I had stock in TIME and TimeWarner TWX (long history starting with purchase of NetScape NSCP in 1998). These got sold in 2018 and TWX was acquired by ATT.
The stock sales for TIME and TWX got reported in 4 categories on my 1099-B (TD Ameritrade):
- Short-term covered
- Long-term covered
- Long-term noncovered
- Undetermined term noncovered
I understand what covered (broker calculates and reports cost basis) and noncovered (they don't report cost basis means.
I have a spreadsheet showing every share purchase, reinvestment, split and spin-off going all the way back to the original NSCP purchase.
#1: I can duplicate the quantities they report for #1 Short-term covered by adding up the reinvestment share purchase quantities going back to the 6/16/2017 reinvestment purchase. For TIME, their reported cost basis matches my spreadsheet total of the cost of those shares going back to 6/16/2017. For TWX, their reported cost basis ($157.46) is much different that my calculation of the actual cost of those shares ($305.83).
#2: From that point on, it gets super murky. I can't duplicate their number of shares in the Long-term covered lots. Brokerages were supposed to start tracking cost basis on 1/1/2011 for stocks (or 1/1/2012 for stock reinvestment).
- the reported Long-Term covered share quantity for TWX is 17.789 with their reported cost basis $298.75.
- If I sum up the reinvestment shares before the short term and back to 3/16/11 div reinvestment, I end up with 18.705 shares. If I only go back to 6/16/2011, I get 17.831 shares.
- This is close but not exactly equal so I can't figure out how they ended up with their number of LT covered shares.
- Also, if I take my closest share number (17.831) and add up the actual total cost to purchase those, it is wildly different: $1082.21 (vs 298.75).
I didn't go any further since it seems totally off, so am wondering if anybody can point me in the right direction so I can get numbers to report for my Noncovered Lots in categories #3 and #4!
