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Date:   Fri, 03 Mar 2006
From:   Ken

Michael,

One of your readers previously wrote about making a same day sale when exercising an employee stock option. $18,000 of income was reported on his W-2 form.

You told him, "in most cases, people report a LOSS of a few dollars for the sale on Schedule D."

Shouldn't he have an $18,000 GAIN on Schedule D.

Thanks for your response.

Ken

Answer

Date:   Sat, 18 Mar 2006

Hello Ken,

No. If he did, he would be reporting income for the same transaction twice.

The income reported on Form W-2 is added to the tax basis (cost to determine tax gain or loss) of the stock when reporting the transaction on Schedule D.

Good luck!

Mike Gray

For more information about non-qualified stock options, request our free report, Non-Qualified Stock Options - Executive Tax and Financial Planning Strategies.

IRS Circular 230 Disclosure: As required by U.S. Treasury Regulations, you are hereby advised that any written tax advice contained in this answer was not written or intended to be used (and cannot be used) by any taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code.