cost basis unknown

[cher52]

regarding 1099-B for the deceased......my brokerage co does not know the cost basis and I have no records except that I see dividends have been paid for many years even going back to an old 2008 1040 tax return  that I found...brokerage only knows when the acct was created, no prior history.....should I use the acct creation value for cost basis....(might go back to 1994) or any suggestions...

[IsabellaG]

If you are preparing a tax return for a deceased person, you may in fact have to go back to the account creation value for the cost basis of the shares, unless you have any better information. Where the dividends reinvested? If so, that would be added to the cost basis of the shares. You are limited to what you can actually establish as the cost basis. If you know when the shares were purchased, you might be able to establish basis from historical prices of those shares. 

See this TurboTax Help Article.

If it's you that inherited the shares and then sold them, your cost basis is the fair market value of the shares as of the date of death.

[Mike9241]

if you inherited the stock the starting point is the number of shares the descendant held on their date of death and the fair market value on that date. if all the dividends were reinvested after that date, then it's the amount of the dividends paid