Is it true that putting a long stock sale as short on form 8949 only matters if the result is a loss?

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
March 22, 2024
1 reply
0 views

I went to H&R Block so I could meet with a person of supposed knowledge which I regret. 298 shares of a stock. 48 were sold short. The other 250 were long. She lumped them all under short. When I questioned this her response makes no sense to me. It was
“The sale doesn't really matter about long or short term, but I will change it if you want me to. It would really only matter if the results were a loss”

TurboTax Online

rjs

Employee

When you say "short" and "long" do you mean short-term (shares you owned for a year or less) and long-term (shares you owned for more than a year)? Selling short, or a short sale, means something different. It means selling shares that you don't own, with the hope that the price will go down. (You borrow the shares, sell the borrowed shares, then buy later to cover the short sale.) I don't think you are really talking about selling short.

If you do mean that some of the shares were long-term and some were short-term, you cannot combine them. It does matter, even if you do not have a loss. Long-term gain is treated differently from short-term gain on your tax return. Long-term gain is taxed at lower rates than short-term gain.

Shelleys1958Author

I mean what you said in the second paragraph. And your response was exactly what I, someone who is not a tax specialist thought. To have a person that works for H&R Block 31 years tell me that it doesn’t matter unless there is a loss is very scary. I knew better and sent her various articles to prove it. But then I thought maybe I was crazy. What do I know. Thanks for confirming