You have to go back to your brokers' statements to see if you can find the information. If you can't find the basis, it defaults to zero.
Thank you Coleen! My brokers statement does not have the date acquired or the cost basis columns filled out. Is there any way to figure it out if those are blank?
Try calling your broker. They may be able to look up the information for you.
However if the info is not included in your statement, it’s possible they don’t have it because the security was not purchased through them, but transferred in.
Otherwise, there are many sites on the Internet where you can look up a company or mutual fund’s dividend history and calculate the amounts yourself.
if you didn't keep accurate records of the price and share amount of a reinvested dividend.
then the broker doesn't know and neither do you.
only dividends before 2011 are in this situation.
after that, the brokerage or fund has to track this for you.
since it is FIFO, you need some estimation of how many pre-2011 shares you bought.
How difficult is it to calulcate if you have the dividend history?
If I knew how many shares were bought through reinvestment pre-2011; how do you figure out cost basis with that?
You have to go back and add every dollar that was added to the original purchase price every time there was a reinvestment. Depending on your tax bracket, since much of it is long-term, it may not be worth the bother.