If you received your MetLife stock due to their demutualization then the IRS's position is that your basis in that stock is $0. Not everybody agrees with that and courts have split on the question so you might want to do some research to determine how you want to handle this.
The spinoff of Brighthouse was a tax free spinoff and when a company is spun out of another company in a tax free spin off
then you allocate your basis in the original stock between your original
holdings and your new holdings in proportion to their values
immediately after the spin off. The recommended percentage allocation
in this case is 10.3635%, so multiply 10.3635% times your basis in MetLife and that's your basis in
all the Brighthouse stock you received. To calculate the basis of the fractional share you sold the equation is:
(10.3635% x basis in MetLife) divided by (ALL shares - including fraction - received) times (fraction of share sold)
Further, when a company is spun out
of another company in a tax free spin off then the holding period from
the "old" stock carries over to the "new" stock, so your holding period
also dates back to the year 2000.
So now you have all
the information you need to enter the sale, the same information that
shows up for every single sale of a security on Form 8949.
- Description of what was sold: Brighthouse Financial stock. (You
don't need to indicate how many shares but if you want to, add that in.)
- Date of sale: 8/7/2017
- Proceeds of sale: Cash in lieu amount
- Cost basis: per equation
- Date acquired: 4/7/2000
Tom Young
