Do I have to fill out a Schedule D form just for one $2. short-term capital gain?

Of course you do! The IRS will only know about what you sold the stock for, not what you paid for it. If you bought a single share of Berkshire Hathaway for its current price of $141,100 and sold it for $141,102 you'd only have a $2 gain but the IRS would only know about the $141,102 that you received. If you fail to file Schedule D they'll assume that you paid $0 for it and will come looking for taxes on THAT amount, not your actual $2 gain.

If you don't file Schedule D, the IRS computer system will automatically kick out a CP2000 letter levying the tax (plus penalties and interest in most cases if it's after the filing deadline which is nearly always the case) and expect you to pay up. At that point you'd have to file an amended return with Schedule D to get them to back off.

Avoid the hassle, file correctly in the first place!

Yes.

No don't bother, you won't get audited. Just think, the IRS assigning someone to investigate $2.00? come on!

technically yes,but the irs wont send a guy who will cost $100s to collect $2.

but just fill out the schedule, its not soooo hard to do. it can be an educational adventure for you. you might need to know how to fill one out next year for your $1,000,000 gain!!!!

Sorry, but yes you do. It'll be reported to the IRS, and if you don't show it, their computers will kick out the discrepancy and send you a letter about it - it doesn't take a human being assigned to your case. And the letter will show the entire sales price as a gain, since they won't know what you paid for it, so you'll have to do paperwork to straighten it out.

Just claim it properly in the first place and you'll avoid having to do more paperwork later.

I had to fix a similar situation for somebody last year. It was not too much of a hassel for me, but the client almost had a heart attack when she opened up that letter from the IRS stating that she owed $2,000 in taxes.