At this point roughly 24 hours after my initial post, I want to thank everyone who has contributed here and especially rjs for providing me with one or more excellent references.
After my interaction with my broker this coming Weds., I will attempt to summarize and 'close'
the case after trying to determine what the 'best' answer is. For the moment I would like to leave this posting open (perhaps until late July) and encourage anyone with opinions, experience, etc. to comment.
It is becoming apparent to me that the case is a bit complex (three buys over two days in august and 3 sales over two days in September in the course of 10 days). To add further complication the brokerage changed the sale information on the 1099. There are indeed 3 buys (two days in August) and 3 sales (two days in September) as reflected in the end of month statements. The broker failed to provide cost basis in the September statement or in the trade confirmations for the sales but the cost basis was reported for the buys in August, a situation which quite frankly I have never seen before. To compound the problem, on the 1099, the broker split one of the three sales into two different sales (100 shares in a single reported trade statement which were sold as a single lot but somehow got split in the 1099). So the 1099 reports 4 sales but the trading statements clearly show only 3 sales and no lot splitting.
At this point: 1) I am glad I simplified the problem to 'pretend' that I purchased a single lot of 100 shr of XYZ ETF in August and 9 days later I sold the same shares in September; and 2) Based on the excellent comments I have received in this post - I now have at least two ways to 'solve' this problem a) simply put it in as trades and sales in my return using the actual cost basis and actual lots while ignoring the 1099 entries for ETF XYZ - my concern will be that the IRS will detect the discrepancy or b) (most likely scenario) just suck it in and make roughly 9 entries with cost basis and lot splitting that has been adjusted without clarity by an unknown formula. Not entirely surprisingly, if I eyeball the very confusing data from the broker, I believe that the errors will cancel out (some shares subject to wash sale rules while other shares not subject to that rule and declaring real short term loses).
So with thanks to the entire Turbotax community (and me with 8 hours with excel spreadsheets reviewing all the possible ways to treat the data) - I now have two ways to address the problem. Most importantly, I now have been educated enough to have an intelligent conversation with the broker and ask them what the hell they were doing.. (:
Further comments are solicited - (especially if flawed logic is detected), however I am handicapped by intentionally not using real numbers, tax rates, etc. as is Turbotax communities policy and my paranoid privacy policy because of our current 'world'
Happy trails, John the retiree (aka Johnny).
