I recently attended a 3 hour class that dealt mostly with the basis of Partnerships and S-Corporations.  Although not thought of by most taxpayers, the basis of your assets is very important.  This could be as simple as knowing your total cost for a particular stock when you sell it and could simply be the amount you originally paid for it subtracted from the sale price to give you the taxable gain.

The class I attended went into some very complicated calculations related to Partnerships and S-Corporations but the point is the same:  If you are going to be investing in vehicles that require a calculation of your cost to determine the taxable amount when you sell them, you need to keep the records related to those things.

For your stocks and mutual funds it is the monthly and annual statements you receive.  For other investments that do not generate staements you need to keep a written record of your investments and distributions as well as your cancelled checks and bank statements.

For more information regarding this and other tax topics feel free to contact me.

This message brought to you by: Cormier & Rea, Inc. Sturbridge MA. Providers of Income tax planning and preparation and financial planning. For more information about this or any other issues regarding income tax planning or preparation or financial planning, feel free to contact us. Like Cormier & Rea, Inc. on Facebook for timely updates.