Only owned one share in a company that I sold for a 40 cent loss. Do I need to include it on my return?

[charliekap]

I only started buying/selling stocks at the end of last year. I bought one share in a company for $12.30, and sold it a little while later for $11.90, so all told I lost $.40. Do I need to include such a small loss on my tax return?

[TomYoung · Accepted solution]

Well, even though that loss will round down to $0, you might want to report the sale anyway. 

Presumably a 1099-B will be issued to you and the IRS does try to match its copy of that 1099-B's it receives to your income tax return.  Presumably the 1099-B has both your sales proceeds and the stock's basis and presumably the IRS will see that even if you reported the trade it wouldn't affect your income tax return and won't send you a letter asking "where's this stock trade?"

I'd probably opt not to spend all the extra money to upgrade to Premier simply to report the trade.  If, somehow, that letter from the IRS does come asking about the "missing" 1099-B you should be able to inform them that even if you reported the trade your taxable income would not change.  If you've properly reported your taxable income in your income tax return there's really nothing the IRS can object to.

Tom Young