curses, foiled again
Feb. 23rd, 2006 03:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mamajoanI continue to be stymied in my attempts to find out the info that I need for my tax return, about my stock options from my previous job.
The recap: When I left that job in 2002, I exercised my options (i.e., bought some shares of stock). Late in 2004, the company was bought out by another company, and I received some money in payment for those shares that I owned. The brokerage, or whatever it is, that handled this transaction sent me a tax form showing how much I received for my shares -- but it doesn't show how many shares I had or how much I originally paid for them, both of which things the IRS wants to know for my tax return.
Naturally, I ought to have this info. I should in fact have it in some nice tidy organized place, like a file folder marked "[name of company] stock stuff" in a file cabinet, or something like that. Naturally, this is not the case. I know that I have this info somewhere. I know that somewhere I have both the bank statement covering that time period, and the checkbook register covering that time period, not to mention all the paperwork that I got from the company when they booted my ass. Somewhere in this apartment, all of those items exist. But I can't find them.
I have made a bunch of phone calls in the last few days, trying to find out this info in some way that doesn't involve me driving myself crazy looking through all my ridiculous random piles of paper. I started by calling the HR department at the new company. The lady there gave me the phone number for Smith-Barney, which is some kind of financial firm that apparently handles the stock stuff for the company. The woman on the phone at Smith-Barney (Smith-Barney Woman, SBW henceforth) was clueless. She couldn't grasp why my name and social security number didn't produce anything in her computer. I tried to explain several times that I don't actually have an account with her firm because I don't actually own any stock any more, but I wasn't getting through. Finally I asked her to just confirm that her company handled the transition when Company A bought out Company B. She claimed that she couldn't find any evidence of Company B's existence in her computer. *headdesk*
So I hung up on her and called HR Lady back again. She gave me the phone number for someone else at Company A who handles all their stock stuff. I called that person and attempted yet again to explain the situation. She hemmed and hawed, typed on her computer, asked me to spell my name again, typed some more, asked for my SSN, typed some more, and then said, "I'm not getting anything on the Smith-Barney website." AUGH! *headdesk*
So I explained once again that I did not own stock and I already know Smith-Barney has no record of my existence and etc. blah blah. Finally she seemed to grasp what I was saying, but she didn't know how to help me. So she transferred me to another person at the company, a man. This time, I took it slower, backed up, and explained the situation without assuming (as I had done previously) that he was familiar with how the buyout process had taken place. This seemed to work and he seemed to understand my question immediately. But he also didn't know how to get the necessary info for me. He took my name and phone number and said he would try to track down the info and call me back. Well, at least that was a bit of progress.
Next, I tackled the problem from another angle: my bank. I have an online bank (NetBank, it rules, check it out) so I don't receive paper statements. Unfortunately, my online statements don't go back far enough in time to cover the necessary period, and they charge $5 for a paper copy of a statement. I called and explained to the person on the phone that I didn't want to pay $5, especially since I wasn't sure of exactly which statement would have the relevant info; and I don't really need to have it on paper, I just need to know the number, the exact amount of the check. So she, very kindly, started looking through all my checks from that time period, one by one. I told her the time period and the approximate amount of the check and the name that it would probably be made out to, and she put me on hold while she went looking in her computer at all my checks from that era.
Unfortunately, she couldn't find it. I had told her that the check would be around $925, but she found no checks of any amount between $900-999, nor even anything in that vicinity, except for a bunch of checks for $800 which would have been my rent payments. She searched from April 1st all the way through December of 2002, and couldn't find it. So I am very confused, because I'm positive that's the right time period, and I'm almost positive that's the right amount.
The only explanation I can think of is that maybe I didn't write a check for it. Maybe they deducted it from my last severance check instead. I don't really think so, but maybe. Or maybe I wrote the check from a different account, but I don't think that's right either. I'm at a loss.
So now I guess I'm stuck waiting to see if the guy from the company comes through. And back to searching through my ridiculous random piles of paper...SIGH. And I can't file my tax return until I straighten this out. And I can't get my tax refund until I file my return. Did I mention SIGH?
The recap: When I left that job in 2002, I exercised my options (i.e., bought some shares of stock). Late in 2004, the company was bought out by another company, and I received some money in payment for those shares that I owned. The brokerage, or whatever it is, that handled this transaction sent me a tax form showing how much I received for my shares -- but it doesn't show how many shares I had or how much I originally paid for them, both of which things the IRS wants to know for my tax return.
Naturally, I ought to have this info. I should in fact have it in some nice tidy organized place, like a file folder marked "[name of company] stock stuff" in a file cabinet, or something like that. Naturally, this is not the case. I know that I have this info somewhere. I know that somewhere I have both the bank statement covering that time period, and the checkbook register covering that time period, not to mention all the paperwork that I got from the company when they booted my ass. Somewhere in this apartment, all of those items exist. But I can't find them.
I have made a bunch of phone calls in the last few days, trying to find out this info in some way that doesn't involve me driving myself crazy looking through all my ridiculous random piles of paper. I started by calling the HR department at the new company. The lady there gave me the phone number for Smith-Barney, which is some kind of financial firm that apparently handles the stock stuff for the company. The woman on the phone at Smith-Barney (Smith-Barney Woman, SBW henceforth) was clueless. She couldn't grasp why my name and social security number didn't produce anything in her computer. I tried to explain several times that I don't actually have an account with her firm because I don't actually own any stock any more, but I wasn't getting through. Finally I asked her to just confirm that her company handled the transition when Company A bought out Company B. She claimed that she couldn't find any evidence of Company B's existence in her computer. *headdesk*
So I hung up on her and called HR Lady back again. She gave me the phone number for someone else at Company A who handles all their stock stuff. I called that person and attempted yet again to explain the situation. She hemmed and hawed, typed on her computer, asked me to spell my name again, typed some more, asked for my SSN, typed some more, and then said, "I'm not getting anything on the Smith-Barney website." AUGH! *headdesk*
So I explained once again that I did not own stock and I already know Smith-Barney has no record of my existence and etc. blah blah. Finally she seemed to grasp what I was saying, but she didn't know how to help me. So she transferred me to another person at the company, a man. This time, I took it slower, backed up, and explained the situation without assuming (as I had done previously) that he was familiar with how the buyout process had taken place. This seemed to work and he seemed to understand my question immediately. But he also didn't know how to get the necessary info for me. He took my name and phone number and said he would try to track down the info and call me back. Well, at least that was a bit of progress.
