Last year I received a cash reward from my employer as payment for the transfer of a patent that I was listed as an inventor on. I asked my HR department about how this was taxed, and they told me it's under Section 1235, which says the payment should be considered a long-term capital gain. Specifically, it seems from the wording of the section that the payment should be considered "long-term" regardless of the actual date range that the patent was held by myself (which I would guess is the date the patent was accepted by the patent office to the date I received the transfer payment, only a few months apart).
I did not receive any 1099-MISC or 1099-B forms for this payment, but I was still able to add the income as a capital gain by selecting "Other" as the investment type when listing my investments.
The problem I'm encountering is that I'm not sure what to put as the "date acquired" for it, since there doesn't seem to be a way to indicate that the gain is considered "long-term" even if held less than a year due to a special exception. Is my interpretation of section 1235 accurate, and if so, what should I put for the date acquired field? Thankyou.
