Do I report a 1099 if I have a Charles Schwab account but made no income from it? AKA I never collected dividens or anything from it, and it's down $50 for the year?

[kelseyotoole6]

I ask this because Turbo Tax is confusing me about asking about "other income" and if I had a brokerage account that paid me...I have a Charles Schwab but again I've seen $0 benefit me, so the wording is throwing me off as to what I report. Do I report a loss of about $50? That could change in a day, so I guess I just don't understand what is necessary to report. I've never received dividens or withdrawn from the account, it is just sitting there.

[TomYoung · Accepted solution]

The answer to your "headline" question - "Do I report a 1099" - is YES. 

You report any interest income that might show on the 1099-INT section of the form and you report any dividend income that might show on the 1099-DIV section of the form.  This gets reported even if you didn't actually receive any cash, i.e., left the cash in Schwab or had the cash automatically reinvested.

You only report realized gains or losses, i.e., where you actually sold a security.  Those sales would be reported to you on a 1099-B.

You don't report unrealized gains or losses, i.e., "paper" gains or losses due to the fluctuations of the security prices day to day.

Tom Young