# Form8949.com vs TradeLog: copy the 1099-B, or rebuild the year

One turns the broker's 1099-B into Form 8949 for $18; the other redoes wash sales from raw fills from $219. Your other accounts decide which one you need.

*https://stockmarketstack.com/compare/form8949-com-vs-tradelog*

- https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/form8949-com.md
- https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/tradelog.md

The two cards above both end in Form 8949 and Schedule D for a US return. They get there from
opposite ends, and the difference is the whole decision.

[Form8949.com](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/form8949-com) starts from the broker's 1099-B data file and trusts it. It
reads the file, merges several brokers into one set of forms, and hands the result to TurboTax,
TaxAct, H&R Block or a professional package. It cannot read raw trade history at all.
[TradeLog](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/tradelog) refuses to start from the 1099-B. It rebuilds the year from every buy
and sell in every account, then makes you reconcile its gross proceeds against each broker's form
before it will print anything.

So the question is not which is better. It is whether your 1099-B is already right.

## When the 1099-B is already right

TradeLog's own explanation of the 1099-B, read on 24 October 2026, says the IRS requires brokers to
adjust for wash sales only between identical CUSIPs in the same account. The
[wash sale](https://stockmarketstack.com/glossary/wash-sale) rule itself reaches further: substantially identical securities,
options on the same stock, and a repurchase in any account you own, your IRA and your spouse's
included. A broker cannot report a repurchase it never saw.

That gives a test you can run before buying either:

- Take every security you sold at a loss during the year.
- For each one, check whether you, or your spouse, bought the same or a substantially identical
  security, or an option on it, within 30 days before or after the sale **anywhere the broker
  would not match it**: another broker, an IRA, a second account at the same broker, or, in the
  same account, an option or any security with a different CUSIP.
- If the answer is never, each broker's box 1g already holds the adjustment the rule asks for, and
  converting the 1099-B is the whole job.
- If the answer is ever, the 1099-B understates a disallowed loss, and something has to compute
  it.

Form8949.com is plain about which side it is on. Asked whether it reports wash sales across several
brokerages, its FAQ answers "No", says its software "does not re-do the wash sale accounting done
by brokers", and points the reader to TradeLog. The same answer adds the vendor's opinion that
sometimes the cost of complying with "the letter of the law" outweighs the small difference it makes
to the tax. That is one company's view of your return, and the page does not say which cases it has
in mind.

TradeLog is just as plain from the other side: its page says that "for most traders and active
investors, the 1099-B cannot be used for taxpayer reporting." TradeLog sells the alternative, so
weigh that sentence accordingly. Your own answer to the test above is what decides it.
[Reconciling wash sales across accounts](https://stockmarketstack.com/how-to/reconcile-wash-sales-across-accounts) is the long
version, including the deferred loss that follows the replacement shares into next year.

## Two prices in two units

- **Form8949.com** charges per order and counts transactions on the 1099-B: $18 for one or two
  broker files with up to 900 transactions, $26 for three files, then a falling rate per hundred
  above 900. Its card works one example: 3,000 sales from one account cost $30.40. You pay through
  PayPal only after reviewing watermarked drafts.
- **TradeLog** charges an annual subscription and counts trade records in each tax-year file, one per
  buy or sell, with each partial fill separate. Investor is $219 for 1,500 records, Trader $359 for
  5,000, Elite $459 above that. Renewals are 20% cheaper. A second tax year or a spouse filing
  separately is another $79 File Key. The get-started page showed the same prices on 24 October 2026.

Put the same trader through both. Three thousand closed sales, each one a round trip, come to
about 6,000 TradeLog records by the vendor's own rule of thumb of 200 records for 100 round trips,
and partial fills only add more. Anything over 5,000 is Elite, at $459 against Form8949.com's
$30.40. TradeLog's price is for the work Form8949.com does not do, and that work only exists for someone who fails the test above.

