Handling procedures for fractional fees

It should be noted that certain exchange fees as well as IB commission rates are established at levels beneath  that of the smallest increment by which a given currency is defined (e.g. $0.01 in the case of the USD).  In the event a customer incurs a fee having an extended value below this minimum increment, the fee will be calculated at its extended value and then rounded up or down to the nearest whole minimum increment of that currency.   

This rounding process may result in occurrences where the aggregate rounded commission charge as reflected in the cash balance section of the Activity Statement on a given day is $0.01 higher than the sum of the rounded charge reflected on a line item basis in the trades section. An example of this may occur for a sample series of option trades for a given day is provided below. 

EXAMPLE:

Action Calculated Fee (extended) Statement - Trades  Section (rounded at a line item level) Statement - Cash Balance Section (rounded at an aggregate level)
Customer buys one U.S. securities option, incurring a minimum commission charge of $1.00 plus an exchange Option Regulatory Fee of $0.014 $1.014 $1.01 N/A
Customer buys one U.S. securities option, incurring a minimum commission charge of $1.00 plus an exchange Option Regulatory Fee of $0.014 $1.014 $1.01 N/A
Totals $2.028 $2.02 $2.03

 

 

 

2009 Gain/Loss Summary Worksheet: General Explanation

Important Note:  The Worksheet has been prepared using IRS guidelines for information purposes only.  It is not intended to replace any official IRS tax forms or schedules; and should not be regarded as an IRS Form Schedule D.

Interactive Broker's 2009 Gain/Loss Summary Worksheet ("Worksheet") provides the capital gains and losses for your account's year-end review.  Investors of a limited number of securities will find the pairing of 2009 sell trades useful.  Designed to aid with your year end reconciliation, the following securities and trades are included: Bonds, Equity Options, Fractional Shares, Index Futures*, Mutual Funds, Short Sale, T-Bills, Tender Offers, and WHIFITs.

A general explanation of the Worksheet is organized below by Parts, Columns, and Totals.

 *Only cash-settled

Worksheet Parts

The Worksheet is divided into two parts.  The period in which you held the position determines whether or not Short-Term or Long-Term applies. 

Part 1 - Short Term Capital Gains and Losses - Assets Held One Year or Less

Part 2 - Long Term Capital Gains and Losses - Assets Held More Than One Year

Worksheet Columns

Each section contains the following seven columns to identify your trades.

(a) Description of property (b) Date acquired (c) Date sold (d) Sales price (e) Cost or other basis (f) Gain or (loss) Codes

1.  (a) Description of property...shows the security symbol, name, quantity, and other information to identify the asset sold.

Example:  500 sh. DB - DEUTSCHE BANK AG-REGISTERED

2.  (b) Date acquired...shows the trade date of your security's purchase. 

Asset Transfers:  IB has entered the date supplied by you through Position Transfer Basis.  If an update was not received by year-end, then the asset transfer settlement date appears. See your monthly or annual summary for details. 

Short Sales:  The box is left blank if the closing trade has not been completed.  For short sales included on a prior year Worksheet or 1099-B, the code ADJ is entered.

3.  (c) Date sold...shows the trade date of your security's sale.

4.  (d) Sales price...shows the gross security sale price, net of commissions. 

Option Adjustments:  For exercised call options, the writer's sale proceeds have been increased by the amount received for the call. For exercised put options, the holder's sale proceeds have been reduced by the cost of the put. See IRS Pub. 550, page 57, for details.  For expired options, an amount of 0.00 is entered, followed by the Code "Ep".

5.  (e) Cost or other basis...shows the total price paid for your security, plus commissions.

Corporate Actions:  Adjustments have not been made for any stock splits or non-dividend distributions. See IRS Pub. 550, page 44, for details.

Mutual Funds:  IB does not use an average basis for mutual funds. The First In, First Out (FIFO) method is used.

Original Issue Discount:  The basis has not been increased by the amount of OID included in your income. See IRS Pub. 550, page 13, for details.

Option Adjustments: For exercised put options, the writer's basis has been increased by the amount received for the put.  For exercised call options, the holder's basis has been increased by the cost of the call. See IRS Pub. 550, page 57, for details.

