For those of you using TurboTax this year for your filings: be very careful about letting the software grab your info from your investment companies (for those that have mutual funds/stocks/etc.)
I clicked "Import All" for my various financial institutions, and out of ######in' nowhere, I owed the government almost $1500!!!
What I did this year was take my "failing" investments and transfered them into my Roth IRA to boost my contriubutions for this year (I usually put my own hard earned dollars into my IRA, but this year, decided it was best to reinvest my hard earned dollars to Budweiser and move some of my other funds around, instead).
Turns out, TurboTax's automated system saw all of my "sells" into other accounts as taxable income. But what "I saw" was me transfering failing funds into other failing funds.
When you file your 1099-Bs, enter all of the values yourself. For me, my average cost basis (which is not accounted for when you let TurboTax import your info for you) was higher than my realized returns. Which means, my long term capital gains were $0.00. I understand that's a terrible year for inverstors, but at least I filed it "how it really happened" on my tax forms. Not only did I save myself from owing anything to the government, but I got I nice boost for the money that I actually did put into my IRA.
Most of the time it's easier to let TurboTax enter your info for you, but this year (at least in my case), it was much more accurate to do it myself. Plus, I got to take advantage of a TON of wash sales that I took part in over the year! HELLO TAX RETURN!