There are other things to consider if I remember correctly; like if the parents are claiming him on their return. If the parents claim him then he checks the box that someone else can claim him on their return. Looking at the 1040 EZ; it's #5 on the front of the return 5. If someone can claim you (or your spouse if a joint return) as a dependent, check the applicable box(es) below and enter the amount from the worksheet on back. Worksheet for Line 5 Dependents Who Checked One or Both Boxes Use this worksheet to figure the amount to enter on line 5 if someone can claim you (or your spouse if married filing jointly) as a dependent, even if that person chooses not to do so. To find out if someone can claim you as a dependent, see Pub. 501. A. Amount, if any, from line 1 on front . . . . . . + 300.00 Enter total ⶠA . B. Minimum standard deduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B . 950.00 C. Enter the larger of line A or line B here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C . D. Maximum standard deduction. If single, enter $5,700; if married filing jointly, enter $11,400 . D . E. Enter the smaller of line C or line D here. This is your standard deduction . . . . . . . . E . F. Exemption amount. If single, enter -0-. If married filing jointly and both you and your spouse can be claimed as dependents, enter -0-. only one of you can be claimed as a dependent, enter $3,650. > F . G. Add lines E and F. Enter the total here and on line 5 on the front . . . . . . . . . . G .

dave100: that's interesting and had to do some surfing. Cutting & pasting the whole article I found since this was quite readable and, Luddite that I am, my attemps at links go off into cyberspace. Don't throw away anything you've faithfully saved till now - quarterly statements, confirmations, etc. since the buy/sell, gain/loss tracking goes forward and it's still up to you to be able to track your dealings backward. Right? I have a couple of brokerage accounts as well as investments outside brokerages - no problem there as I can see. But I initially received, as a gift, a block of stock in our local power company back in the 70's. (I still have the initial cost basis, etc. paperwork). But I have always reinvested the dividends to purchase more shares and the new cost basis is, of course, reflected on the next statement. I've saved every one of these statements over the approx. 40 years in the event I'd ever sell some of it since any sale is going to involve a real mix of share price. I like hard copies of things; I don't do much online tracking. Consequently I have boxes of "important" investment papers all in good order. The beauty of it is my heirs will not be pulling their hair out trying to find things when THAT TIME comes. (We've done enough sifting in dealing with others' estates to have learned some valuable lessons.) The article: [Broker-dealers, mutual fund companies and fund custodians are updating systems to comply with the cost basis reporting requirements included in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. Brokers must begin reporting cost basis to the Internal Revenue Service and to taxpayers for trades beginning Jan.1, 2011; fund companies have until 2012 to comply. Custodians are not required to comply with the legislation, but they provide the technology as a service to their broker-dealer clients. For their part, wirehouses already track this data so the deadline is a non-issue for them. "The tech implications for cost basis are significant and if firms don't start now, they will never get it done in time," said Sean Cunniff, research director for brokerage and wealth management at Needham, Mass.-based TowerGroup. The aim is to guarantee full reporting of capital gains so the IRS receives its fair cut of investors' profits. Estimates from the Government Accountability Office and IRS put the amount of underreported capital gains at $7 billion to $11 billion per year. REDUCED TAX BILLS Ironically, because the technology allows for improvement of cost basis reporting, many advisers will be able to harvest losses more efficiently, reducing their clients' tax bills. Costs estimates for the enhancement range from $200,000 for a small, self-clearing broker-dealer to a multimillion-dollar expense for custodians, according to a participant who asked not to be identified. Systems within broker-dealers that require overhauls are the account transfer systems that interact with brokerage firms, as well as their order management systems. Historically, tracking cost basis has been a headache, a responsibility of investors who would have to dig through dusty old confirmations to determine the amount they paid for a stock or bond. For many firms, completing the fixes requires a multistep process that can frazzle the nerves of even the calmest, most experienced technologists. "This will take months just to scope out, and then you must build or buy a solution and integrate it with your current system," Mr. Cunniff said. "Then you test. Then you fix the bugs. Then you deliver." At Raymond James Financial Services of St. Petersburg, Fla., the battle to meet the deadline is under way. "We know it's a significant change and that's why we've started working on it already," said Josh Bohlander, senior manager in information technology. Hindering the project, however, are questions about how reporting should be done for wash sales, gifted securities, sales-load-basis deferral adjustments, and for fixed-income securities. "These are items not pinpointed in the current legislation," said Dale Skinner, a technology product manager with Raymond James. "We and the rest of the industry still need more clarification from the Internal Revenue Service on particular areas." Other firms are also waiting for the IRS to set a clear direction for the development effort. "We are still waiting for the IRS to make its final recommendations," said Teri Manton, a director in the product management and development group of Pershing LLC of Jersey City, N.J. Marjorie Qualey: Would like to see the IRS determine the format it wants the reports to use. "We still need to know exactly what format the IRS wants us to report it in," said Marjorie Qualey, vice president of product development and technology at Schwab Institutional in San Francisco. In response, a spokesman for the IRS said it was "continuing to work on the issue." Rather than build the upgrade themselves, some companies are retaining third parties to provide the software, an approach that OppenheimerFunds Inc. of New York pursued. "Due to the complexity of building this into our own systems, we decided that it made more sense to partner with [GainsKeeper]" to build this enhancement, said Christine Polak, vice president of operations at the mutual fund company, who declined to disclose the cost of the software. GainsKeeper, a provider of cost basis and tax software, is a division of Wolters Kluwer Financial Services in Minneapolis. Over the next two years, Ms. Polak will collaborate with the vendor to provide clients with cost basis data, in the form of their choice. Under the legislation, clients can select the way they want to report cost basis data to the IRS, such as the average cost basis or on a first-in-first-out basis. Although earlier attempts to pass the cost basis rules failed, Pershing assumed that passage was inevitable and began working on the project, Ms. Polak said. "The whole idea of these regulations isn't new to us; we are very well-positioned and have been working closely with [the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association of New York and Washington] for several years now in planning for this legislation," said Ms. Manton. So far, the firm has developed a Form 1099 tax and year-end statement that breaks out gains and losses and addresses the bulk of the regulatory requirements, she said. Some broker-dealers, such as Cambridge Investment Research Inc. of Fairfield, Iowa, and Securities America Inc. of Omaha, Neb., receive cost basis information from their custodians, Pershing and National Financial Services LLC of Boston, respectively.] (Davis Jankowski, InvestmentNews, December 14, 2008)

