unknown basis for individual stocks

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Buckeye78
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Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2011 3:49 pm

unknown basis for individual stocks

Post by Buckeye78 »

I have 15 individual stocks that I have owned for over 25.
They have been collected through the years at different brokerages firms and I don't have much of a clue about cost basis.
As I have capital loss carryforwards to offset any potential gains, I would like to sell these stocks and add the capitas to my Vanguard mfd's.
Has anybody dealt with this issue and come up with figures that the IRS didn't challenge? Any ideas/suggestions/directions are much appreciated.
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Dale_G
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Location: Central Florida - on the grown up side of 85

Post by Dale_G »

The IRS never seems to challenge a zero basis, but that should be a last resort.

Not to be flip, but if you don't plan on spending the money - and want to leave something to heirs, just keep the shares. Your heirs will get a stepped up basis.

Are the shares in "street name" or do you have certificates?

Dale
Volatility is my friend
Topic Author
Buckeye78
Posts: 10
Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2011 3:49 pm

Post by Buckeye78 »

street name
livesoft
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Post by livesoft »

One should have no trouble giving these shares away to charity for the tax deduction.
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statsguy
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Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2007 1:38 pm

Post by statsguy »

If you only made one purchase and besides reinvesting dividends then it should be easy.

Contact the companies that you own shares. Go to the company webpage, find the Investors link, and on that page you should find a phone number or email address. Tell them when you purchased and ask them to calculate cost basis for you. Most of the time they will send you information so you can do it yourself... sometimes they will just tell you what your basis would be under those circumstances.

Best of luck
Stats
Chuck
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Joined: Thu May 21, 2009 12:19 pm

Post by Chuck »

Likewise, if you only made one purchase, you could use the adjusted historical price from yahoo finance. The adjusted price is adjusted for stock splits and dividends, so it should be reasonably accurate for that purpose.
FedGuy
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Joined: Sun Jul 25, 2010 3:36 pm

Post by FedGuy »

I have some shares I've been trying to figure out the cost basis of. Unfortunately, Yahoo Finance isn't much help. There were a few stock splits, and somewhere along the line I hit a wall: it seems that the company didn't exist for as long as I thought I had the shares. There must have been some kind of merger or spin-off or something. I was a minor at the time and have no idea what I received the shares in exchange for, or how to track the cost basis any further than that.
4stripes
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Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2011 2:53 pm
Location: New York

Post by 4stripes »

Web finance pages won't help you much if the company merged or had any other reason for the ticker to change. For that you've got to get to the library and hit the microfilm, Google old articles that mention prices--real research time. I could barely find anything when looking for Sears (S) and that merger was just 7 years ago.

You at least must know about when the stocks were purchased? Based on a date range, you could take the average price during the time period.
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