Invested in a startup on StartEngine that went public, how to file?

[eaglei22]

I don't have experience with stock investments, but did try investing in a private startup on StartEngine called Jet Token.  It went public last year, merged with another company, didn't do well, and ended up doing a reverse stock split, and buying me out because I didn't have enough investment to get even one stock after the split.

So I invested around $130 during their startup on the StartEngine platform, and then I ended up with $4.50 when all was said and done (through Fidelity).

So now I have a consolidated for 1099, which has:

1099-DIV* showing line 1a "Total Ordinary Dividends" at 0.03 and 0.00 in the rest of the lines (including Federal Income tax withheld 0.00 in bold)

1099-INT* with 0.00 in all lines  (also including Federal Income tax withheld 0.00 in bold)

1099-MISC* with 0.00 in all lines  (also including Federal Income tax withheld 0.00 in bold)

1099-B Section with 0.00 in all rows except the, "Transactions for which basis is not reported to the IRS and Term is Unknown" row.  The columns for this row are as follows: Total Proceeds 4.50, Total Cost Basis UNKNOWN, Realized Gain/Loss UNKNOWN, and 0.00 in the rest of the columns. 

1099-B*

JET AI INC COM NEW, JTAI

Action: Cash In Lieu   Quantity: 0.676,  1b date acquired:  Unknown, 1c Date Sold or Disposed:  11/12/24

1d Proceeds:4.50,  1e Cost or Other Basis (b): Unknown, and 0.00 in the rest of the columns.

And finally, 1099-DIV Transactions

FIDELITY GOVERNMENT MONEY MARKET, SPAXX, 

Date,        1a Total Ordinary Dividends(includes 1b, 2e & 5),  Dividend Distributions 

11/29/24,         0.01,                                       0.01
12/31/24,         0.02,                                       0.02
      Subtotals    0.03                                        0.03

The $4.50 is still sitting in my individual account in fidelity, and I'm am not sure how to proceed entering these documents into TurboTax. Can this be done strictly with 2024 TurboTax Deluxe version (which I have) or do I need to upgrade to the Premier version?

Also, because this is a loss, is it my choice to even enter any of this information and claim on my taxes? If entered, it doesn't seem like any of my initial investment dollar amount from StartEngine carried over in anyway to the tax documents from Fidelity.   How do I proceed? Thank you in advance for any help on this. 

[eaglei22]

I went ahead and upgraded to the premier version.. I'm still confused on how to enter all this as this came from a startup, that eventually went public, and then merged with another company, then eventually forced a buy out on me. 

So for me box 1b on the 1099B shows unknown. The only option for TurboTax is a dropdown to select blank, or various (or more than one date)  I selected the latter.  Should I keep this or enter the date I initially made the purchase on StartEngine?  Also 1E for cost or other basis, is listed as unknown on my 1099B..  Initially I purchased 2000 shares on StartEngine for $120.  Should I put $120, since that's what I initially invested when the company was private?

[Vanessa A]

Yes, you will enter the date you ACTUALLY made the purchase and the price you ACTUALLY paid.  

If you ended up selling all the stock for $10,000 and you only spent $120 total to purchase the stock, then you would have a gain on this sale of $9,880.  The date is important because if it was less than one year it will be taxed as a short term gain and taxed as ordinary income as opposed to if you held it longer than one year, it would be taxed as a Capital Gains Sale. The rest of your income will play a part in the tax rate. However, your tax rate on the sale of the timeshare would be between 0% and 20%. The capital gains rates are as follows based on income

• Zero percent rate for the following income
  • $47,025 for single or MFS
  • $63,000 for HOH
  • $94,050 for Married Filing Jointly
• Fifteen percent for income more than above but less than below
  • $291,850 for MFS
  • $518,900 for Single
  • $551,350 for Head of Household
  • $583,750 for Married Filing Jointly
• Twenty percent for the amount that your taxable income is over the 15% level.