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CostBasis.com


for all your cost basis questions
What is cost basis?  It is the term used for the tax cost of an asset.  It usually starts out as the purchase price (plus commissions and fees) but "stuff" happens that can cause your basis to change.  Things called corporate actions can occur such as stock spinoffs, mergers, splits, split-offs, rights,  or return of capital, all of which affect your cost basis.  These are also called corporate reorg (reorganization) actions.  Did you know that class action claim checks and even a corporate headquarters move (change of domicile) can affect your cost basis? 
 
Totally confused?  Keep reading and we will help you out.


Some recent additions to our calculators:

Spinoff  Calculator:
Baxalta 
Care Capital Properties
CareTrust REIT
Covetrus
Halyard Health
New Senior
NorthStar Asset Mgmt
Paypal Holdings
Rayonier Adv Matls
Resideo
Remy International 
Seventy Seven Energy
South32
Talen Energy
Tegna (Gannett)
Theravance BioPharma
Veritiv
Viatris
Vista Outdoor
Washington Prime Grp

Cash to Boot:
Aetna
Baxalta
BRE Properties Inc.
CareFusion Corp
Conversant 
Covidien plc
DirecTV
ESB Financial
Express Scripts 
Family Dollar
GGP Inc
Integrys
Johnson Controls
Kraft Foods Group
Lender Processing 
Pharmacyclics
Questcor
Rockwood Holdings
Tim Hortons

Other Calculators:
Baxalta Inc split-off
Carrier Global split-up
Civeo domicile change
Coty Inc split-off
Deutsche Bank rights
Express Scripts redemption
Liberty Broadband rights
Medtronic domicile 
NetScout split-off
Otis Worldwide split-up
Praxair stock merger
Synchrony split-off
Time Warner Cable partial
TRI Pointe split-off
United Tech split-up
Zoetis split-off
GLD 
IAU
PALL
PPLT
SGOL
SLV
SIVR

We explain in plain English the events that can affect your cost basis and the steps you need to take to calculate it.  We give you ideas for questions to ask and where to go to find 
the information you need. 
 
Why do we even care about cost basis?  Because you are going to need to know it when you sell the asset.  The taxable capital gain will be the difference between the selling price and your cost basis. The higher the cost basis, the less capital gain tax you will have to pay.

Business Cartoon by Ted Goff
Your cost basis depends upon your answers to the following questions:

• How did you acquire it?  Did you buy it, inherit it, receive a gift, or receive a distribution from an  IRA,  a 401k, or a  trust ?

• Are you required to amortize bond premiums or accrete bond discounts and what method are you allowed to use? 

Stock Lookup Tool
Stock Lookup Tool (click on picture)

You can follow us on Twitter to be notified when major corporate actions have been added to our calculators.
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 •  What kind of bond or note do you  own -- taxable or tax-exempt?

•  Did you reinvest dividends?
 
•  Did you own a stock previously and sell it at a loss in a "wash sale"?
•   Did you sell stock that you received as a gift at a gain or a loss?

• Were there any splits, corporate reorganizations, spinoffs, split-ups, or split-offs?
 
• Did your stock undergo a corporate merger for all stock, all cash, or with "cash to boot"? 

• Did you invest in bitcoin, ethereum, or other crypto currencies that forked?

• Did you own a stock that had return of capital payments?

•  Did you receive a capital gain allocation?





• Did you receive multiple securities in a merger and how do you determine cost basis for each one?
 
• Did you receive a liquidation distribution from a company?
 
• Did your company move to a foreign country through a corporate inversion?


• Is your investment a "covered security" under the new cost basis reporting rules for Form 1099 reports and what default method did you choose?
 
•  Did you receive bankruptcy proceeds from a stock or bond  in the form of multiple new securities (e.g. GM/Motors Liquidation Corp) or in cash (e.g. Lehman Bros Holdings Inc)?  
 
•  Did the company make a "deemed redemption" distribution to you?

• Were you required or did you elect to allocate part of your cost basis to
 stock rights  that you received?

• Did the bond, unit trust, or mortgage-backed security (e.g. "
GNMA's") you
 owned make any "return of principal" payments?

• Did you acquire the investment from a related party, such as a family member?

• Did you receive shares when an insurance company
demutualized?


• Did you deduct depletion expense on an oil royalty trust?
 
• Did you report income or receive distributions from a master limited partnership?
 
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• Did you deduct depreciation, make improvements, or claim tax credits on your personal residence?
   
• Do you have any "investment in the contract" for tax-deferred annuities?

 
• What expenses did your Commodity ETF holding gold or silver bullion incur? 
 
• How do the tax rules for the Exchange-Traded Products (ETPs) impact your cost basis?

Click on the navigation tabs above for your type of investment security (stocks, other assets, bonds, mutual funds, etc.) for help with these questions and for more information.

Information provided is intended solely for cash-basis U.S. citizen individual taxpayers and is believed to be accurate for most cases but is not guaranteed. Always consult your personal tax advisor about your own situation. Suggestions are most welcome. Please email our webmaster @ costbasis.com with your comments.   If this website has been helpful to you, please consider making a donation to support our efforts.

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What is the cost basis of my investment?