Only your company may have the full records that you need. Starting in 2011, brokers were required to track the basis for you - for covered shares. You will need to reconstruct your basis. Follow these steps:
- Find the purchase dates - paystubs, w2s, maybe an employment contract. Contact your employer for help- they might surprise you or have no records at all.
- You will have to use historical price tools to find the price of the stock on the dates you found.
- Watch out for stock splits. For example, 100 shares became 200 shares but the price per share was cut in half, so the basis is the same, despite the shares changing.
- Finally, the average price method will work if you know you purchased the same say $100/month of stock for x years. You can take the average price over that x time period and apply it to the total shares.
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