Understanding Cost Basis

When you sell an investment, you’re likely to incur either a capital gain or loss. If the investment was held in a taxable account, you could expect a capital gain to increase your tax bill and a loss may decrease it. As a result, it’s important to understand cost basis, which is a key factor in determining gains and losses.

Cost basis is generally the original value of a security—usually the purchase price plus any fees and commissions—adjusted for stock splits, nondividend distributions (return of capital), and other corporate actions.

Your capital gain or loss is equal to the difference between the asset’s cost basis and the sales price of the closing transaction.

Over several years, the IRS phased in regulations that require financial institutions to track and report cost basis information. Securities falling under these regulations are referred to as “covered securities.” The effective dates of covered securities are:

For sales transactions involving noncovered securities, assets purchased and held prior to these effective dates, financial institutions report only gross proceeds. It’s the investor’s responsibility to report the proper cost basis on noncovered security transactions on their tax returns.

A tax-lot relief method is used to determine which lots of a security are liquidated first in a given sales transaction. In turn, it helps identify the cost basis and holding period of the asset sold.

A number of tax-lot relief methods are available for you to choose from. In addition, the IRS requires all firms to establish a default tax-lot relief method in the event a client does not designate his or her own specific method. Wells Fargo Advisors uses the First In, First Out (FIFO) tax-lot relief method as its default.

Here’s how FIFO works:

Say you purchased 50 shares of ABC Company in January and another 25 shares in June. In July of the following year, you decided to sell 20 shares. Using the FIFO method, the first 20 shares you purchased (of the original 50) would be sold, and your cost basis (and profit or loss and holding period) would be determined based on those shares.

Along with choosing your own tax-lot relief method, you can designate a specific tax lot for a given transaction. In the example above, you could have specified that 20 of the shares you purchased in June be sold, even if your chosen method would have specified different shares be liquidated first.

You should consult your tax advisor to determine the best tax-lot relief method for your needs.

Once a specific tax lot has been sold, federal tax regulations prohibit any changes after settlement date so cost basis information your investment firm reports for a covered security can be matched to the cost basis information you report on your federal income tax return.

The revised regulations also brought changes to:

• Account transfers
• Corporate action reporting
• Wash sale reporting
• Short sale reporting
• S Corporation reporting
• Tax forms

For information about these changes, contact a Wells Fargo Advisors financial advisor.

• Talk to your financial advisor and tax advisor about your choices regarding tax-lot relief methods.
• If you need more information, contact a Wells Fargo Advisors financial advisor.

Wells Fargo & Company and its affiliates do not provide tax or legal advice. This communication cannot be relied upon to avoid tax penalties. Please consult your tax and legal advisors to determine how this information may apply to your own situation. Whether any planned tax result is realized by you depends on the specific facts of your own situation at the time your tax return is filed.