6.  (f) Gain or (loss)...shows the calculation for each security using the tax execution methods First-In, First Out (FIFO), Last In, First Out (LIFO), or Maximize Losses (ML). 

Loss: Negative amounts are identified in parentheses.  For example, a loss of $2,000.00 displays as (2,000.00).

Tax Method:  If no code appears in the Codes column, then FIFO applies.  The other methods are noted by either LI = LIFO or ML = Maximize Losses.

7.  Codes...shows various trade designations, such as: corporate actions, asset transfers, or option assignments.

Codes and Meanings Table:  The last page of the Worksheet contains a table to identify each non-security symbol used.

Worksheet Totals

1. Subtotal adjustment from option assignment...shows the total amount of all sale proceeds increases or decreases made from option assignments to the assigned stock sale proceeds (see Cost or other basis details above). 

The adjustments, in accordance with IRS guidelines, are added or subtracted in order for the next Subtotal line to equal the amount reported by IB on the 1099-B, box 2.  Please keep in mind that IB does not report any option proceeds or adjustments to sales proceeds from assignments on the 1099s.

2.  Subtotal for stocks, bonds and T-bills...shows the total non-adjusted proceeds reported for each trade under column (d) Sales price for stocks, bonds, and T-bills only.  This amount should equal the 1099-B, box 2, amount. 

1099-B, box 2:  In general, this 1099 figure should equal the combined Parts 1 & 2 Subtotal for stocks, bonds and T-bills figure.

3.  Total...shows the combined proceeds for all trades under column (d) Sales price, including option sale proceeds.

Total Option Sale Proceeds:  Subtract the Total amount of column (d) from the Subtotal for stocks, bonds and T-bills of column (d) to obtain the total proceeds from all option sales.

 

Click here to go back to the main 2009 Worksheet article.

Note:  Securities classified by the IRS as IRC Section 1256 contracts are included on the Gain/Loss Worksheet for 1256 Contracts.

 


IRS Circular 230 Notice: These statements are provided for information purposes only, are not intended to constitute tax advice which may be relied upon to avoid penalties under any federal, state, local or other tax statutes or regulations, and do not resolve any tax issues in your favor.

 

What’s New for the 2009 Gain/Loss Summary Worksheet

 

 
Wash Sales – If you sold a stock or security at a loss, but re-purchased within 30 days the same or substantially the same security, the Worksheet identifies the sale using code “WS” (Disallowed loss from wash sale).
 
Social Security Number – For security purposes, the first 5 digits of the tax identification number have been removed.
 
Tax Basis Declaration – Two new tax basis methods, made available January 2009, help identify gain/loss methods for trades.  The optional methods Last In, First Out (LIFO) and Maximize Losses (ML) join the default First In, First Out (FIFO) on the Worksheet.
 

Select Gain/Loss Summary Worksheet: Considerations for details about the new features.

Click here to go back to the main 2009 Worksheet article.

 

 

 

IRS Circular 230 Notice: These statements are provided for information purposes only, are not intended to constitute tax advice which may be relied upon to avoid penalties under any federal, state, local or other tax statutes or regulations, and do not resolve any tax issues in your favor.

Understanding the 2009 Gain/Loss Summary Worksheet

IMPORTANT NOTE: This article has been customized for use by individual US taxpayers investing in securities for information purposes only.  Persons are encouraged to consult a qualified tax professional with the preparation of tax returns.  IB does not provide tax advice.  Traders or dealers in securities, for whom other tax treatment applies, may find the worksheet helpful.  The methodology used to determine the yearly gain or loss, however, differs.  Traders electing the mark-to-market accounting method may consult IRS Instructions for Form 4797, page 2.

The 2009 Gain/Loss Summary Worksheet calculates the gain or loss for your securities bought and sold from January 1 through December 31 utilizing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidelines.  Every sell trade executed appears, including short sells, on a trade-date basis.  Not all securities, however, are eligible for inclusion.  For additional information, see the following article categories.


Below we have categorized information about this year's "Worksheet" within the IB Knowledge Base.  Each article provides more details to assist with your understanding of this tool.

 

 

IRS Circular 230 Notice: These statements are provided for information purposes only, are not intended to constitute tax advice which may be relied upon to avoid penalties under any federal, state, local or other tax statutes or regulations, and do not resolve any tax issues in your favor.

