Bloomberg Tax
Jan. 26, 2021, 11:00 AM

Robinhood Traders Face Taxman After Falling In Love With Stocks

Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou
Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou
Bloomberg News
Ben Steverman
Ben Steverman
Bloomberg News

Almost everyone who makes money must get acquainted with the taxman.

That’s the reality dawning on U.S. investors who began buying and selling stocks on apps such as Robinhood last year, when they were cut off from other pastimes during pandemic lockdowns. At least 8 million people opened new brokerage accounts in the first nine months of 2020 — many of them young traders who were dipping their toes into the investing pool for the first time.

Now that these investors realize they could be on the hook for taxes, they aren’t outraged (as George Harrison of the Beatles was when he wrote “Taxman” ...