Of all the accounting tasks required for active traders to file their taxes, calculating wash sales has to be the most daunting. When trading the same stocks over and over again, buying and selling unequal share amounts, making small gains and losses, hundreds or thousands of wash sales are inevitably generated.

Therefore, this rule is unbelievably cumbersome when it comes to filling out a proper schedule d. How can a rule that sounds relatively simple cause so much confusion and headaches? Read on...

What exactly is the wash sale rule? IRS publication 550 page 52 states: