How do I report iShares Silver Trust ETF (SLV) on my 1099-B tax form?

This is actually a common issue with certain ETFs like iShares Silver Trust that hold physical commodities. What you're seeing is the result of the fund selling tiny amounts of silver to pay for its operational expenses. For TurboTax questions: Yes, "Mutual fund, Index fund, or ETF" is the correct selection. For acquisition date, you should use the date you originally purchased your SLV shares, not 12/31/2020. The disposal date of 12/31/2020 is correct since that's when the trust sold some silver to cover expenses. The transaction term (long vs short) depends on when you bought your original shares compared to the disposal date. If you owned the shares for more than a year before 12/31/2020, it's long-term; otherwise, it's short-term. For the cost basis, this is tricky with commodity ETFs. The proceeds ($0.28) represent your portion of the sale used for expenses. The cost basis should technically be your proportional cost of that tiny amount of silver based on your original purchase price. Since that's nearly impossible to calculate precisely, many tax professionals recommend using the same amount as the proceeds, making it a wash (no gain/loss).

What you're seeing is totally normal for commodity ETFs like iShares Silver Trust. These funds have to sell tiny amounts of the underlying commodity (silver in this case) to pay for their management expenses. For your TurboTax questions: 1. Yes, "Mutual fund, Index fund, or ETF" is the correct selection since SLV is an ETF. 2. The acquisition date should be when you originally purchased your SLV shares, not 12/31/2021. 3. The disposal date of 12/31/2021 is correct as that's when the trust sold the silver to cover expenses. 4. Whether it's long-term or short-term depends on when you originally bought your shares. If you owned them for more than a year before 12/31/2021, it's long-term. If less than a year, it's short-term. 5. For cost basis, most tax professionals recommend using the same amount as the proceeds ($0.27), creating a wash with no gain or loss. This is the simplest and most accurate approach.

After struggling with similar ETF reporting issues, I discovered taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) and it saved me so much frustration. I had several commodity ETFs with these weird micro-transactions and was totally confused about how to report them correctly. Their system analyzed my 1099-B and automatically categorized these tiny trust-expense transactions properly. What impressed me was how it handled these special ETF cases - it recognized the iShares Silver Trust transactions and knew exactly how to categorize them. No more guessing about acquisition dates or whether to report them as wash sales.

I just wanted to update everyone after trying taxr.ai for my investment tax situation. As someone who mentioned REITs earlier, I was impressed by how well it handled both those AND my husband's commodity ETFs. It actually identified those tiny SLV management fee transactions right away and correctly categorized them as expenses rather than actual sales. Saved me from answering all those confusing TurboTax questions about acquisition dates and sale classifications. What really surprised me was discovering I'd been reporting some of my other ETF distributions incorrectly for years! No wonder I always dreaded investment tax season. Definitely worth checking out if you hold these somewhat complicated investment types.

If you're dealing with questions about your 1099-B for iShares Silver Trust and not getting answers from the IRS website, I'd recommend just calling the IRS directly. I was in the same boat last year with some complicated ETF questions. After being on hold for literally 3+ hours and eventually getting disconnected twice, I found Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). They have this system that somehow gets you connected to an actual IRS agent without the ridiculous wait. You can see how it works in their demo video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The IRS agent I spoke with was actually super helpful and walked me through exactly how to report these tiny ETF management expense transactions. Saved me so much stress and probably prevented me from making a reporting mistake.

I need to eat crow here and admit when I'm wrong. After my skeptical comment about Claimyr, I decided to try it this morning because I was still confused about reporting my iShares Silver Trust transactions. It actually worked exactly as described. Instead of spending my entire morning on hold, I got a call back in about 30 minutes with an IRS agent already on the line. The agent confirmed that for these tiny ETF expense transactions, you should: 1. Report them as the same type of investment you originally purchased (ETF in this case) 2. Use your original purchase date as the acquisition date 3. Use the date on the 1099-B as the disposal date 4. For cost basis, use the same amount as the proceeds to create a wash (no gain/loss) Saved me hours of frustration and gave me the confidence that I'm filing correctly. I hate admitting I was wrong on the internet, but credit where credit is due!

One thing no one's mentioned yet - these tiny SLV transactions are reported to the IRS, so you definitely can't just ignore them. I made that mistake one year and got a letter about the discrepancy. If you don't want to deal with these micro-transactions every year, you might consider alternative silver investments like Sprott Physical Silver Trust (PSLV). It's structured differently and doesn't create these same reporting headaches. I switched a few years ago specifically because the tax reporting was simpler.

I work with a lot of clients who hold commodity ETFs, and there's a shortcut for handling these tiny expense transactions in tax software. In TurboTax: 1. Enter the info exactly as shown on your 1099-B 2. When asked for cost basis, enter the same amount as the proceeds ($0.28 in your case) 3. For "Sales expenses not included in proceeds" enter $0 4. For acquisition date, use your original purchase date This creates a $0 gain/loss transaction, which is the most accurate way to report these. Some tax experts argue you could technically calculate a tiny gain/loss based on your average cost basis, but the amount is so negligible it's not worth the effort.

Just to add another perspective on this - I've been dealing with SLV for several years now and the headache factor really depends on your tax software and how many other investments you have. If you're using basic tax software and SLV is your only "complicated" investment, it's manageable once you understand the pattern. But if you have multiple commodity ETFs, REITs with complex distributions, and other special situations, these micro-transactions can really add up to a lot of manual entry work. One thing I learned the hard way: keep good records of your original SLV purchase dates and amounts. When you have multiple purchases over time and these tiny expense allocations happening annually, it can get confusing to track which shares correspond to which original purchase for the acquisition date reporting. I now keep a simple spreadsheet just for tracking this. The silver lining (pun intended) is that once you've done it a few times, you'll be able to handle these transactions quickly each year. Just remember that the IRS gets copies of these 1099-B forms, so you definitely need to report them even though the amounts are tiny.