Vanguard wrong cost basis reporting

[inb4space]

I recently looked at my unrealized capital gains / losses tab, and noticed it looked off. I swapped the majority of my funds from VTWAX to VTSAX in August 2022. So, average acquisition price should be around $104-105, and there should be an unrealized short-term capital loss of about $10 per share, given the current price around $94.

However, the unrealized capital gains / losses tab shows an average acquisition price of around $94 per share, and a mix of long-term + short-term gain. It's the same acquisition price for all tax lots on different dates, including dividend reinvestments. Also, some of the tax lots show acquisition dates in 2018, 2019, etc. well-before I acquired the VTSAX shares.

I called customer support, and they were mostly confused. They said it could be due to switching to Spec ID cost basis reporting, which I did a few months ago. However, multiple things make no sense:

Why does it show tax lots from 2018, 2019, etc. before I purchased VTSAX?

Why is the average acquisition price ~$10 / share below the actual acquisition price? Maybe due to (1)?

They're looking into it, and I'm waiting to hear back. I'm not expecting anyone here to resolve this, but wondering if anyone's seen similar issues? This seems like a very serious issue.

[sycamore]

Welcome to the forum inb4space!

... wondering if anyone's seen similar issues?

Not me.

I rarely used the unrealized cost basis info at Vanguard because I keep my own spreadsheet to keep track of such things. But I did use both trade confirmation PDF statements and account transaction history to make sure my lot/purchase info matches theirs. What does that info show for you?

Hope it all works out for ya!

[chinchin]

Sounds like a back end error.

Does not inspire confidence.

[rossington]

I recently looked at my unrealized capital gains / losses tab, and noticed it looked off. I swapped the majority of my funds from VTWAX to VTSAX in August 2022. So, average acquisition price should be around $104-105, and there should be an unrealized short-term capital loss of about $10 per share, given the current price around $94.

However, the unrealized capital gains / losses tab shows an average acquisition price of around $94 per share, and a mix of long-term + short-term gain. It's the same acquisition price for all tax lots on different dates, including dividend reinvestments. Also, some of the tax lots show acquisition dates in 2018, 2019, etc. well-before I acquired the VTSAX shares.

I called customer support, and they were mostly confused. They said it could be due to switching to Spec ID cost basis reporting, which I did a few months ago. However, multiple things make no sense:

Why does it show tax lots from 2018, 2019, etc. before I purchased VTSAX?

Why is the average acquisition price ~$10 / share below the actual acquisition price? Maybe due to (1)?

They're looking into it, and I'm waiting to hear back. I'm not expecting anyone here to resolve this, but wondering if anyone's seen similar issues? This seems like a very serious issue.

How long after you bought VTSAX did you switch to specific ID? Were you using average cost before that?

[inb4space]

How long after you bought VTSAX did you switch to specific ID? Were you using average cost before that?

I'm not sure to either question unfortunately. My best guess is that it was at least a few months after I acquired most of my VTSAX shares. However, note that the average acquisition cost reported in my cost basis (around $94 / share) is not close to the actual average acquisition cost (around $104 / share).

[rossington]

How long after you bought VTSAX did you switch to specific ID? Were you using average cost before that?

I'm not sure to either question unfortunately. My best guess is that it was at least a few months after I acquired most of my VTSAX shares. However, note that the average acquisition cost reported in my cost basis (around $94 / share) is not close to the actual average acquisition cost (around $104 / share).

If you reinvested dividends in September and December that would have changed your basis somewhat.

[inb4space]

If you reinvested dividends in September and December that would have changed your basis somewhat.

reported_cost_basis = average_acquisition_price * (100% - yield) + average_dividend_price * (yield)

Assuming yield = 1.5%, so half that for those two quarters, ignoring compounding, assuming same price for each dividend:
94 = 104 * (1.0 - 0.0075) + price * 0.0075

The price at the time of the dividend would need be to -$1229 per share to bring my cost basis down to an average of $94 if my math is right

[nalor511]

How long after you bought VTSAX did you switch to specific ID? Were you using average cost before that?

I'm not sure to either question unfortunately. My best guess is that it was at least a few months after I acquired most of my VTSAX shares. However, note that the average acquisition cost reported in my cost basis (around $94 / share) is not close to the actual average acquisition cost (around $104 / share).

You should be calling vanguard about this account specific question. Any answer here is pure speculation.

[Wiggums]

You should be calling vanguard about this account specific question. Any answer here is pure speculation.

+1

[inb4space]

You should be calling vanguard about this account specific question. Any answer here is pure speculation.

Thanks, I did today, and they are looking into it. I'm wondering if this has happened to anyone else. It seems like a severe technical issue, and unlikely I'm the only person affected.

[paul e]

You should be calling vanguard about this account specific question. Any answer here is pure speculation.

