Sold previous employer’s RSU because merged,1099-B didn’t report the basis,those RSUs were included in my W-2s in each vested year.Were those incomes the RSUs basis?

[Cor2meidaizi]

All my previous employer’s RSUs were cash out merger.The 1099-B didn’t report the basis because I got those RSUs over than 10 years,looking back my previous W-2s found those RSUs were included in my W-2s wages in each vested year.Were those incomes the RSUs basis?

All the RSUs were cash out in 2018,could I sum of all the numbers of W-2s RSUs incomes reporting as the total basis?because I really cannot figure out what were their dates and prices accured.

[LinaJ2018 · Accepted solution]

Yes, that income on your-2 is the same as the basis of your RSUs.  

Yes, you can sum up all the W-2s' incomes as the total basis.  The way how RSU's work is you should only pay taxes once, which is the amount included in box 1 on your W-2.  However, if you receive a Form 1099-B, you need to report so to match IRS' records.  Your per share basis should be the same as the per share FMV selected the employer.  To avoid double taxation, you will enter the same amount in cost basis and the sale proceeds so it will create a net zero.  

[Cor2meidaizi]

Actually those were RSAs,what’s different between RSUs and RSAs?
There’re two brokerages worked for the company stock plan,the one had reported the basis for the RSAs granted ,but it doesn’t reflect how much total income I paid for previous tax return.Could I correct the 1099-B basis into the total W-2s RSAs incomes?

[LinaJ2018]

Please see <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/3270380-what-s-the-difference-between-restricted-stock-and-a-restr...> and <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1901179-what-is-restricted-stock-and-how-is-it-taxed">https://ttlc...

[TomYoung]

I'm going to disagree with TurboTaxlina, MST, EA that adding up the income created by the vesting is the correct basis for your sale of the employer stock.

There's only one way that this would work out correctly and that would be the case if you never sold a share of that stock, not "for taxes" or otherwise and still owned all the shares contained in those grants.  Since the vesting creates compensation and since compensation requires "withholding" the most common was of getting the cash "for taxes" is to sell some of the stock simultaneously with the vesting - a "same day" sale.  I'm pretty certain that's how the cash for taxes was raised in your case by your reference to the 1099-B that did report basis but that basis didn't match the income reported.  If an RSA vests for 100 shares but you only end up with 70 shares because 30 shares were sold or withheld for taxes, then the W-2 figure will be larger than the 1099-B figure as the former is based on 100 shares and the latter is based on 70 shares.

For each vesting your per share basis for the stock receive is the same as the per share "fair market value" used by the employer to calculate the compensation created by the vesting.  So yes, your basis IS depended on the amount included in Box 1 for the vesting, but unless you paid your taxes by reaching into your own pocket and passing the cash over to the employer it's not the SAME AS that Box 1 income amount.

Tom Young

[Cor2meidaizi]

I agreed to your comment about my RSA sold.I finally figured out those RSAs compensation incomes were reported in W-2s when it vested,it should hold some shares for tax,because in the end sum up the total RSAs sold were much less than how many it vested.Before the Cash out Merger I only made one transaction that sold in 2012 while I left that company ,but back then I reported the Cost Basis provided by broker,not the compensation income.So now,I would sum up the Total of
W-2s RSA incomes,subtract the Cost Basis amount reported in my 2012 Form 1040,then get the results as the Total Cost Basis for this Cash out Merger transaction in 2018.Does it make sense?