Kiss My Knits!

I’m a notorious procrastinator. I have been all my life. It will come as no surprise that much of yesterday was spent doing taxes, even though we’re expecting to get a refund. This is actually a step up from the last two years, when I did them on the very same day they were due.

I thought I had everything ready, but when I was doing our stocks (Steve did a little trading last year) I hit a snag. I had all the basis points and assorted financial junk prepared, but there was a new situation I hadn’t encountered before.

One of the stocks he purchased was in a company which was later bought by another company. Our stocks in company A were converted to a lesser number of stocks in comapny B. Therefore, on our brokerage statement, it looks like we sold about a hundred shares of stock A for $0, then purchased about 50 shares of company B a few days later for $0, before finally selling it about a month later for a reasonable price (albeit at a small loss). I am baffled as to how to record this.

I think maybe it would classify as a wash sale, since it looks like we took a major loss on stock A then bought stock in a substantially similar company, stock B. But it still looks odd, and frankly, while we have nothing to hide, I don’t like the thought of getting a letter from the gubmint calling us in for questions.

Add to this the fact that the company he works for was bought last year by another company, which makes all the stock purchase stuff a little crazy, although I think I can still manage it.

I think the best solution is just to never, ever buy stock in anything ever again. And now, back to the tax mines. Le sigh.