How are proceeds from the sale of covered calls reported?

[carekeibs]

I sold numerous covered calls and cash secured puts last year.  How do I classify them on turbo tax?
 

[Mike9241]

short option sales will normally always result in short-term capital gain/loss but then there is the possibility you have a hedging transaction that could change this.   for a pure short option sale, nothing is reported until either the option expires or you close the position.  should it be exercised the proceeds are added to the sales price of the stock. puts are the same, nothing to report until it either expires or you close the position. should it be exercised then the premium you paid is added to the amount you paid to buy the stock and nothing is reported until you dispose of the stock. 

didn't you get a 1099-B for reporting these transactions?

[fanfare]

Since your transactions are all covered transaction,

The correct solution is to use aggregation aka enter a summary.
Regarding stock and options, for Box A and Box D, only wash sales have to be itemized on Form 8949.

The other transactions without adjustments can be aggregated. Report the sub-totals of cost and proceeds for those transactions on Schedule D Line 1a or Line 8a respectively.

If you have no wash sales, there will be no form 8949, No attachment is necessary. No mailing is necessary
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If you have wash sales, it gets more complicated since those adjusted transactions have to be itemized on Form 8949 and the summary totals adjusted accordingly.

Enter the wash sales on Form 8949, then use the subtotal results on the bottom of that form (Line 2) to know how much to subtract from consolidated 1099-B which gives you the Schedule D line 1a totals. Be sure to NOT check the adjustments box in the summary window.

@carekeibs 

[fanfare]

How to report details:

In order to close a short you must go to the market and acquire some securities.

The acquired date is the date you closed the short sale.
For Stocks, the disposed date is two business days later (settlement).
Options settle in one day.

If you did not have a loss, the disposed date is the same as the acquired date.

Note to those for whom it is not obvious: Date Acquired and Date Disposed refer to Columns (b) and (c) on Form 8949 that you will report to the IRS.
Your trade date is the date you closed the position and goes in (b). Settlement date must be calculated taking into account weekends and market holidays.
From this you can see that a short is always a short term capital gain or loss, no matter how long you are short.

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assignment:

If a put you write is exercised and you buy the underlying stock, decrease your basis in the stock by the amount you received for the put.
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If a call you write is exercised and you sell the underlying stock, increase your amount realized on the sale of the stock by the amount you received for the call when figuring your gain or loss. The gain or loss is long term or short term depending on your holding period of the stock.

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Option write, expires:
Since you are short, the Date Acquired shows the date of expiration,
Enter "Expired" in 8949 column e) cost, but Turbo Tax won't let you do that directly so
you have to go through the "Add More Details" screen and select "Expired". Last I tried, this had no effect either.

I add "Expired" in the description.
Your gain is the amount you received and it is a Short Term Capital Gain.
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Some brokers give you a 1099-B in accordance with IRS reporting requirements and some brokers do not.

@carekeibs