I know from expereience with un-filed tax returns, if you come forward it's better. Get your records together, file the back taxes. You can request they waive the penalties and interest, because of personal problems like health or frequent job changes or moving around or inability to obtain records, etc. And when you know the sum total of what you owe, the IRS will accept monthly partial payments of whatever you can pay. When you file, pay as much as you can and include a letter showing how you plan to pay the balance. I owed about $4000 and they let me pay $400 a month out of my checking account.

DH and I have the paper organization divided. I keep the things like manuals, kid's papers, health insurance, etc. in small hanging folder baskets on top of a bookshelf. DH keeps track of monthly bills and investments, etc. He has a cubbie hole system on top of one of his desks and items are divided up into those cubbies. That way he can easily find a current bill, the stack of donation places when we review in December, etc. We each have home office spaces in this house, but in our previous house I just kept things on the top of the cabinet in the formal dining room. It wasn't pretty, but it was easy to use. We keep no paper in the kitchen. Paper and kitchen counters just don't mix for us. DH use to open the mail and then restack it right next to the stove. Harping on him didn't change that, so I gave him a couple of warnings that anything paper piled on my counters would be trashed. I told him that I didn't keep my pots and pans stacked on his desk, so using the food prep space for paperwork was making my life difficult. After having me throw away all of the bills and everything else in the pile, he finally decided he could make the effort to walk a few steps and put it elsewhere. We are not really filers. More specifically, organized pilers. Our files are things which we rarely need. My piles hang, his piles are cubbies. Works for us right now. Gloria