If you audit and confirm your records each year, I think keeping your tax forms and end of year financial account statements and club reports should be sufficient.

If you have not been as disciplined in having the club confirm your club information, I'd keep as many records as you can.

When you have a capital investment, whether in stocks or in your partnership, the usual recommendation is to keep any records that will substantiate your basis for as long as you have ownership.

We sometimes have clubs that come to us trying to confirm things like stock basis in a stock they have held for many years or the ownership records for one of their members. Without information about what was entered over the years, we have no way to confirm what was entered in bivio was correct and therefore no easy way to confirm what the correct values should be.

We expect a lot more of these types of questions with the new cost basis reporting laws being implemented. To digress a bit, I would recommend that all of you spend some time ASAP comparing the cost basis information in bivio with what your broker is showing. You also need to know how they're going to be calculating your cost basis, starting this year with any stocks you purchase. They're going to be reporting your gains and losses to the IRS.

Brokers sometimes have historical information which is incomplete or inaccurate. If it is different that what you have in bivio, it is important for you to figure out and understand why.

We discussed what you need to know about the new Cost Basis reporting laws in our October Club Meeting Meeting webinar. You can find the presentation if you go to www.bivio.com/clubmm

We'll also be talking about this topic in the December Club Meeting Meeting on Thursday, "Getting Ready for Tax Season". You can register for that at www.bivio.com/club_cafe

If you reconcile and audit regularly as we recommend, you won't have the types of questions about historical entries that cause problems. In that case, your end of year summary information and tax filing information should be sufficient documentation of your club history to keep around.

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Laurie Frederiksen
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