I bought shares in a business in 1997. They have gone out of business. How do I claim the loss?

[IreneS · Accepted solution]

You can claim it as a long-term investment loss.   To report this in TurboTax, please follow these steps:

1. Click on Federal Taxes > Wages & Income [In TT Self-Employed:  Personal > Personal Income > I'll choose what I work on].
2. In the Investment Income section click on the Start/Revisit box next to Stocks, Mutual Funds, Bonds, Other.  
3. If you have already entered some investment sales, you will see a screen Here's the investment sales info we have so far.  Click on the Add More Sales link.  
4. If you haven't already entered some investment sales, you will see a screen Did you sell any investments in 20XX?  Click the Yes box.
5. On the screen, Choose the type of investment you sold, mark the button for Stocks and click Continue.  
6. On the next screen, enter the Date Sold as 12/31/2019 and enter Net Proceeds of 0.   
7. Continue through the screens, entering the requested information.
8. When you come to the screen, Do Any Special Situations Apply to This Sale?  Mark the radio button next to Worthless securities and click Continue.  

[Edited | 4/10/2020 |  12:03pm PDT]