We sometimes get questions from clubs that think they've been reporting something correctly on their taxes but have not. The IRS does not make it easy to comply with some tax requirements. Doing things correctly sometimes requires more work than people realize. For example, tracking cost basis for dividend reinvestment programs manually over many years. Just because something makes sense to you or it's easier doesn't mean that's how they want things done.

Did you know we have a National Taxpayer Advocate? While she works for the IRS, her job is to speak up on our behalf. In her recent mid year report to Congress, she reported how inadequate the funding was for IRS support assistance. She noted that some non compliance issues may be due to the lack of support for taxpayers who are trying to comply with rules but have questions and can't get good answers.

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=225270,00.html

Despite this lack of assistance, taxpayers are still penalized if they don't comply correctly with tax rules.

I often tell clubs that are doing things manually, that access to our body of expertise is another reason to use our investment club software. We are your source for the correct interpretation and application of the tax rules that apply to investment clubs. You may think you have a devised a perfectly sensible way of accounting for and reporting something, but it is best to double check with us. Unfortunately, the IRS doesn't appreciate creativity and some of the rules are not as simple as they could be. Your subscription price includes the ability to ask us questions. It's a pretty insignificant price to pay to insure that you will not have problems with the tax information you report. If you have a question, email support@bivio.com and we'll be glad to try and help you.

Please ask the questions before you do something you are unsure about. We're friendly and we'd much prefer to help you avoid a problem than to try and help you minimize the effects of something you've inadvertently gotten into.

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Laurie Frederiksen
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