Common Tax Questions
First, we recommend updating to the latest version of the app for the 2020 tax season. We made changes to the app to improve the tax experience and we don’t want you to miss out on them. Tax forms may be issued by up to three entities this year: Robinhood Securities, Robinhood Crypto, and Apex Clearing. Once you’ve navigated to the Tax Documents section of the app, you should see a list of your tax documents for this year. The name of the issuing entity will be in the title of each document. If you are in the latest version of the app, a document will be titled one of the following:
Your Form 1099 tax document will also have the name of the issuing entity. Look for “Apex Clearing,” “Robinhood Securities,” or “Robinhood Crypto” in the top, left corner of the first page of your Form 1099 to figure out who issued it. Each of these entities will also issue a different account number with your 1099.
If your Form 1099 tax form excludes cost basis for uncovered stocks, you'll need to determine the cost basis. These securities may include recently converted stock funds, limited partnerships, and certain exchange-traded funds. To manually calculate your cost basis, please request a .csv file of your yearly transaction history. With your transaction history, you can calculate your cost basis and review the acquisition date of your stocks. Please consult a professional tax service or personal tax advisor if you need instructions on how to calculate cost basis.
Even though your Robinhood account is closed, you can still view your monthly statements and tax documents in your mobile app:
In your statement you’ll find your account activity, including transfers and executed trades.
Monthly statements are made available the following month.
For more information about accessing documents in the app, check out Account Documents.
We can provide you with a .csv file of your yearly transaction history if you submit a request and include the following verification information:
Once we receive this information, we’ll send over your transaction history.
If you’d like to claim a loss for a worthless stock, please submit a request for a copy of your yearly transaction history. We’ll reach out with a .csv file you can use to prove a loss on your taxes. In your request please include the following verification information:
Once we receive this information, we’ll send over your transaction history.
There are a number of reasons why your tax document may not load properly. To resolve the issue, try the following troubleshooting steps:
If these steps don’t resolve the issue, please submit a service request for the document you’d like us to send. For account verification purposes, please include your date of birth and the last four digits of your social security number.
A wash sale is the sale of a stock at a loss, followed by the purchase of the same stock within thirty calendar days.
You’re unable to claim a loss on a transaction the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) considers a wash sale.
You can find a list of your wash sales in box 1G of your Form 1099 tax document.
Here is an example that might help illustrate how the wash rule operates:
A customer purchases 100 shares of XYZ on Day 1 for $1,000.00. The customer then sells the 100 shares on Day 10 for $900.00, a loss of $100.00. The customer then went ahead and repurchases 50 shares of XYZ again on Day 15 for $400.00 and 50 more shares on Day 16 for $350.00.
This means that the 100 shares sold on Day 10 were sold with a “wash sale disallowed” of $100.00 according the wash sale rule. This amount is broken up and carried forward in the customer’s next sale in the following way: $100.00 / 100 shares = $1.00 wash sale / share.
The customer will not see a taxable loss for this wash sale. Rather, the customer will see that the cost basis of their future purchases are adjusted upwards, so the purchase made on Day 15 and Day 16 will show a cost basis of $450.00 and $400.00, respectively:
Day 15: $400.00 + wash sale disallowed(50 shares x $1.00) = adjusted cost basis of $450.00
Day 16: $350.00 + wash sale disallowed(50 shares x $1.00) = adjusted cost basis of $400.00
Keep in mind, you may have accrued wash sales from partial executions. Partial executions occur when there are not enough shares available in the market to fill an entire order at once. This happens most commonly with limit orders placed on low-volume stocks.
There is no correlation between the the amount reported on the Form 1099 and the amount of money that you deposited or withdrew. From a Form 1099 reporting perspective, we are required to report any proceeds/losses for any positions that are closed during the tax year.
For example, let's use an account that had a $200K deposit in a scenario:
As a broker-dealer for this example, we are required to report a proceeds of $210K + $185K = $395K and a cost of $200K + $175K = $375K. While the customer only deposited $200K, their reported proceeds must be $395K.
In 2018, we launched Clearing by Robinhood, which you can read more about in this Help Center article. Before this conversion, customers' trades were cleared by Apex Clearing. Since the conversion, customers' trades have been cleared by Robinhood Securities. For customers who had taxable events both before and after the launch of Clearing By Robinhood, those events would have happened at two different clearing firms. As a result, those customers will be receiving Form 1099 from two different clearing firms for the 2018 tax year.
Apex IRS Form 1099: If you had a taxable event (for example, you sold equities, received a referral stock, or received dividends) in 2019 from our former clearing partner, Apex, you will receive a Form 1099 from them.
Robinhood Securities IRS Form 1099: Customers who had taxable events last year will receive a 1099 from Robinhood Securities, our new clearing platform.
Robinhood Crypto IRS Form 1099: If you sold cryptocurrencies in 2019, you will receive a PDF of your 1099, as well as a CSV file of your crypto activity to assist with uploading your tax information to services like TurboTax.
Your Form 1099 tax document will have the name of entity that issued it on it. Look for “Apex Clearing,” “Robinhood Securities,” or “Robinhood Crypto” in the top left corner of the first page of your Form 1099 to figure out who issued it. Each of these entities will also issue a different account number with your 1099.
Generally speaking, if your taxable events happened on or before November 9, 2018, your activity was cleared by Apex clearing. If your taxable events happened November 10, 2018 or later, your activity was cleared by Robinhood Securities.
The stocks you receive through the referral program may be reported as miscellaneous income in your Form 1099-MISC. There is an IRS de minimis rule for other income. The threshold to report stocks received through the referral program is $600. Customers with referral shares valued at less than $600 may not be issued a Form 1099-MISC.
As with all tax forms, you’ll be able to download a consolidated Form 1099 (which includes the Form 1099-MISC) starting in mid-February of every year.
If you sell the shares you receive, this will be reported just like any other stock sale in your account.
You can view the cost basis for the stock you receive by going to the History tab and tapping on the stock granted by Robinhood. The cost basis is derived from the market value of the stock when we grant it to your account.
Apex’s Employer Identification Number (EIN), or Federal Tax ID Number, is 13-2967453.
You can also find this number on your Form 1099 tax document.
Robinhood Securities, LLC’s' Employer Identification Number (EIN), or Federal Tax ID Number, is 38-4019216.
You can also find this number on your Form 1099 tax document.
Robinhood Crypto, LLC's Employer Identification Number (EIN), or Federal Tax ID Number, is 46-4364776 .
You can also find this number on your Form 1099 tax document.
Tax documents will be sent to the IRS by April 15th.
We do not give tax advice, so for specific questions about your Form 1099 tax documents, including how to file it, we recommend speaking with a tax professional.