GBTC and ETHE trusts on 1099B Proceeds from Broker and Barter Exchange Transactions

[ovr69s]

On my 1099-B from Vanguard the Bitcoin and Ethereum trusts GBTC and ETHE respectively, show proceeds and date sold of these shares, even though I didn't sale any of them, it shows multiple items with date sold and quantity 0.000, and proceeds. Date acquired shows as N/A, which it's the reason I got a warning from TurboTax.

Has anybody experienced this? And what is the right way to proceed?

It wants me to update the Box 1b. Date Acquired, Box 1e. Cost basis, and Box 2 Type of Gain or Loss

[Critter-3]

If you didn't sell anything and the sales prices are all zeros  simply  remove the unwanted entries that were imported.  

[ovr69s]

I was thinking the same but the proceeds have a $ amount that's bigger than 0. So I didn't want to make a mistake since this is not a normal stock

[kleje007]

I think part of the issue is is that the amount of shares that Grayscale sell is so small that it doesn't necessarily show up on the 1099B, resulting in the "Quantity" being listed as 0.000

What I set up tonight was a sheet that takes the product of, the closing price of GBTC on the respective date, the Cost Basis Factor on the respective date, and the number of shares I held on that date.   

So for example this would result in something that looks like this for 1/8/2021:

(Closing price that date)*(Cost Basis Factor that date)*(Number of Shares)=Cost Basis 

$44.42*0.[removed]*100 shares=~$1.68 

Whereas the amount on the 1099B would be $1.42.

So I feel like in this case for the blanks in 1b I would put whatever day I purchased this stock, and in 1e I would put $1.68.  The sales category would depend on the purchase date compared to the date that Grayscale sold the stock. 

I am firmly not a tax expert however and it would be great to have someone else weigh in on this.

[jeepers11]

I also have this issue and not sure what to do to fix it.  I agree with having an 'expert' chime in.

[crkreuter]

I also have 24 transaction on my 1099-b:

example:

QTY = 0

Proceeds: really small amount (with a total of $25.25)

Cost basis factor 0.00047.... (really small)

I was thinking of just adding a cost basis of 0.00 on each entry of the 1099-b

Expert advise would be appreciated!

[RobertB4444]

@ckreuter @jeepers11  @kleje007  You are all correct - the problem is all of these tiny numbers.  They confuse the TurboTax program since it is designed to round to the nearest dollar as the IRS requires.  If you have only a few transactions with this issue then you can manually adjust them.  If you have a LOT of transactions then you should just delete the imported 1099-B and enter summary totals for the different sections.  You can then attach a copy of the 1099-B in pdf format and submit the return that way.

[kleje007]

@RobertB4444 

Thank you for your response.

So it's simple enough to determine the sum of the proceeds, but the matter of how to determine the cost basis is still elusive.  Would it be equal to the sum of the proceeds (1d) or something more complex like the calculations I did on my earlier post in this thread?

Thanks again!

[JulieS]

Yes, you are correct, it would be the sum of the basis from box 1e.

@kleje007

[kleje007]

@JulieS 

There's the problem though, there are no values in the 1e column to sum for these particular sales.   

[JulieS]

Over to the right it says principal payment, so that means the basis is the same as the proceeds. 

In other words, these sales are a return of principal, you have to report them because there is a 1099-B, but you show no gain or loss. 

[JBRollo]

I spent hours on this because of GreyScale (GBTC) accounting. I finally saw a note on a back page of my Americatrade 1099. It basically said to get the basis, if not provided, multiply your adjusted cost basis (cost in my case) of the investment by the cost basis allocation factor. I had no way to get the value of the asset for each stupid date, so I used my original investment amount  Not exact but it seemed to work. The whole process was a total wast of my time. The sale of Bitcoin to pay internal expenses should involve the investor to this extent.

GLD has a similar problem.

[rudyrabbit]

@JulieS 

Not true. What is being reported is the sale of Bitcoin held in the trust to cover fund expenses. There will be a capital gain or loss depending on original cost basis. This particular trust type passes everything through to the holder.

[jerryrs]

Ugh this is turning into a headache. I like others here have multiple transactions reported on my 1099B form from my brokerage (77 entries) for GBTC and I did not sell any shares. It appears there is not a consensus on how to account for this in Turbotax. Logic would tell me that if I did not sell anything I should not have to report the transactions as a sale. I would be comfortable adding up all the proceeds and simply paying tax on that amount but there is no easy way to even do that.

[jerryrs]

Hi Julie,

So are you saying in Turbotax we should report the cost basis as the same amount as the proceeds to consider each transaction basically a wash?