How to include brokerage commission fee in cost basis in RSU sale

[S8NpTl]

I used the RSU workflow to calculate my gains from my sold RSUs.

The box 1e I manually calculated and entered since my broker doesn't include the cost basis. The sell contains multiple vest lots, and the RSU workflow then calculates the cost basis from the vest prices of the shares for all the lots. The RSU workflow is only deriving at $50 by adding up all my vested shares and their vest price and I can't find a place add the brokerage commission fee to the cost basis. How do I rectify my cost to include the my brokerage commission fee?

There's an option to select an adjustment here later on:

I can adjust here but when I check the 8949 form I see $50 as the cost basis and an adjustment of $-5. While the math checks out is this the correct way to include the fee? I thought fees are supposed to be included in the cost basis.

TLDR tried to enter cost basis in RSU workflow but it's not letting me adjust the cost basis to include the brokerage commission fee, what should I do?

Thank you!

[RaifH]

It looks like you are using Desktop, if done in this way, you can enter the fees separately:

1. Report Box 1e, the cost, as it appears on your 1099-B. If it is blank, enter 0. Hit Continue and Done on the next screen, assuming there's no information in the less common items screen.
2. Enter Yes, this is stock that was acquired through an employee stock plan on the next screen Was this sale of employee stock?
3. Select RSU
4. Enter the employer and sale information
5. In the Enter Vesting Information you can enter Purchase Commissions or Fees Paid in the bottom field. 

In the end, it will be reported in the same manner, with a negative adjustment with Code B for the commission. This will get rid of Code O, which is for a miscellaneous adjustment. 

[S8NpTl]

Hi thank you for the reply.

I'm assuming you're meaning the "purchase fee paid" here:

Here it's suggested it's a commission/fee paid when your share vested. My commission fee was when I sold the RSUs, and not when the RSUs vested (purchased). This window shows up for every lot in the sale, which was why I felt it's not the right place to enter the fee.

For some more context I had one time sale which contains multiple lots, for each lot this window shows up. If I enter the selling fee, I can only enter in one of the lot, which doesn't feel right to me.

[DianeW777 · Accepted solution]

The key is to have the commissions paid to sell the stock as part of the cost basis so that you do not pay tax on that much money.  An accurate reflection of the net income is what is important.

You can choose to add a portion to each individual lot until you have included the full amount, or you can edit to include it in one of the sales transactions.  Keep all of your documentation so that you know how you arrived at the totals on your tax return for your RSU vested cost and sales information. 

[S8NpTl]

Thank you for the explanation!