Thanks for responding. The original 280 shares were May Department Store shares not Macy's In 2005, Federated bought May Dept Stores and issued stock and cash (.3115 shares in Federated and $17.75 cash for each May share) which resulted in me receiving 87 shares of Federated stock. I believe Macy's did a 2:1 split after 2007 which gave me the 174 shares.
I have seen some online answers that say the same as you, the basis for the Federated/Macy stock is the 87 shares from the merger @ 69/share or $6003. These were more recent posts within the last 5 years or so. I have also seen some calculations on line for mergers that suggest I use the original basis from the May Dept store stock prior to 2005; they were originally bought in 1987. These posts were older, more than 15 years ago. I don't know if tax laws changed since those posts.?? Using the basis from the value after the merger for the 87 shares, as you have suggested, is much more advantageous for me as it results in a loss since I only received $3664 from the sale of Macy stock in 2023
