Selling stocks

[Steven Hamrick]

Selling stocks not knowing what the original purchase price was. Stocks first bought 30 years ago. How do I find The original price of the stocks and to find out to see what the gains or losses are? Not knowing the original date that my deceased father-in-law purchase them . Could not find any paper records when he purchased them.

[rschule1]

Hi There:

Yahoo Finance has great historical data- Please open link below and chose stock symbol, historical data, and date parameters. 

Yahoo Finance 

[TylerH_EA]

In general, if you sold the stock in a brokerage account, the broker should have a record of your original cost basis in the stock. But, if they cannot provide it to you, you will have to come up with a reasonable method to estimate your basis by reviewing the historical prices of the stock nearest to the date of your father-in-law's death. You can perform a quick Google Search using the Ticker symbol of the stock and the year in question  (e.g. AAPL share price in September 1989). 

[Jackstar221]

Hi,

Here is a link to yahoo finance, you can search your stock symbol at the top, click on historical data, then filter by historical dates. https://finance.yahoo.com/ 

You will need to multiply the shares acquired by the share price at or around the closing date that your purchased that stock.

You can also ask your brokerage company advisor to see if they have the data.

Please call TurboTax at 1-800-446-8848 if you have further questions.

Thank you,

John

CPA

[rjs · Accepted solution]

If you (or your spouse) inherited the stocks from your father-in-law when he passed away, your basis is the market value on the date of his death, not the amount that he paid when he purchased them.

For inherited stock, all of the gains or losses are long-term, regardless of how long you or your father-in-law actually owned them.

So if you inherited the stocks, the date that your father-in-law purchased them, and the price that he paid, don't matter. You don't need to know that information.