Jetta, I feel your pain, and hope your tax return preparation
goes smoothly.
Completing my tax return would be exceedingly simple, if not for
the fact that I have to fill out that #@%&@! Schedule D
- Capital Gains and Losses everytime I do a stock trade.
Ascertaining the cost of any shares or funds that are sold during
the year to offset against the proceeds from the sale is a huge
problem that, for me, involves having to pore through reams of
financial statements. Many if not all of the funds sold weren't
originally acquired in discrete lots, and dividends earned through
the life of the fund were almost always rolled back into the fund
in the form of additional share purchases. The headache is that
every single addition to a particular fund was obtained at a
different price and has to be accounted for to arrive at the cost
of the equivalent number of shares sold (assuming you use a
first-in, first-out cost basis).
On average, it takes me about three days to research the data
necessary to complete the tax return. It's a bloody monumental
waste of my time.
