A CA Certificate is required to certify that taxes have been paid on this funds being transferred. Under the liberalized remittance scheme in India, there is a limit of USD 1 Million per year for moving funds outside of India. So you can move around Rs 6-7 Crore a year. "This is going to vary from insurer to insurer, and likely year to year.  Typically an insurer will set what it calls the guaranteed rate of return for whole life policies and will allow you to take loans against the cash value of your policy at some adjustment to that rate.  Also typically you pay the interest back to yourself less some small administrative fee. Some insurers have whole life policies called something along the lines of an ""accelerated cash value"" policy or a ""high early cash value"" policy, stick to these ones.  The commission structure is less favorable to the agent/broker but much more of your premium is recognized as cash value earlier. The benefit (for lack of a better word) to taking a loan against your own cash value over taking a loan from a bank is the severely reduced process.  There's no underwriting for your loan like there would be from a bank.  If you're laid off maybe you can't get a loan from a bank but you can scoop some money out of your policy on a loan basis or alternatively you can just surrender the policy and take the accrued cash value. Many people will poo-poo the value of whole life, but fact of the matter is your underwriting status can change in the course of your life and it's possible that in the future you won't be able to buy any life insurance.  There's nothing wrong with having something permanent to supplement your larger term policies. Personally, I view diversification as having money in a lot of different places.  This strategy is probably not as efficient as it could, but I don't like the idea of having all my eggs in one basket.  I have cash in a lock box at home, cash savings, CDs, a personal loan portfolio, bitcoins, index funds, individual stocks, commodity etfs, and bond funds spread in traditional 401(k), ROTH IRA and regular taxable accounts spread out to 6 different institutions.  I don't personally own any whole life, but I'll probably buy a small policy before my next 6-month birthday; I might as well put some money there too.  All of this is to say, do not put all of your money in a whole life policy, and do not buy all of your life insurance needs via whole life." "You can group your like-kind (same symbol, ST/LT) stock positions, just be sure that your totals match the total dollar amounts on the 1099.  An inconsistency will possibly result in a letter from IRS to clarify. So, if you sold the 100 shares, and they came from 7 different buys, list it once.  The sell price and date is known, and for the buy price, add all the buys and put ""Various"" for the date. If you have both long term and short term groups as part of those 7 buys, split them into two groups and list them separately." "The dividend reinvestment won't change whether the dividends themselves are qualified or not for US income tax purposes.  It's still the holding period on the stock that matters.  If you bought stock in different lots, then you could have a situation where some of the dividends paid are qualified and some are not, but: For completeness, it's worth noting that some dividends cannot be ""qualified"" no matter how long you hold them, but if you've got an investment in a common corporate stock (vs. something more ""exotic""), then what's above should apply." In a simple statement, no doesn't matter. Checked on my trade portal, everything lines up. Same ISIN, same price(after factoring in FX conversions, if you were thinking about arbitrage those days are long gone).  But a unusual phenomenon I have observed is, if you aren't allowed to buy/sell a stock in one market and try to do that in a different market for the same stock you will still not be allowed to do it. Tried it on French stocks as my current provider doesn't allow me to deal in French stocks. "This stock is the same as any other, but you need to keep clear in your head that you and your company are now different entities.  You (the person) will pay tax on capital gains and losses when you sell any stock that you hold in your own name.  You'll also owe ""regular"" tax if you draw a salary, etc.  The fact that it may be ""your"" company does not change these things. The company will not recognize a gain by selling stock to raise capital since it's nominally exchanging things of equal value, say $100 in cash for $100 in stock.  In order to sell stock, however, you MIGHT need to register with the SEC depending on how you're going about finding your investors, so keep that in mind."