Thanks, I did today, and they are looking into it. I'm wondering if this has happened to anyone else. It seems like a severe technical issue, and unlikely I'm the only person affected.

Please keep us updated.

[H-Town]

I recently looked at my unrealized capital gains / losses tab, and noticed it looked off. I swapped the majority of my funds from VTWAX to VTSAX in August 2022. So, average acquisition price should be around $104-105, and there should be an unrealized short-term capital loss of about $10 per share, given the current price around $94.

However, the unrealized capital gains / losses tab shows an average acquisition price of around $94 per share, and a mix of long-term + short-term gain. It's the same acquisition price for all tax lots on different dates, including dividend reinvestments. Also, some of the tax lots show acquisition dates in 2018, 2019, etc. well-before I acquired the VTSAX shares.

I called customer support, and they were mostly confused. They said it could be due to switching to Spec ID cost basis reporting, which I did a few months ago. However, multiple things make no sense:

Why does it show tax lots from 2018, 2019, etc. before I purchased VTSAX?

Why is the average acquisition price ~$10 / share below the actual acquisition price? Maybe due to (1)?

They're looking into it, and I'm waiting to hear back. I'm not expecting anyone here to resolve this, but wondering if anyone's seen similar issues? This seems like a very serious issue.

Go to Statements - Order confirmation. Look up the confirmation in August 2022. It has the details you need to arrive at your cost basis.

I download all order confirmation and verify the cost basis after every transaction. Trust but verify. From my experience, I've never seen an error in cost basis yet (from either Fidelity, Vanguard, or ML)

[Sandwich]

You should be calling vanguard about this account specific question. Any answer here is pure speculation.

Thanks, I did today, and they are looking into it. I'm wondering if this has happened to anyone else. It seems like a severe technical issue, and unlikely I'm the only person affected.

Here's my experience .... I executed a couple of tax loss harvesting manuevers yesterday selecting "SPEC-ID" lots.

As an example, I selected 500 Index lots purchased in 2022 (that I had losses in) for exchange to Total Stock Market Index. Yesterday, I had printed out the confirmation showing the 2022 lots exchanged and preliminarily calculated a loss of $ 1,000+.

I logged into my account today only to find a capital gain of $ 7,000+

When I looked at the Vanguard confirmation statement it listed a lot from 2016 being exchanged with "SPEC-ID".

Since it is the weekend, I am sending PDFs of the printed confirmations from yesterday via Vanguard's message process and will also call on Monday.

[Sandwich]

As a follow-up, on Monday, I phoned Vanguard and was actually able to speak with a "live" person within a few minutes

I explained the issue with the cost basis error and that I'd sent PDFs through the secure message system over the weekend.

The service rep said she could view the PDFs sent and was creating a "ticket" and that it could take 5 business days to resolve.

Today, I checked .... and the cost basis issue was resolved with Vanguard's calculations within a few cents of my calculations (rounding).

For the future, I will continue to make printouts of my transaction confirmations and hope this error does not occur again.

[DavidInMaryland]

Just wanted to follow up here to say that I recently saw a similar problem. Sold a number of shares of VTSAX, which was set to SpecID cost basis, and picked particular shares to minimize the tax consequences. Fortunately I PDFed the transaction confirmation showing the lots and SpecID election. When I got the transaction confirmation, Vanguard had reported it as FIFO, and lo and behold, it's shown as FIFO online and I have a giant Realized Gain listed in my account.

I have sent the transaction confirmation to Vanguard by secure message (just noticed over the weekend) - hopefully they'll sort it out as they did for you. But it's a scary error that would have been easy not to notice and has really shaken my confidence in their system.

I have to say,I find their website redesign and the new brokerage platform they're pushing everyone to from mutual-fund-only to be rather clunky. It feels like it's gone downhill a bit.

[inb4space]

They figured out the issue Some shares for VTSAX were transferred to this account from another account. When that happened, it averaged my cost basis for shares already in the account with the transferred shares. They were able to fix the cost basis.

[grok87]

They figured out the issue Some shares for VTSAX were transferred to this account from another account. When that happened, it averaged my cost basis for shares already in the account with the transferred shares. They were able to fix the cost basis.

is this for a brokerage account?

[grok87]

They figured out the issue Some shares for VTSAX were transferred to this account from another account. When that happened, it averaged my cost basis for shares already in the account with the transferred shares. They were able to fix the cost basis.

is this for a brokerage account?

[rossington]

They figured out the issue Some shares for VTSAX were transferred to this account from another account. When that happened, it averaged my cost basis for shares already in the account with the transferred shares. They were able to fix the cost basis.

I had a feeling it was due to additional shares diluting your basis. How were you not able to see this transaction of additional shares you are now mentioning? That seems odd.