I need help with a strange tax situation.?
Question:
1. I don't have record of the purchase price. Is the broker required to keep records for this long and are they required to give me info if I ask? If I can't find out the price is there something I can do?
2. How do I take the loss on the bankrupt company? Can I just write the sell price as 0?
Answer:
On your second question, yes, you show the selling price as zero. Here's info from the IRS:
I own stock which became worthless last year. Can I take a bad debt deduction on my tax return?
If you own securities and they become totally worthless, you can take a deduction for a loss, but not for a bad debt.
The worthless securities are treated as though they were capital assets sold on the last day of the tax year if they were capital assets in your hands. Report worthless securities on Form 1040, Schedule D (PDF), in Part 1 or 2 depending on whether you held the stock short term and write "Worthless."In the applicable column of Schedule D. For additional information, refer to Chapter 4 of Publication 550, Investment Income and Expenses (Including Capital Gains and Losses). For more information on bad debts, refer to Tax Topic 453, Bad Debt Deduction.
References:
Publication 550, Investment Income and Expenses (Including Capital Gains and Losses)
Form 1040, Schedule D (PDF), Capital Gains and Losses
Tax Topic 453, Bad Debt Deduction
On the first, it wouldn't hurt to ask the broker for the purchase price, although they may not have it. If the certificates were dated at the time the stock was purchased (as opposed to the date the account was closed), you can search for the historical stock price and estimate your basis that way.
Whoa... Too complicated for my simple brain. system overloaded.
talk to an accountant.
You should talk to an accountant, but in general.
1. I don't think the broker needs to keep records for that long, but if they do, there's no reason they won't give them to you. At times when I couldn't find the price I paid for a security, I estimated based on when I remember buying it and the stock price at the time--don't know if that's 100% legit or not--be sure to do it honestly.
2. You generally can only take a loss on a bankrupt company in the year it goes bankrupt. Just write in 'worthless' as the sell price. For the second company (the one that's still trading but basically worthless), as long as there's any market in the securities, you do have to sell them before you can take the loss.
More Questions & Answers...