The time differs the same way. Form8949.com is an upload, a review and a payment. TradeLog is a
Windows install, a baseline of positions held at the start of your first year, a full year imported
per account, a check of year-end holdings against December statements and a manual reconciliation
against every 1099-B before End Tax Year unlocks the reports.

## What else only one of them does

- **Futures and Section 1256.** TradeLog prints Form 6781 detail. Form8949.com does not generate
  Form 6781. You copy the broker's box 11 aggregate into Schedule D yourself.
- **Section 475 mark-to-market.** TradeLog computes it from the Trader tier up and prints Form 4797
  with a Section 481 adjustment report. Form8949.com builds Form 4797 only from a spreadsheet that
  is already marked, and it does not undo the broker's wash-sale adjustments.
- **Crypto.** Form8949.com reads 1099-DA files from digital-asset platforms. TradeLog's card lists
  no crypto among the asset classes it records.
- **A Mac.** Form8949.com is a web app. TradeLog is Windows 10 or 11 only. Some users run it under
  Parallels, and the vendor says its support for that is limited.
- **Large files into tax software.** Form8949.com reaches TurboTax Online through a hosted OFX up to
  the 500 transactions its FAQ quotes, and desktop up to 3,000. TradeLog's TXF cannot go into
  TurboTax Online at all. Above those limits, both answers are the same: summary lines plus an
  attached statement.

## The recommendation

**Use Form8949.com** if every purchase within 30 days of a loss sale is of the identical security,
in the same account, so that the broker saw both sides. In that case the brokers' 1099-B
figures are the ones the rule produces, and paying $219 or more to recompute them buys you a
reconciliation that should come out the same. It is also the answer on a Mac and for crypto 1099-DA
files.

**Use TradeLog** the first year you fail the test: a loss in one account and a repurchase in
another, an IRA or a spouse's account, or an option bought against a stock sold at a loss. Use it too if you trade futures and want Form 6781 detail,
or have made the Section 475 election and need the marking done. Form8949.com would file the
broker's figure, and the broker did not see the other account. Budget for the setup: TradeLog
needs the positions you held at the start of your first year, and the deferrals it carries into
the next year are only as good as that baseline.

TradeLog says it computes and does not advise, and its wash-sale settings are yours to choose.
The rest of the category is on the
[stock portfolio trackers](https://stockmarketstack.com/categories/portfolio-trackers) page.

## FAQ

### Do I need TradeLog, or is Form8949.com enough?

Form8949.com is enough when the broker's 1099-B is already the right answer. That holds when every repurchase within 30 days of a loss sale was the identical security, in the same account. If you bought it back in another account, at another broker, in an IRA or in a spouse's account, the broker could not see it, and if you bought an option on it, the broker did not have to match it. Form8949.com files the broker's figure, and its FAQ says it does not redo that accounting. TradeLog does.

### How much does each cost for an active trader?

Count in each vendor's unit. Form8949.com counts transactions on the 1099-B, so 3,000 sales cost $30.40 for one broker file. TradeLog counts trade records, one per buy, sell or partial fill, and limits each tax-year file. The same 3,000 sales, as round trips, come to about 6,000 records by TradeLog's own rule of thumb, which is its Elite tier at $459 a year.

### Can either one import into TurboTax Online?

Form8949.com can, through its hosted OFX, but its FAQ says TurboTax Online limits imports to 500 transactions and the desktop edition to 3,000. TradeLog's TXF cannot be imported into TurboTax Online at all, and its card puts desktop TurboTax's limit at roughly 2,000 to 2,500 records. Past those limits, both fall back to summary totals with the detail attached as a statement.

### Which handles futures and Section 475 mark-to-market?

TradeLog. It prints Form 6781 detail for Section 1256 contracts, and its Trader tier at $359 a year computes Section 475 mark-to-market. Form8949.com does not generate Form 6781, so you type the broker's box 11 total in by hand. It will build Form 4797 for a Section 475 trader, but only from a spreadsheet that already carries the marked figures.