Stocks

Im new to excel. I do some stock trading, when I report my Income/Profit to
the IRS for taxes, I am asked for my Cost. Is FIFO the correct method to
calculate cost? if so, whats the best way to implement such a method

cheryl church wrote:
> Im new to excel. I do some stock trading, when I report my Income/Profit to
> the IRS for taxes, I am asked for my Cost. Is FIFO the correct method to
> calculate cost?

This is not an Excel question. The answer is: unless you "adequately
identify" stock at the time of sale, you must use FIFO, at least
according to the IRS.

The phrase "adequately identify" is a technical term, defined by the
IRS. See IRS Pub
550, page 44 -- http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p550.pdf . In a
nutshell, it requires a written enumeration of stocks sold from the
broker.

Many people take liberties with those rules. And of course, it only
matters if you are audited.