calculating stock basis - problems with applying FIFO

You could have *if* you had made that identification *at or before the time of the sale*. You can't do it after the fact and so you are required to use FIFO.

Start reconstructing your records. Look for your statements, ask your broker for copies of your statements, rack your brain as to when you might have bought the stocks and look up their historical prices for around those times, etc.

-- Rich Carreiro snipped-for-privacy@animato.arlington.ma.us

If you want to use specific identification, you have to select the shares at the time you submit the sell order. You have to tell your broker which shares to sell, and get a written confirmation from him of the share selection. You CANNOT select the shares after the fact. If you don't identify the shares at the time of the sale then you MUST use FIFO, and have to do your best to determine the cost basis of the oldest shares. If you know the date you purchased the shares, but not the exact price you paid, you can use a historical quotes web site to find the price on that date.

-- Barry Margolin, snipped-for-privacy@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA