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New Member
posted Apr 15, 2021 11:34:24 AM

How to report covered calls ? My 1099-B from broker (Robinhood) has cost basis 0 for these calls and it gets flagged during review

0 6 3476
6 Replies
Level 15
Apr 15, 2021 11:35:49 AM

how many trades?  if only a few enter 0 (zero) for cost where appropriate. 

Level 15
Apr 15, 2021 6:50:23 PM

Another resourceful TurboTax user posted that you can just ignore those flagged transaction with warning for zero cost basis.

Your e-File will go through.

 

Note: zero cost basis for a short call that expired is normal and should not be flagged.

New Member
Dec 9, 2022 2:41:20 PM

I have hundreds of transactions - do I need to hit 0 for each of them like I did last year ?

 

Level 15
Dec 9, 2022 3:14:13 PM

so you shorted the calls.  they're probably all coded type A - short-term sales proceeds and cost basis reported to the IRS.  therefore the only ones you need to report in detail are those that were part of a wash sale  - should be so indicated on the 1099-B when you get it.

 

Turbotax does a lousy job on short sales of options that expire. so you can not import them unless you want to spend a lot of time entering zeros. as a matter of fact, TT does a lousy job of importing type A and D transactions since if no adjustments or wash sales a single line entries (lines 1a and 8a) on schedule D is all that's needed. Turbotax will detail every trade. 

 

if they meet the criteria specified above, in the first paragraph,  they can be entered as just totals for the proceeds and the cost - no detail 

type 1099-B into the search box. select the worksheet. enter name of the broker or whatever you want because that info is sent nowhere. it's just for you to use to make finding the info simple. then add form

you should see an area that says form 8949 reporting exception transactions. use the first line (box A for short term box D is for long-term but there can't be long-term items on short sales.) 

Level 1
Mar 9, 2024 11:51:48 AM

TT is such a terrible product. Even simple things like handling 0 cost-basis on RH forms is unfixed for years. Surprisingly they don't have a problem of handling 0.0 from Schwab forms. Looks like they have separate import jobs for different provides and RH job did a particularly bad job. To reiterate - this is Intuit/Turbotax problem, not Robinhood.

 

Shame on them. I really hope in the age of AI someone will come up with AI based form importer and disrupt this greedy business. 

Level 1
Mar 9, 2024 3:43:01 PM

I stand corrected. They've also screwed up my Schwab form, but somehow I've missed that if was flagged as needs review 🙂