Next, I tackled the problem from another angle: my bank. I have an online bank (NetBank, it rules, check it out) so I don't receive paper statements. Unfortunately, my online statements don't go back far enough in time to cover the necessary period, and they charge $5 for a paper copy of a statement. I called and explained to the person on the phone that I didn't want to pay $5, especially since I wasn't sure of exactly which statement would have the relevant info; and I don't really need to have it on paper, I just need to know the number, the exact amount of the check. So she, very kindly, started looking through all my checks from that time period, one by one. I told her the time period and the approximate amount of the check and the name that it would probably be made out to, and she put me on hold while she went looking in her computer at all my checks from that era.
Unfortunately, she couldn't find it. I had told her that the check would be around $925, but she found no checks of any amount between $900-999, nor even anything in that vicinity, except for a bunch of checks for $800 which would have been my rent payments. She searched from April 1st all the way through December of 2002, and couldn't find it. So I am very confused, because I'm positive that's the right time period, and I'm almost positive that's the right amount.
The only explanation I can think of is that maybe I didn't write a check for it. Maybe they deducted it from my last severance check instead. I don't really think so, but maybe. Or maybe I wrote the check from a different account, but I don't think that's right either. I'm at a loss.
So now I guess I'm stuck waiting to see if the guy from the company comes through. And back to searching through my ridiculous random piles of paper...SIGH. And I can't file my tax return until I straighten this out. And I can't get my tax refund until I file my return. Did I mention SIGH?
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no subject
Date: 2006-02-23 09:05 pm (UTC)1) Print all the journal entries you have on this topic. I definitely remember some from last year. Hang onto them. If you ever get audited and can't produce the actual canceled check showing what you paid, at least you have a historical journal showing you being concerned about it.
2) Be careful with the 2004 thing -- if the sale really went through in 2004, you MIGHT need to file an amended 2004 return instead of putting this on 2005's.
3) Worst comes to worst, assuming you're pretty sure $950 was your purchase price and you're reasonably sure of (or, even better, have the paperwork from) the sale price? You should be PERFECTLY fine listing the sale with those approximate numbers. I'm going to make this up and pretend you got approximately $5000 from the sale, and that you paid approximately $950, like you think. So you made $4,050 in long term capital gains on the sale. Here's the thing -- at the 15% tax rate that your capital gains are most likely taxed at, you owe $607.50 on that amount.
But let's say you mis-remember, and you only paid $800 for the stock, making your gain $4,200 instead. OK, in that case, at 15%, you owe $630, or $22 and change more. I'm not saying the exact amounts don't matter, but worst comes to worst, the difference between the actual amount and the estimated amount is likely so small that no one is going to hassle you for the difference -- and if they did, you didn't intentionally defraud them, and the amount of interest you'll owe on the $22 diffence is negligable.
4) If both companies were publicly traded, the purchase price should be findable online somewhere, possibly in stock news stories that company A is buying company B for $10 a share or whatever. Assuming there were no stock splits (meep!), the approximate amount of your proceeds divided by the $ per share purchase price should tell you how many shares you owned -- and $950 divided by that number is the price when you executed your option.
I'm a terible amateur at this, but a terrible amateur who's used TaxCut in the past to do things like depreciate furniture purchased for and used in a home office, which is complicated as hell, and who's sold stock where the price paid per share gets entered as "various" and things like that, and I think your best effort won't get you in any trouble. ESPECIALLY if the difference between your estimates and reality is in the $50 range. And especially if you err on the side of caution. If you think you paid between $950 and $1000, say you paid $900, because it inflates your profit a little bit, making you owe a little more tax, and you're not going to get in trouble for erring in THEIR favor by $7.50.
Hope this is useful, if only in a "worst comes to worst and no one can find anything, you'll be ok" sort of way.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-23 09:20 pm (UTC)2. The company takeover went through in 2004, but I didn't send in my paperwork and receive my money until 2005, so I think I'm pretty safe filing it with my 2005 taxes. Especially since I didn't receive the official tax document (1099 or whatever it is) until now.
3. If all else fails, my plan is to file my taxes with the $950 number. I'm sure enough that it's within $25 or so of the correct amount, so I'll do that if I have to.
4. Unfortunately I'm fairly sure that my stocks were sold to me at different prices, so even if I knew the stock price and the number of stocks I had, a simple multiplication probably wouldn't produce the right answer. Also, the company wasn't public at the time of acquisition (although the acquiring company was, obviously) so technically my stocks were worthless. Although I think "worthless" has some specific meaning to the IRS which is not necessarily the meaning I intend by it here.
Anyway, I'm sure it'll all work out somehow. It's just frustrating, especially since I know I bring this on myself with my total lack of organizational skills.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-23 09:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-23 09:40 pm (UTC)If you don't have this, perhaps their HR might?
Their HR people are the people with whom I had the above-described frustrating conversations! Hopefully the last guy will turn something up. I'll probably call him again tomorrow just to give him a nudge.