A Shady Broker Reported Around $600,000 In Gains To The Irs When I Transferred My Positions To A More Reputable One, And Now The Irs Wants Me To Pay The Tax Bill Or Prove The Error.

This is for United States federal taxes so I don't think I need to worry about state laws. Also I have hired a lawyer for this, but I'm wondering if there is anything else I can do or should be aware of.

Here's the gist of the situation:

In 2018 i started using a broker called ustocktrade. In 2021 realized they weren't actually buying stocks for me, and requested an ACAT transfer of all my shares to TD Ameritrade.

In all the time I used Ustocktrade I never sold a single share. I did feel like they were Shady so I took the time to download all of my share purchase history because I was concerned the cost basis data at the time they completed the transfer would be different from the cost basis of when I actually asked them to purchase the shares for me.

Basically I suspected they were only giving me an IOU without ever purchasing the shares, and figured an ACAT transfer woodforce them to actually make that purchase and give me my shares.

It is my belief that my thesis is correct, because the cost basis reported to the IRS claims the date of my stock purchases was the date my ACAT transfer was completed. They inappropriately reported the transfer as a sale, and bungled the math horribly- it's pretty straightforward though. They took the entire sum of what each of my positions were worth, and claimed that was what each share was worth. So (for example)if I had a position such that I paid $1 each for 100 shares, and thus that position was worth $100, they claimed that I sold that entire position for $100 per share for a total of $10,000.

Not too long after this the Securities Exchange Commission revoked ustocktrade's registration status, and the company along with all their accounts) were acquired by Apex clearing.

I have contacted Apex and have been unsuccessful in acquiring any of my ustocktrade records- such as my deposit history which would prove my account was never worth the amount the IRS has been led to believe I'm good for. I do have all of my bank records used to deposit those shares, but I'm not sure I can prove that's the only bank I used to make deposits into Ustocktrade. Again I do have my asset purchase history and all my transfer documents... it was all i thought i would need when i still had access to the account.

My lawyer says the low-level people at the IRS will play dumbass to cover their asses; just send me on to tax Court, and a judge will be able to see that I really don't belong there.

So that is my situation- any advice or other options I can pursue are very appreciated... I'm especially interested in what I might be able to do to leverage APEX to dig up a complete history of my statements and transfers-in. They're supposed to have a team dedicated to Ustocktrade accounts, but I've only ever been able to get ahold of one guy who keeps telling me I need to talk to another team I can never get in touch with. APEX acquired that company; it seems like some really shady business if they did not retain that companies records.