I sold 2 stocks in 2021 that were executed by my broker, TD Ameritrade. I received my 1099-B and the cost basis was blank. The issue is these 2 stocks were transferred from Scottrade. Supposedly they are working on getting the info from their archives for one of them. The issue is the other stock was transferred from yet another broker that managed a previous employer's Employee Stock Purchase Plan that transferred them to Scottrade 2012. Again, TD Ameritrade is attempting to see which broker it came from and transferred to Scottrade. In searching through other discussions on this site, is it common for cost basis info to be lost or not contained by the broker? I would think as a paid broker, they would keep this information i.e. purchased data, price, etc. I am not sure what I am going to do and am thinking I might have to file an extension while I attempt to figure this out. I do realize worse case, I just plug in $0, and away I go.
Questions -
* Is it common for 1099-B to miss cost basis info? As I wrote above, I would think brokers would have this simple info recorded by the broker.
* Is it really the expectation of a person on a Employee Stock Purchase Plan to record all of this information?
* Would approaching my old company assist in figuring this out?
Any help on this, I would greatly appreciate.
* Is it common for 1099-B to miss cost basis info? As I wrote above, I would think brokers would have this simple info recorded by the broker.
Yes it is common. brokers are responsible for reporting your cost (tax) basis only for certain securities. for example, if you bought a MLP, the broker would not receive the info necessary to compute your tax basis. they also are not required to track cost basis for securities bought before 2011. they are not responsible or tracking cost basis for securiteies transferred from other brokers. frequently what they show is the FMV on date of receipt which is not an accurate cost basis.
* Is it really the expectation of a person on a Employee Stock Purchase Plan to record all of this information?
yes, it is the taxpayer's responsibility for reporting correct cost (tax) basis
* Would approaching my old company assist in figuring this out?
yes. you have niothuiing to lose