How do I report ESPP sale without a form 3922

[redtees]

I sold ESPP shares last year that were purchased back in the 90's. I don't have the form 3922 that was snail mailed to me back then. The current transfer agent who manages the stock doesn't have the form either. I'm stuck on my Turbo Tax page. I can't get past it. It's asking for a lot of required information to be populated like first day of offering period, market price on grant date and market price on purchase date, etc. Is there a way to complete my tax submission without all these specific details?

[Cindy4]

It's possible you may have a supplemental statement from the brokerage.  Another option is to look at your W-2s from the years that you acquired the shares.  The amount reflected in box 14 as ESPP will be the amount included in our income for the year that would count towards your basis in the shares.  This will require a little math on your part based on the number of shares acquired each year and then the resulting sale of those specific shares.  It would be best to reach out to the brokerage.  They should be able to supply you with all of your prior years documents including the 3922 forms.  You could log into their portal and check the "Tax Documents" section and look for prior years there.

Hope this helps!

Cindy

[redtees]

Hi Cindy. I contacted the brokerage firm. Unfortunately they are the 3rd or maybe 4th transfer agent handling the stock for this company. They acquired the responsibility in 2000 and did not require all the details to be transferred from the previous agent. I contacted the previous agent and they said they transferred everything to the new agent. So it's a circular reference. As far as W2's, I do not have my tax returns from the 90s. I purge them after 7 years.

I did a chat last night and TurboTax got these instructions:

To report the sale of ESPP shares purchased between 1993 and 1995 without Form 3922, you can still complete your tax return using TurboTax Live Assisted. Here's what you can do:

1. Enter the ESPP sale information from your brokerage-provided Form 1099-B in TurboTax.
2. TurboTax will guide you through the process and prompt you for any additional information needed to accurately report the sale.
3. If you don't have Form 3922, try to reconstruct the details of the ESPP purchase to the best of your ability.
4. Consider reaching out to a TurboTax Live expert for personalized assistance in handling this situation effectively.

What is "Live Assisted" and are these accurate instructions? Thank you.

[FranklinF]

LIVE ASSISTED
TurboTax Matches You With a Tax Experts Who Understands Your Unique Situation, Guaranteed. Audit Support Guarantee. Tax Experts Available. Import Prior Year's Data.

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As for your earlier engagement, sometimes the 1099-B does NOT accurately reflects the amounts of the transactions, especially the cost basis, which could have you paying more taxes than you should.  As Cindy stated earlier, it may be possible to obtain a supplemental statement from your broker which will make your life way easier.

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[Cindy4]

Hi,

I was going to recommend reaching out to the IRS for their record of the 3922s, but apparently they only keep records about 10 years.  You could look up the Fair Market Value of the stock on the original purchase dates and then reduce it by the discount you received.   The issue is finding the historical data going back that far.  I found this site, but haven't taken the time to see if there is a link here that will go back that far.  https://guides.loc.gov/historical-company-research/stocks.

"Live Assisted" is how you reached the chat agent.  When you click on it, you get the option to chat or receive a call.  The instructions are good, but finding the data to enter will be the challenge so you don't overstate or understate your basis and pay too little or too much in tax on the sale.

Thank you for joining us today!

Cindy

[redtees]

Hi Franklin,

Thank you for the response. Do I need to explain what kind of supplemental statement to request? They understood my situation and did extensive research without offering up a supplemental statement. What would be on such a document so I can be descriptive in my request?

Thank you. Sorry for all the Qs, but this has been lingering since April and it took several months for them to come back to me with, "we've exhausted our options and hit a dead end."

[KarriC]

I thought I'd hop in and answer your follow up question. The supplemental statement includes information that one might need for tax preparation; things like information on foreign income, and in your case, the adjusted basis of your ESPP purchases. 

Since you have already been in contact with the brokerage firm, I highly doubt they would have the supplemental information you need since that's what you asked them for. The cost basis for your ESPP stock would be the actual price paid per share (which is usually below the historical stock price) plus the amount received as compensation income.

Since you don't have access to either the actual price paid per share and the amount received as compensation income, you need to make your best attempt at figuring out the basis since the other option is using "0" as the cost basis, and that doesn't give us the best result.

As Cindy previously mentioned, you can go to a historical stock site to locate the value of the stock on the date it was purchased. She included a link to one resource, here is another, just type your stock symbol in the search bar to find your stock!:
Yahoo Finance Historical Stock Data

If you don't know the dates of when you purchased the stock, again, make your best attempt at figuring these out. I would be very conservative with your estimates. 

I am so sorry you've had this issue, I'm sure you're frustrated with everything needed to report this sale correctly. I believe your best way forward is to find the historical stock price and then reduce it by the discounted percentage, if you can remember what it was. Nowadays, it's often a 15% discount, but the 90's were a while ago!  If all else fails, you can certainly go with a "0" cost basis.