Help please. When I retired in 2019 from My 25 years I had to move all my company stock out of the employee stock purchase plan. I had been buying the stock thru payroll deduction for about 22 of the 25 years I was there. I had an account with Scoottrade/Ameritrade so I contacted them about moving the account to them Everything got moved and I was good--I thought. In Jan.2020 We decided to get my wife a new car and I sold some of that stock, about $34,000. As I was looking at my account today I noticed that it showed my stock basis for that stock to be $0.00 with a gain of $34,000 so I think I may be screwed on my taxes because of this. I started buying the stock when it was $12.00 a share and it was around $1000.00 when I left the co. so I don't know exactly what my basis should have been but I know it wasn't $0.00. Is there any way I can fix this so that I won't owe as much in taxes now or in the future?
Stock basis
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pb4uski
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You are not stuck with using a zero basis... it is just that Scottrade has no idea what your basis is. Your former employer might be able to help... they "may" have records of what you bought and when and therefore your basis... or alternatively what the annual withholdings from your paycheck were (I'm assuming that you are not one of those rare people who kept everything for the last 22 years). The reality is that you'll have to cobble it together as best you can.
You started buying stock before brokerages were required to track the cost basis of your shares, so the broker that was keeping them for your company probably just sent over $0 records to Ameritrade when they transferred the account. (I'm actually kind of surprised that they transferred the account for you. When DH retired, Morgan Stanley refused to send his ESPP shares to our main broker because of the tax reporting requirements. They would only send his RSUs.)
If you did not save the tax docs that your company sent you each time you made an ESPP purchase, then you might be able to get some info from your former broker or former employer about how many shares were purchased for you on each date. You can also use a site like Yahoo Finance to help construct the price data you'll need to figure out what portion of your sale is ordinary income vs capital gain. Either way your 1099-B will be incorrect, because your current broker doesn't have access to the info they need to calculate your cap gains, so you'll have to enter the corrected info on your tax return.
This article has some good examples of the calculations: https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/investments-and-taxes/employee-stock-purchase-plans/L8NgMFpFX
If you did not save the tax docs that your company sent you each time you made an ESPP purchase, then you might be able to get some info from your former broker or former employer about how many shares were purchased for you on each date. You can also use a site like Yahoo Finance to help construct the price data you'll need to figure out what portion of your sale is ordinary income vs capital gain. Either way your 1099-B will be incorrect, because your current broker doesn't have access to the info they need to calculate your cap gains, so you'll have to enter the corrected info on your tax return.
This article has some good examples of the calculations: https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/investments-and-taxes/employee-stock-purchase-plans/L8NgMFpFX
Few members above gave you good advices. I had 2 company ESPP shares, and both HR have kept all data of cost base, issue dates. So, if your company is well organized, you may just need to reach out to HR and ask them to send you a spreadsheet.
In my case, though I have detail records saved, after few stock split, and up/down swing of stock prices after issue dates, I can no longer reconcile the number of shares kept, and their current values.
I plan to eventually liquidate most of the shares when I do have the ability to reconcile with HR records, and I will leave the rest (smaller chunk) to heirs. They will have a step up cost base to make things a little easier.
In my case, though I have detail records saved, after few stock split, and up/down swing of stock prices after issue dates, I can no longer reconcile the number of shares kept, and their current values.
I plan to eventually liquidate most of the shares when I do have the ability to reconcile with HR records, and I will leave the rest (smaller chunk) to heirs. They will have a step up cost base to make things a little easier.
