How do I enter stock sale with no cost basis or acquisition date?

[beckert1104]

I sold a 20+ yearl old stock that I received as a gift. I don’t have the exact date of acquisition nor the cost basis and it is not possible to get the info for that. Federal tax has been withheld for the proceeds. How do I report the cost/basis?

[DS30]

If you do not have an acquisition date or basis, you can use "0" for the basis and put "Various" for the acquisition date. (Just make sure that you indicate that this was a long-term capital transaction so that you get the long-term capital gains rate.)

However, you should try to determine a basis amount because this will lower your overall gain on the sale.

You may want to ask the selling broker to search records for clues to help determine basis and when acquired. If the investment was a gift, perhaps a relative got the same gift and has records that show a purchase date.

If those options don’t work, you may have to make an educated guess about when the stock was purchased. You can do that by going to the company’s website or Yahoo Finance to find historical high and low prices for that period. (They should be adjusted for any splits.)

[beckert1104]

Thanks for your help. No relative got the same gift, unfortunately. I was able to figure out the price of the stocks at their launch date. Could I just use this as cost basis. I will probably still report a higher gain than I actually made, but it will still be better than putting in a "0" as cost basis. Is that reasonable and would make sense? Thanks so much

[DS30]

Yes you can use that as the cost basis.

[ann481]

I have sold stock that i can not find cost basis for.  It was inherited in 1999......banks merged, certificates were issued for the stock and then stock became publicly traded in 2019..  I have contacted all banks involved and they have no answer.  How do I report this?  Do  I just choose the value of the certificate dated December 2006?  

[RobertB4444]

The value of the stock when you inherited it in 1999 is the actual cost basis.  If you can figure out the value of the shares from that year and the date of death of the person that you inherited the stock from you're all set.

@ann481