Be sure that you don’t forget to consider those fees when preparing your taxes. Those tender offer fees did not show up in my buy or sell confirmation sheets and they may not show up on yours either. The 1099 tax forms from my broker also didn’t include these fees, but my broker’s tax reporting is rather skimpy. Those fees do show up in my transaction history and monthly statements.

I believe the proper way to handle these transaction specific fees when filing U.S. income taxes is to adjust the cost basis of the stocks. I’m not a tax expert, so please check with a tax professional. You can also consult IRS Publication 550. The publication does not make specific reference to voluntary reorganization fees, but it does generally discuss how to handle transaction based fees.

I hope you didn’t forget to adjust your tax returns for tender offer fees. If you did forget and already filed your taxes, you could always consider filing an amended return.

I still have a copy of The Ernst & Young Tax Guide 2007. I’ll give it away to the reader that provides the most interesting and/or unusual story of why they need an extension for their federal tax return this year. By the way, if you are wondering, you can find out how to appy for an income tax extension at the IRS website.

Now let us know how your dog ate your taxes. Be sure to include all the interesting details. My my sympathies go out to all of you late filers. Get cracking!

As I’m starting to thumb through this giant tome, the first thing that has caught my eye is a list of the 50 most easily overlooked deductions. Some of the deductions that look useful include:

• Accounting fees for tax preparation services and IRS audits
• Amortization of premium on taxable bonds
• Cellular telephones
• Depreciation of home computers
• Fees on safe-deposit box to hold investments
• Foreign taxes paid
• Margin account interest expense
• Mortgage prepayment penalties and late fees
• Penalty on early withdrawal of savings
• Subscriptions to professional journals
• Worthless stock or securities

A couple of tips for investors also stand out. The first one involves foreign dividends.  The Guide states, “Don’t report the net amount on your tax return. Instead, you should report the full amount of the dividend (before withholding) and claim the foreign tax withheld either as a credit or as a deduction on your return.”

The second item involves identifying specific shares of stock or bonds sold. Keeping good records on specific lots of stocks or bonds you purchase can save you money in taxes.  You can save money by matching shares with the highest basis when you sell in order to minimize the amount of gain you will need to recognize.

This year I might break down and seek professional assistance with my taxes. I started a business this year to support this site. I have concerns about the revenues I earned from the site before I established the business, since I only registered the business in the middle of the summer. I’m stubborn so I’ll probably still do my taxes using TurboTax and then seek professional assistance of an accountant or tax advisor. In the mean time, I’ll be using the Ernst & Young Tax Guide to get educated on the issues I should be aware of as I organize my documents.

Fairmark has several tax guides that may be useful. More importantly, they host a message board that is very active. I just posted a question there last night, and I received two replies this morning. Good luck with your taxes.