Remember 2008? When the world was ending? Well, as part of the 2008 stimulus package, a little change slipped in to how sales of securities—and thus how much tax you pay on gains—are reported.

These changes already took effect as early as Jan. 1 of this year, and they have brokerage firms scrambling to get up to speed.

Here’s the deal. In the past, all your brokerage was required to report to the Internal Revenue Service is what you saw on your 1099—the gross proceeds from selling something. It’s always been up to investors to keep track of how much they paid for their investments, and then calculate their gains and pay the right amount in taxes.

There were two big problems with this system. First, keeping track of what you paid for something is much harder than it sounds. Stocks and ETFs split and reverse split; companies merge; capital is redistributed—and in every case, the notional basis of your investment changes. I’m sure I’ve messed it up at least once in my 25-year career as an investor.

The second problem is more nefarious. Since the IRS doesn’t actually know what you paid for your securities, it’s very easy for you to lie about it. It’s no different than if the IRS didn’t receive a copy of your W2 at the end of the year. The opportunity to “fudge” how much you owe is obvious. And, unless you’re audited, you never get caught.

Whether intentional or unintentional, the IRS has estimated its wallet’s $11 billion lighter than it should be on an annual basis. To solve the problem, the IRS outsourced the solution to the industry through legislation. Starting this year, keeping track of your cost basis is no longer your problem; it’s your brokers.

That system is already in place for equities. For any stock bought after Jan. 1, 2011, your broker is keeping track of your exact cost basis, with any adjustments for splits and whatnot. That saves investors trouble, and is now a big headache for broker's.

That headache extends to ETFs, but in varying ways. Currently, ETFs fall into six distinct legal structures, each with their own quirks, and with disparate treatment under the new rules. While eventually all securities—even your T-Bills—will be covered, there’s a phasing-in period that will leave some ETFs under the old scout’s-honor system for a while. Here’s a quick rundown.

Note: A complete list of legal structures for every U.S.-listed ETF is available by downloading the CSV file from our ETF Classification System at http://www.indexuniverse.com/ecs). This is a new feature that launched on the website today, July 26, 2011.

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