Cost basis - Warning tax related topic

[BobC]

Didn't really need me on this one. Nicolo/raulus and Scott/Smarti5051 did a pretty good job saying mostly what I would. Try to remember what you can and/or have records and receipts for, and for everything else, estimate as best you can. Try to be reasonable and consistent in how you estimate and value things. Also, start writing stuff down if you hadn't before, especially in regard to things you're now estimating and/or allocating.

Maybe the biggest thing to make certain of when filing your federal income tax return is that everything is complete and properly filled out with no obvious omissions or mathematical errors that would otherwise cause your return to be kicked out by the IRS's system, and therefore possibly subject it to additional, actual human scrutiny. If you normally prepare and file your federal tax returns yourself, you may want to at least have someone with tax knowledge and experience look over and proofread the first tax return you start reporting these sales on, just to be safe and make sure you're not blatantly missing or doing something wrong. And unless you're a dealer filing and reporting your card activity as a business, you'll most likely be filing and reporting your card activity as a collector/hobbyist, in which case you don't want to show any losses for items you sold. If you are into cards as a hobby, you have to report and pay tax on any gains you may have had from your sales, but for any sales losses they aren't deductible, and you just end up reporting them as $0 gain/income on your return.

If you want more tax related info, go into the Search link, and then go into Advanced Searches. Once there, enter my username, BobC, and then hit the Search button. It will take you to all the threads I've ever posted in. Look for threads that mention or involve tax issues/questions (including threads about "vaults"), and just click on those thread links and look in them for my posts. I'll forewarn you to block out some time before you go looking, and maybe grab yourself a cup of coffee or a cold one before you sit down to begin. You'll find a lot of tax questions, issues, and topics related to the hobby are gone into in some detail. If you come up with any further tax related issues or questions, just ask. Good luck.