> If a particular box is not there, you can generally assume it was blank.
The tax code is just sufficiently complex enough that I don't feel safe making that assumption. You're probably right, but "probably" is too low a bar here.
> Brokerages tend to produced a condensed 1099-B to save space: it would be very cumbersome parsing hundreds of pages of a full-IRS-layout 1099-B.
… but like, isn't that the problem? If nobody uses the standardized form because it's too cumbersome … simplify the tax code.
Or standardize the data format and stop using PDF & human toil as a data transfer layer/format.
> It's definitely possible to have tax software summarize
Certainly it is possible. I was responding to the comment that it happens in practice, at least for the largest such software.
The problem is, the one tax code is made for the whole country to use. If there is one person who needs the full form to correctly report his tax situation, the tax code has to be that complicated. And the 99.99999% simple cases have to suffer. You have better idea?
The tax code is just sufficiently complex enough that I don't feel safe making that assumption. You're probably right, but "probably" is too low a bar here.
> Brokerages tend to produced a condensed 1099-B to save space: it would be very cumbersome parsing hundreds of pages of a full-IRS-layout 1099-B.
… but like, isn't that the problem? If nobody uses the standardized form because it's too cumbersome … simplify the tax code.
Or standardize the data format and stop using PDF & human toil as a data transfer layer/format.
> It's definitely possible to have tax software summarize
Certainly it is possible. I was responding to the comment that it happens in practice, at least for the largest such software.