Expert: Dr. Joseph de Beauchamp - 5/30/2006

Question
I was employed by a large company that paid for our tuition for college. After graduation, i was awarded a stock gift in the company for $5000. When I graduated from college and received the stock gift, the amounts didn't match up. I ended up with 56 shares bought at $54.12 a share. I thought that I would have had 92 shares, or something close to that, to equal the $5000. I called the human resource department about it and she said something about a withholding and I needed to fill out a W-9. What withholding was she talking about? I can't call them back, the company moved to Mexico at the beginning of the year. I'm new to all of this, so any help you could give me would greatly be appreciated.  

Answer
You should obtain their information, what you started with on an agreement. It might be that you did not actually put into the arrangement the full $5000? You could only have to report the gain on what you have in hand. Then again, if you laid out the hard dollars of $5000, then you would only have to report a loss. It is money into the deal and then out that you report. It would be good to secure what information you have and all correspondence from the company. I would conact them in Mexico before I would report anything.

Dr. de Beauchamp