@Individual131415
Your cost basis is the compensation element of the stock options. Your compensation element is the difference between the exercise price and the market price on the day you exercised the option and purchased the stock, times the number of shares you purchased. This ultimately would be the amount of the check plus any commission, if any was billed. (Explanation, they charged you to exercise, then you got the shares which you immediately sold, which should be the check you received). There is a possibility that the check you received was net of taxes too, I can't see any information, that would have been in the brokerage who held your options. Basically you should end up with $0 gain/loss or small loss if you know commissions.
For brokerage name, say your company you work for.
This section should NOT have increased your taxes as your gain/loss should be zero or a loss for the commission portion. you do not enter anything as options here as you sold shares of stock that you are reporting , not the options.
The section where you input compensation not reported will be where your taxes owed rise.
Yes you have to report the other income as it must be reported correctly as compensation income on your return...
**I don't work for TT. Just trying to help. All the best.
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