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March 21, 2022
Question

Determining Cost Basis Per Employee Purchased Stock Pre 2010

  • March 21, 2022
  • 1 reply
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Hello. The original employee purchased stock did a spinoff of a newly traded public company in November 2021. I was given 1 share in the new company for every 5 of the original. Sounds messy already. I sold all of the shares in the new company in late November 2021. I have been in this employee purchase stock program since 1999. I received a 1099-B with three line items. The 1099-B imports successfully in my TurboxTax software. The one line item that I do not know how to handle has a 'X' code for the 8949 tax form. It had the proceeds from the sale ($1779.00). No values in boxes 1e, 1g, 2, 4 (0.00). Box 5 is checked Non Covered security. Box 12 is not checked - basis not reported to IRS. Box 16 (0.00). I have no way of determining if the proceeds is a gain or a loss.

 

I've reviewed the detailed portion of the 1099-B there is no cost basis information for each of the entries across 5 pages, all fractional shares. I also called the brokerage, the transaction history does not go back far enough (period of being acquired for this 'X' line item is from 1999 through mid 2010; it's all fractional shares (what was given to me in the 1 for 5 deal, see 1st paragraph); and purchased twice a month from 1999 to 2010 for this line item - X code. I have exhausted ways that I know of to possibly determine what the cost basis is - since it's employee purchase program stock at 5% discount at the time.

 

The proceeds is $1779.00. It's seems the more questions I answer in the TurboxTax software the more information the software asks me for - that I don't have any way of providing. And the SmartCheck part of the software keep flagging it and wanting me to provide information for the 8949 form.

 

Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you.

    1 reply

    Employee
    March 21, 2022

    For a discussion of cost basis see https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc703 

    If you have your old paycheck stubs or statements you may be able to find the cost basis on those.  Add them all up and you get your total basis.

    If not, perhaps you can calculate the basis.  https://bigcharts.marketwatch.com lists historical prices for dates going back to 1/03/2000.

    If you have year-end statements, paycheck or investment statements , you may be able to estimate the basis from those, using average prices for the year.

    In any case, if you estimate your basis, I recommend including a note explaining why you used an estimate and how you calculated your estimate.

     

    If you are continuing this stock purchase method, I suggest starting a log of your purchases, quantity, and costs so you can avoid this dilemma in the future.

     

    Perhaps one of the more experienced monitors to this thread will have additional suggestions.