How are the closing prices for U.S. listed securities options determined?

The prices which IB uses to mark U.S. listed securities options as of the close of business each day (both TWS and statements) originate from the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC).  As the sole clearinghouse for these option products, OCC generates a closing price for each option contract in order to calculate the margin required of its members on whose behalf it clears transactions (e.g., IB) and also to supply the risk arrays used by brokers carrying portfolio margin accounts.

Its important to note that the prices generated by OCC are edited and therefore may not reflect the closing price as disseminated by any of its participant exchanges.  They are edited primarily due to the fact that there is no consolidated quote provided for options, most of which are multiply listed and fungible across all seven exchanges (i.e., there may be seven different prices to choose from each day).  As a result, OCC creates a single price as of the close which is theoretically consistent across all exchanges and reviewed to ensure that there are no arbitrage conditions across strikes or time. 

In creating prices, OCC will start by taking the mid-point of the highest bid and lowest ask price across all listing exchanges, determining the implied volatility and then smoothing that implied volatility curve (for a given option class, type and expiration) through an iterative process which, in turn, adjusts the option mark prices.  There are also rules enforced to cap volatility for certain deep in and deep out-of-the-money options. The resultant edited price is extended out to six decimal places.  Due to the operational overhead of computing edited prices for the complete universe of option series, this process is performed only once per day as of the market close.

ADR pass-through fees

Account holders maintaining positions in American Depository Receipts (ADRs) should note that such securities are subject to periodic fees intended to compensate the agent bank providing custodial services on behalf of the ADR.  These services typically, include inventorying the foreign stocks underlying the ADR and managing all registration, compliance and record-keeping services.

Historically, the agent banks were only able to collect the custody fees by subtracting them from the ADR dividend, however, as many ADRs do not regularly pay dividends, these banks have been unable to collect their fees.  As a result, in 2009, the Depository Trust Company (DTC) received SEC approval to begin collecting these custody fees on behalf of the banks for ADRs which do not pay periodic dividends.  DTC collects these fees from its participant brokers (such as IB) who hold the ADRs for their clients.  These fees are referred to as pass-through fees as they are designed to be then collected by the broker from its clients.

If you hold a position in a dividend paying ADR, these fees will be deducted from the dividend as they have in the past.  If you hold a position in an ADR which does not pay a dividend, this pass-through fee will be reflected on the monthly statement of the record date in which it is assessed.  Similar to the treatment of cash dividends, IB will attempt to reflect upcoming ADR fee allocations within the Accruals section of the account statements as well. Once charged, the fee will be reflected in the Deposits & Withdrawals section of the statement with the description 'Adjustments - Other' along with the symbol of the particular ADR it is associated with.

While the amount of this fee will generally range from $0.01 - $0.03 per share, the amounts may differ by ADR and it is recommended that you refer to your ADR prospectus for specific information.  An on-line search for the prospectus may be conducted through the SEC's EDGAR Company Search tool.

Glossary terms: 
ADR

Activity Download Instructions

Activity Downloads

We provide the ability to download your Activity Statements into the following software:

In addition to the above download solutions, a number of other third-party providers offer portfolio management and tax reporting packages that integrate with our HTML downloads. Please contact the provider for further detail.

Download to Tradelog, Quicken or MS Money
Step 1: If you do not already have an IB Investment account in Quicken or Money, please create one and manually load your current positions. Enable the account for Online Access.
Step 2: Log in to Account Management through our Home Page and choose Activity Downloads (Report Management).
Step 3: Select accounts, dates and a format (Tradelog, Quicken or MS Money) and click the View/Download button.
Step 4: Map the download to your IB Investment Account.
Step 5: Go to the IB Investment Account within Tradelog, Quicken or Money and accept the transactions.

For complete instructions how to import your statement to Tradelog, please visit http://www.armencomp.com/tradelog/interactive_brokers.shtml.

Intuit and Money do not support multiple currencies at this time.

Save an HTML file for Import into Word or Excel
Step 1: Log in to Account Management section of the web site and choose the Activity Statements menu item (Report Management).
Step 2: Choose accounts, dates and a format of HTML/Web, and click the View/Download button.
Step 3: Once the complete statement has loaded in the page, go to the File menu of your browser and choose Save As. This will prompt you to save the file locally on your computer.
Step 4: Enter a file name and choose a location to save your statement.
Step 5: Upload the saved HTML file into MS Excel or MS Word.

