IMO he has it backwards. Selling bills on the secondary is complicated by the fact that some brokers don't even report it on your 1099's. You have to dig thru the back pages to find the info and enter it manually.The Finance Buff seems like a brilliant person. And he says in this post:
https://thefinancebuff.com/buy-treasury ... ates-taxes
"Selling Treasuries in a taxable account on the secondary market before they mature adds yet more complications to your taxes. If you must buy Treasuries on the secondary market in a taxable account, at least hold them to maturity and don’t sell them on the secondary market."
And in this post he basically says buying and selling Treasuries with maturities longer than a T-Bill complicated taxes so much he won't even do it.
https://thefinancebuff.com/buy-treasury ... taxes.html
I'm extremely confused why a broker can't just give you a form with all the information you need in these cases and you put it in TurboTax and are done. Clearly this isn't the case if The Finance Buff, who writes about pretty in-depth stuff, says this is beyond his willingness to get involved in.
With notes and bonds, the broker always gives you the info whether it is redeemed thru maturity or sold on the secondary, so it's all imported. The coupon (box 3) and ABP (box 12) show up on the 1099INT and get copied directly into TurboTax, which also handles the state tax exemption automatically. The 1099B will list the sale/basis/proceeds and AMD columns which TT also handles perfectly, including moving the AMD onto Sch B (however, you do have to fix this on your state return yourself, based on your state rules). If you had ABP, the 1099B also already corrected for that by adjusting the basis down.
The one area that is not automatically imported is the AIP. You have to dig thru the back pages and enter that manually. TT has a 1099INT 'uncommon' section where you enter the number. Another wrinkle is if you have both box 1 and 3 interest income on that 1099, then you have to split it into 2 to get the AIP to correctly follow the right one (for state tax purposes).
* ABP = amortized bond premium
* AMD = accrued market discount
* AIP = accrued interest paid
Statistics: Posted by bongo — Sun Aug 25, 2024 2:41 pm — Replies 1195 — Views 189921