What if I cannot determine the cost basis of a stock I sold what do I do?

[chuck233]

I purchased a stock in the 1990s through an investment house no longer in operation. Several investment houses have held the stock for me. I have no record and cannot get any from the stock company or investment houses on the cost basis. What do I do?

[FaithY · Accepted solution]

You can Go online for historical stock prices For example, the historical section at Marketwatch or Nasdaq. It's generally acceptable to take the lowest and highest price from a given day and average them to arrive at a cost basis. These free services may not include events that affect basis, such as reinvested dividends, spin-offs and stock splits.

Alternatively, you could enter nothing for your cost basis, since you don't have any records and can't get any information from the stock company or the investment houses, but you would be paying more tax.

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