Bonehead Mistake in Roth Acct: Wash Sale Rules Apply?

[JSparks]

Last week, I wanted to buy a half-share of VT in my Roth account to displace $60 that was sitting in the money market fund associated with my Roth account. But, like a fool, I accidentally clicked "sell" instead of "buy". The transaction went through (and was a "gain" on the sale).

So now I need to buy the half share that I accidentally sold as well as the half share I originally intended to purchase.

Any wash sale or other concerns doing this?

[avalpert1]

Wash sales and capital gains don't apply to Roth accounts since you don't pay taxes on the gains/losses.

[Walkure]

To take things further, the only thing you need to avoid in Roth is buying a replacement share within 30 days (before or after) of selling the same asset for a loss in a taxable account. For this reason, many people advise not holding substantially-identical funds in both taxable and tax-advantaged accounts. (E.g. if you have a total market fund in taxable, use a combination of S&P 500 fund and a completion index in Roth to avoid the risk of an accidental wash.)

[cvoege]

1. Wash sale rules only matter when selling for a loss in a taxable account. You are selling for a gain in a roth account.
2. Wash sale rules aren't really a huge deal in this kind of situation anyway. If this was in a taxable account AND it was for a loss, all the wash sale rule would mean was that you'd have to use the higher basis for the new position when you sell it and not write off the loss. That matters when you are doing a big tax loss harvest and lowering your taxes, but for just correcting a mistaken sale it's not really going to change much.

[JSparks]

Thank you all. I've learned some good lessons here.

[dorster]

Even in a taxable account this wouldn't be a problem or reason for concern.

Might be a good idea to read up on wash sales (which aren't a big deal) so that you understand that they're not a big deal.