Downloading to Captools
If you would like to import your IB statement into Captools Professional please visit http://www.captools.net/ to see the latest import instructions. (Please note that you will need the Captools Broker/Dealer Interface from Captools before you can follow the steps mentioned below. Contact Captools at http://www.captools.net/ for the interface details.):

 

View Schedule D/Gain Loss Summary Worksheet using TurboTax

Log into

Account Management

and choose Tax Forms (Report Management). Select TurboTax TXF Format from the drop down menu and click View Report.

 

Please note that the TXF import is only available on the TurboTax desktop product.

Troubleshooting Tip - Unable to open IBKR Activity Statement from email link

Overview: 

In addition to posting Activity Statements to Client Portal, IBKR provides clients with the option of receiving statements via email (unsecured) by choosing this option from the Reports > Statements - Statement Delivery menu item in Client Portal. 

Background: 

There have been instances where certain clients who have elected this option receive the email but are unable to open the attachment containing the statement.  Once the email has been sent the handling of these attachments is administered not by IBKR but rather by the client's email service provider and/or their desktop security settings.  Oftentimes, a service provider will block access to email attachments in order to minimize the threat of a virus or malware being introduced or perhaps to manage bandwidth and internal disk space.  If this is the case, clients may wish to contact their service provider for assistance or change their email address.

Alternatively, clients are encouraged to access statements by logging in to the secure Client Portal from the website and selecting the Reports > Statements menu options.

How can I discontinue the issuance of duplicate copies of my trade confirmations and statements to my former employer?

In order to effect this change you will first need to update your employment by logging in to Client Portal, selecting the Settings > Account Settings menu and clicking the Configuration (Gear) icon next to Regulatory Information. From there you may modify your personal information including employment. If the nature of your prior employment also involved membership in an exchange, regulatory or self-regulatory organization or you were an associated person, affiliated person or employee of an exchange member. If these no longer hold true, you will need to change your answer to this question as contained within the Regulatory Info menu option also contained under Account Information.

Finally, please instruct your former employer to send an email to newaccounts@interactivebrokers.com in order to independently confirm this request to discontinue sending duplicate statements.  If your new employer is also a financial institution which, for in-house compliance purposes and/or as a result of regulatory mandate monitors the trading activities of their employees, they will need email a request to newaccounts@interactivebrokers.com in order to receive duplicate statements and trade confirms.

Understanding interest charges when the net cash balance is a credit

An account will be subject to interest charges despite maintaining an overall net long or credit cash balance under the following circumstances: 

1. The account maintains a short or debit balance in a given currency.

For example, an account maintaining a net cash credit balance equivalent to USD 5,000 comprised of a long USD balance of 8,000 and a short EUR balance equivalent to USD 3,000 would be subject to an interest debit based upon the short EUR balance.  There would be no offsetting credit on the long USD balance as it is less than the USD 10,000 Tier I level above which interest is earned.  

Account holders should note that in the event they purchase a security which is denominated in a currency that they do not hold in their account, IBKR will create a loan in that currency in order to settle the trade with the clearinghouse. If one wishes to avoid such loans and their associated interest charges, they would need to either deposit funds denominated in that particular currency or convert existing cash balances via the Ideal Pro (for balances of USD 25,000 or above) or odd lot (for balances less than USD 25,000) venue prior to entering into your trade. 

2. The credit balance is comprised  principally of proceeds from the short sale of securities. 

For example, an account maintaining a net cash credit balance of USD 12,000 which is comprised of a USD debit of 6,000 in the security sub-account (less the market value of any short stock positions) and a short stock market value credit of USD 18,000 would be charged interest on the Tier 1 debit of USD 6,000 and would earn no interest on the short stock credit as it falls below the USD 100,000 Tier I level.

3. The credit balance includes unsettled funds.

IBKR determines interest debits and credits solely based upon settled funds. Just as an account holder is not assessed interest charges on funds borrowed to purchase a security until such time that purchase transaction settles, the account holder will not receive an interest credit, or offset against a debit balance, on funds originating from the sale of a security until such time the transaction has settled (and IBKR has been credited funds by the clearinghouse).

 

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