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June 5, 2019
Question

I sold 300,000 shares of stock but the Number of Shares Sold box limits the number to less than 100,000. What am I supposed to do?

  • June 5, 2019
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1 reply

Employee
June 5, 2019

As long as you enter the correct total Sales Price and Cost Basis, the number of shares you report doesn't make any difference. You can enter "100,000" or "1". 

If you are concerned about this approach you can also  make two more 1099-B entries, each for 100,000 shares sold on the same day with a Sales Price of "$0" and a Cost Basis of "$0".

The IRS is only concerned about the total dollar value of the transaction. The number of shares is entered as a convenience to you - it helps you in keeping track of your entries.

June 5, 2019
Thank you for the explanation but what does not make sense is "The number of shares is entered as a convenience to you - it helps you in keeping track of your entries." if it is truly a convenience for me, why I am not able to enter the real amount? What is the reason for a text field to be limited to 100K??? Honestly, it does not make any sense at all.