How should I provide date acquired for a sold stock on 1099-B when I purchased stock many years ago, but have reinvested dividends, causing small monthly purchases?

[ccam]

I purchased a number of shares 10+ years ago.  The dividends were reinvested so small amounts were purchased every month.  In 2017 I sold some shares.  Should I use the original date of purchase, or some pro-rated amount, or just enter 'Various'?

[TomYoung · Accepted solution]

I assume that you know your history of costs associated with the original purchase and the dividends reinvested.

Unless you specified to your broker that you wanted to use something other than the default FIFO basis to determine the basis for your sale, FIFO is what you use.

If the number of shares sold was less than that initial purchase then use the original date of purchase and whatever per share amount is appropriate.

If the number of shares sold was more than that initial purchase and the sales category used by the broker is "Box E" then starting with the initial purchase, move "forward" in time collecting shares and costs until you accumulate the number of shares sold and the associated basis.  In this situation "various" will work just fine.  In this same situation if the broker reports that the holding period is unknown then, basically, any date that's more than 1 year before the date of sale would work, but I'd probably just stick with that initial purchase date.

Tom Young