Tax Purposes

Q: Several years ago, I briefly became interested in so-called penny stocks and purchased several different ones. They have turned out to be "cents-less" investments.I'd like to unload them this year for tax purposes, but for the most part, the proceeds won't even cover the broker commission fees. Is there a provision for reporting such stocks as tax write-offs without actually selling them?A: Yours is really a three-part question:1) What is the Internal Revenue Service definition of "worthless securities"?

Bel Air attorney Lester V. Jones routinely pocketed thousands of dollars in legal fees he collected from clients and associates, and spent the money on condos and expensive cars, a federal prosecutor charged as Jones went on trial on federal charges of tax evasion.Prosecutor Joseph L. Evans accused Jones not only of cheating on his income taxes in the mid-1980s, but also of cheating on amended tax returns he filed to defend himself against the IRS investigation that eventually led to his criminal indictment.