merging transactions in 8949

Question

This year I received NQ Stock Options, RSUs and ESPP shares from my employer (I work as a full-time engineer in a tech company).

In my 1099-B form all of them show up as separate transactions (totally 15 transactions with different vest/purchase and sale dates).

However, my tax consultant in 8949 form reported all of them in a single row (i.e. counted together all cost basis, amount of shares, gain/loss etc) and specified "various" as purchase and sale date.

Now I found this link [http://www.irs.gov/instructions/i8949/ch02.html]. It says that each transaction must actually be reported individually.

Is it true that in my case all transactions actually had to be reported separately? What are the consequences? Do I now have higher chance for the audit because of this?

Answer 1

From the instructions:

If you do not need to make any adjustments to the basis or type of gain or loss (short-term or long-term) reported to you on Form 1099-B (or substitute statement) or to your gain or loss for any transactions for which basis has been reported to the IRS (normally reported on Form 8949 with box A checked), you do not have to include those transactions on Form 8949. Instead, you can report summary information for those transactions directly on Schedule D. For more information, see Exception 1, later.

However, in case of ESPP and RSU, it is likely that you actually do need to make adjustments. Since 2014, brokers are no longer required to track basis for these, so you better check that the calculations are correct.

If the numbers are right and you just summarized instead of reporting each on a separate line, its probably not an issue. As long as the gains reported are correct, no-one will waste their time on you. If you missed several thousand dollars because of incorrect calculations, some might think you were intentionally trying to hide something by aggregating and may come after you.