Turbo Tax doesn't handle short selling. That is, I've sold stocks/options short and acquired at a later date. The software wants date acquired before date sold. Help.

[apink7304]

How do handle a case where date acquired is after date sold?  That is,  a short sale.

[Mike9241]

should be able to enter the date of the short sale as the date sold and the date expired or closed as the date acquired.  at least that's possible in Desktop Deluxe

[fanfare]

For a short sale, the correct Date Acquired is the date you closed the trade, or the date the option expired.

Some brokers report this correctly on your 1099-B, and some do not.

TurboTax 2021 has decided to monitor this which is I believe different than previously.

[mordyvt]

The only solution I found was to reverse the dates.  Otherwise it stays in "Needs Review" and won't let you file.  I don't think the TurboTax software is very efficient.

[Mike9241]

the closing of short sales is generally short-term gain or loss.  reversing the dates may result in some of those short sales being treated as long-term unless all short sales are open for less than 1 year.

[fanfare]

except in certain rare scenarios, a short sale is always a Short Term capital gain or loss, regardless of how long you are short the stock or option.

[Rick19744]

This thread is assuming that this is an uncovered short sale.

If that is the case, then I agree that an uncovered short sale will always be short term.

This is due to the fact that the holding period is deemed to begin when the stock is purchased to close out the short sale (as noted by @fanfare ).

As a result, you have a one day holding period.

Brokers do not always report these correctly, and as a result, I would imagine that this causes issues within TT if downloaded.

If the OP is dealing with anything other than an uncovered short sale, then it becomes significantly more complicated.

[Mike9241]

I gather the online software doesn't handle short sales, I have had no problem with Windows desktop showing the purchase date as being after the sales date for short sakes

[fanfare]

If you are reporting the Acquired date later than the Disposed date, you are reporting incorrectly, even if some  TurboTax variant lets it go through.