How do I determine the cost for capital gains purposes of I-shares of silver?

[Periwinkle65]

I have downloaded capital gains amounts from my brokerage. One of the investments included is in I-shares of silver. Turbo-tax requires that I fill in their cost. Can someone tell me please how I would ascertain these values. TT highlights their omission as an error on multiple forms. Is it possible that the IRS does not require this information as it may not be relevant to this type of investment? 

[Mike9241]

I believe what you sold has the symbol SLV which is an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). there certainly is a cost involved.  contact your broker as to why cost was not provided. there are many possible reasons and we wouldn't have an idea as to what your cost basis would be.   

[Periwinkle65]

I did not actually sell my shares of SLV. Thus, I assume that the transactions were within the ETF. These generated 10 pages of gains which ranged from $1. to $2. ! I am assuming that "cost" may not be relevant here, but with check with my broker. Given the negligible gains, I am wondering if I can simply delete the forms or fill in the amount of 0 as cost?  Will TT continue to include this as an error? 

[Periwinkle65 · Accepted solution]

The answer above relates only to a sale of the position. If sold the gains would be taxed at the personal tax rate as the investor is presumed to actually holding silver bullion. I actually found a relevant answer to my question as to how to treat gains while holding the position in an old TT post (located by a Google search). There is a rather tedious means (using a Cost Basis calculate) to determine each of the cost bases. In my case, the gains are so negligible and any loss not to be taken that it is best to simply consider the cost basis as 0. This is probably the case of most filers in this situation. 

[emmel650]

SLV sells ounces of silver each month to pay for the fund's expenses, and some brokerages report these monthly sales on the 1099-B while others don't.  The sales generate capital gains/losses and reduce your cost basis in the shares that you hold.  You can find a good cost basis calculator for SLV at https://www.costbasistools.com/silver/SLV.php.  

[Periwinkle65]

I appreciate all the assistance in handling this matter. Since I have the identical investment in  Ameriprise as in Schwab,  I checked to see how the former dealt with this information.  They did not report it ! Only TD Ameritrade and Schwab brokerages reported this information as "gains."  Then I went to the website for the I-silver investment where I read that the investor was not responsible for reporting these gains. According to the de minimus rule, brokerages would not have to report these "gains" (actually losses)  since the investor received no benefit for the transactions. 

       The various work-arounds suggested in this forum essentially reduce the amounts to 0 which is one way to satisfy the TT requirement that amounts be entered. 

       Rather than selling my shares, I may simply transfer them to a brokerage which employs the their correct treatment. I am not a CPA, but this commonsense approach seems adequate and may save a lot of spread sheets.