@Anonymous
Appreciate the response.
My father will be reporting this stock gift, because in 2019 he also transferred more than $15k from a savings account to me for the purposes of Medi-Cal planning.
Does this change anything, that the IRS will have a record of his gift of the 20 shares of $VOO, and the date they were gifted?
In your opinion, should I still use the date he purchased the shares (10/18/2018) on Form 8949 for "Date Acquired", and not the date they were gifted (11/27/2019)?
If so, how would you interpret the two links below? I'm hoping you're correct, because if I have to use the 11/27/2019 date, I'm concerned it would make the stock sale look like a STCG, when it's a LTCG, and also that it wouldn't match the "Acquired Date" on the 1099-B reported to the IRS.
https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i8949
"Enter in this column the date you acquired the property. Enter the trade date for stocks and bonds you purchased on an exchange or over-the-counter market."
"If you received a Form 1099-B (or substitute statement), box 1b may help you determine when you acquired the property."
https://www.moneycrashers.com/tax-form-8949-instructions/
"Date Acquired. This is the date that you purchased or were given the property."
Regarding the IRS link, I "acquired" the property on 11/27/19 by gift, and Moneycrashers is saying to use the date the property was given.
I understand the cost basis is the donor's, and that determination of STCG vs LTCG is done by the donor's purchase date. But the two links above about the 8949, in particular Moneycrasher's (the IRS quote could possibly be interpreted as not addressing gifts), seem to suggest using the gift date for column (b).
Perhaps the gift date should only be used if the donor's purchase date isn't known?
Thanks for any clarity you can provide.
