COST OR OTHER BASIS MISSING ON FORM 1099-B

[jhuizar15]

NEED HELP FIGURING OUT WHAT TO DO IF NO INFO IS PROVIDED

[Anita01]

what is the asset sold?  stock?  and how did you acquire it?

[jhuizar15]

it was a mutual fund that my mom set up for me a long time ago. and i sold it all and closed it. i called the bank and they don't have record for the cost or other basis on this specific sell

[jhuizar15]

everything else has the required information, just this one sell does not

[jhuizar15]

it is a mrs massachusetts in vectors growth stock fund class a

[jhuizar15]

mfs*

they don't have the information for when it was acquired or the "cost or other basis" it was all the other information but that

[jhuizar15]

has* all

[Anita01 · Accepted solution]

The mutual fund itself should be sending you statements showing the shares you owned and any cost basis they have for you.  If they don't have anything for you, you'll have to do the best you can to estimate a cost or else enter zero and pay tax on the full amount of proceeds from the sale.

To estimate the cost can be pretty difficult, especially if it had dividends reinvested over the years.

You would have to determine when you think the original purchase was made and see if you can find a price for the fund around that time by searching for historical prices online.  If you have shares that came form dividend reinvestment, you could cost those shares at the average price of the fund during the years the shares were held.

If this is a small amount of money, it may not be worth your time to do anything but use a zero.

If your mother could help you , that would be convenient but not always possible.  Maybe, though, your mother kept some papers showing when she bought the fund.

[jhuizar15]

what is the formula or how can i best estimate knowing the quantity and proceeds

[Anita01]

See my added info above

[MarkInCollegeParkMD]

I just wanted to say thank you @Anita01 Anita01 for your suggestion. Like the other @jhuizar15 , I have an MFS mutual fund I sold and the cost basis was blank, it was set up by my grandmother probably 35 years ago.  I put in $100 - I know it was more than that (probably $1000) but I don't want to overestimate. Once I put in $100, my state and federal tax owed did go down a little bit, ~ $15.

[Filly]

Thanks!  Zero it is!!!