Can you help us determine and report the cost basis for securities? Need to correct a return to reflect this. Was for child education fund.

[Critter]

Your question makes no sense .... did you liquidate or take distributions from  a 529 plan ?  If so was the plan invested in the market ?   If not then what do you need cost basis for ? Was the sale reported on a 1099-B?

[Hal_Al]

What does "Was for child education fund" mean?

Generally, the original  cost of shares in a Qualified Tuition plan (QTP) ("529 plan") are ignored. Instead, the plan tracks your original contributions.  Essentially, what you contribute is your basis, and the rest is earnings.  The plan tracks it for you. When you take money out (a distribution), the plan administrator will issue you an IRS form 1099-Q. The total distribution will be in box 1. Box 2 will be the earnings and box 3 your pro-rated cost basis.

For example: your contributed $20,000, a few years ago. The plan is now worth $100,000. So, 20% of that $100K  is basis and 80% earnings.  This year, if you take out $10K,  $2,000 will be treated as basis and $8,000 as earnings.

[Hal_Al]

On the other hand, if your "child education fund" was just a regular brokerage account, whether in your name or his:

Unknown cost basis

You have to report the sale on your tax return. Lacking any cost basis, the IRS will consider the entire sale amount as taxable. So, you need to make your best effort to determine the original cost basis, even if (worst case) it's a guess. Historical prices of publicly traded stocks are  readily available on the internet and should, at least, satisfy the IRS that your basis wasn't zero; just "google" “Historical Stock Prices". I use http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/historical/.

The stockholder relations dept. at the company may be able to help.