Earlier this morning the IRS issued the proposed regulations for cost basis reporting. There were no major surprises in the regs. Some of the interesting points include, no extensions to effective dates, clarification on the timing of Specific ID elections, requirements for issuers, confirmation that there won’t be exceptions for high volume accounts, and a lot of guidance on transfer reporting issues. In all, the IRS has provided 141 fun-filled pages. Download the entire document, put up your feet in front of the fire and enjoy.

It should be noted that these are not the final regulations. The IRS has asked for public comments, due February 8th. There is also a public hearing scheduled for February 17th. So it’s clear that it will be a few months before we’ll have the final (final) regs.

In the following weeks we’ll post comments on specifics topics addressed in the regs.  Be sure to check back often.

To download a copy of the proposed cost basis reporting regs or see to a draft of the 2011 1099B form, visit our Basis Reporting Knowledge Base at basisreporting.com