Theft of Traditional IRA money from broker house

[VC03]

I received a call from a representative of eTrade in May 2019 asking if I now lived in CA and if I had taken a withdrawal of all my investments - IRA and non-IRA. After some back and forth they gave me back a small portion of the stolen funds and told me that they were not going to do anything about the rest. My lawyer told me it will cost more than the balance amount to recover the stolen funds. I sent the IRS an affidavit last year with supporting documentation from the Police and the FBI but have not heard back. The theft happened between March and May 2019. I want to know
1. if there is a need to report the loss of money to the IRS and how using TT 2020
2. is there a philanthropic organization that can help recover the money.
The loss of funds is approx $35,000. I also just retired and am now feeling the pinch.

My gratitude to anyone that has seen a way to get back any / all of the loss.

[macuser_22]

We cannot give legal advice.  You already have an attorney - follow the attorneys advice.

Theft losses are no longer deductible for Federal so it does not get reported anywhere - state may be different.

[VC03 · Accepted solution]

Thanks, macuser_22. My legal opportunities ran out when the lawyer told me that it would cost more than the amount of money that would be recovered.  Gotcha.

This is not about getting a deduction for Federal and / or State. I was also keen to know if there was some place where it would be formally reported in TT so that the IRS would not get after me to pay tax on a withdrawal of IRA funds that were not withdrawn by me.  eTrade has chosen to not yet put this in the consolidated tax document that they prepare annually.