That’s just terrible.
Perhaps people who know absolutely nothing come up with it?
The pros know more than the regulators know.
Regulators don’t have the manpower either.
I think the way these things develop is like anything else. There is the basic tax code, then special circumstances come up and they keep adding stuff ad nauseum until it becomes so unworkable that it has to be started from scratch. We’re hopefully at that point. I have other tax issues including depreciation nonsense for a rental that I own.
@DocT
Yes. I agree.
I think many things start out with good intentions…then circumstances change, things get complicated, unforeseen events occur, things unravel, people look for ways to game the system…
If everybody was good… We would have fewer problems. 
@dstark – when you don’t know a stock’s basis, and don’t care to spend hours researching trying to recreate history – perhaps consider a stock donation to a favorite charity? I don’t believe I needed to know the basis when I did that – just the average opening and closing prices on the day of donation. It doesn’t even all need to be donated at once.
@dstark, do you know approximately when you bought Amgen?
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?s=AMGN&a=00&b=1&c=2002&d=11&e=31&f=2002&g=d
That’s a great link. I like that link. Thanks.
I do have a pretty good idea when I bought it.
I do have the papers that show when I bought it.
If the papers are in one of 3 boxes, it won’t take me that long to find the info.
If the papers are in a different box…
Yahoo finance page has historical pricing for pretty much every stock. It’s pretty convenient.
If your broker doesn’t have basis information, the IRS pretty much has to take what you tell them, so just take your best guess.
My FIL worked for AT+T his whole career and accumulated a fair pile of stock. When he died, my MIL wanted to sell it. It had morphed into something like 11 different companies, with dozens of spin-offs, takeovers, splits, etc. Thank god for the internet, or it would have been impossible to sort out the basis.
@notrichenough, Wow…searching for all that information doesn’t sound like fun. Echhh…
Good to know about the IRS. I can probably get close to the real cost…
I am really searching for imnx which got taken over by amgn. Because imnx hasn’t traded for over a decade, I am not finding anything yet on the internet.
I searched one box…found incy and geron. Lol. I don’t need those.
I am going to find imnx. I put the confirms in a place so I wouldn’t lose them. I even made copies…so there are two places that have the information I want. Now I just have to find where one of those places are.
I am very happy I don’t an at&t type issue.
I am diving into doing our taxes… Gonna be in a foul mood for a couple of days. B-)
Happy–went to COA and wrote checks and filed our taxes!! Best part is they made a mistake in 2014 and filing an amended return, so we will get a refund of some of our 2014 taxes! They prepared the amended return at no charge, since it was their error. I am happy to get unexpected money back, even if we weren’t supposed to paid it. Just glad not to have to think about taxes for awhile. 
@doct The term you are looking for is ‘nominee’ dividends.
Thanks for the info. On the portion of the 1099 that doesn’t get reported, it lists this as dividend charge.
Found out today that DD1 for sure will be graduating at the end of the month, so will be off the payroll very soon - graduating in nursing in a major city so should be employed very soon. What a relief - she had to fight her way through in one course where a small section of the course needed a ‘pass’ and the instructor had no grading rubric - so she had to ‘grow some guts’ in meeting with that instructor and the professor over the entire course. Thankfully had documentation and a good argument going. Then had the rest of the written assignments gone over with a fine tooth comb despite no grading rubric.
@SOSConcern,
Congrats.
You should feel proud.
Market is at the highest point of the year today - DOW 17,900. What would be the peak number?
18,300 ish I think?
I’m still trying to make up lost ground from last year.