The Tax Planning Dates And Forms To Know
/Hi everyone,
Your tax forms will be ready to view soon. Here are the dates when TD Ameritrade will release Form 1099s:
This week: Initial draft of your Form 1099 will be ready to view. We are happy to securely email you a copy of your 1099 when they come available. You should expect a 1099 if any of the following apply:
You own a taxable brokerage account
You made contributions into an IRA account
You took withdrawals from an IRA account
If you own an IRA but did not make any contributions or withdrawals, you will not have anything to report for tax purposes.
Feb. 7: A revised draft of your Form 1099 will be available. Revisions occur if there are tweaks, such as reclassifying dividends. The differences between the initial draft and revised draft are usually minimal, however I recommend waiting to file your taxes until you have the FINAL version of your 1099.
Feb. 13: A second revised version is available, if needed. Note that many 1099s will not need any revision. As such, this date and the Feb. 7th date may not apply.
You should receive notification by email when your tax forms are available to view. We are happy to email you your forms as well, so just ask. To learn more about which specific tax forms you should expect to receive, watch our brief video here:
In The Market...
The S&P 500 gained +2.9% last week. Let's look under the hood:
(price data via stockcharts.com)
Stocks rallied for a 4th-straight week. The difference last week is that it came without much volatility. This is encouraging, no doubt. Every stock sector was positive except for Utilities, showing that investors preferred growth over safety last week. Further evidence of this was reflected in the long-term Treasury bond market, where bond values fell and rates rose.
Last week I highlighted a ton of potential price resistance that could keep stock prices from ascending. Those headwinds still exist, but a near-3% positive week was constructive toward more potential gains in the weeks ahead. It is still wise to be cautious though. It is common to see these types of rallies following a serious decline. It is rare to see prices rally in a straight line higher coming off the type of declines we saw in December, without choppiness along the way. Point being, I still expect more chop.
We added to our stock positions last week. Meanwhile, we are using stop-loss orders to try and protect against another sharp decline, should that occur. A stop-loss is an order to sell an investment if its price falls to a certain point. Our stop-loss orders have not triggered because prices have risen over the past few weeks. In response, we have raised the price of those stop-loss orders to capture recent gains.
We bought a Cloud-Computing fund (SKYY) that focuses on the software niche within the Technology sector. Some of the bigger components of this fund include Netflix, VMWare, Salesforce, Google, Cisco and Microsoft. The fund owns many of the names that are frequently showing up on our buy list. The software space looks as appetizing as any segment of the U.S. stock market right now, but of course software companies face the same macro risks that non-tech firms face.
In Our Portfolios...
What's New With Us?
A pretty typical weekend for me, consisting of soccer for my daughter, Home Depot and football. The market was closed today (MLK Day).
Have a great week!
Brian E Betz, CFP®
Principal