Can you move a stock out of an IRA and sell it

No. If you take the stock out of the IRA "in-kind", you reset the cost basis to the FMV on the date of the distribution. So the only loss you could claim would be a further decline in the share price.

Ira Smilovitz, EA Leonia, NJ

No. _Any_ distribution from an IRA is ordinary income and tax is owed on it. (If some contributions to an IRA were after-tax money, then a corresponding proportion of any distributions is non-taxable.)

As a practical matter, I doubt very much that your IRA custodian would "move the stock outside the IRA". Rather, the custodian (or you) would sell the stock, replacing those shares held in the IRA with equivalent money in the IRA. But even if you could transfer the stock as shares from your IRA to another account, it would still be a distribution of the stock, and you'd owe tax on the market value as of the day of the transfer.

Distributions "in-kind" are done all the time. Every broker can do it.

Ira Smilovitz, EA Leonia, NJ

Why isn't the basis zero on those? Or is the market value taxable so its basis is market value for that reason?

Exactly. The FMV of the in-kind distribution is taxable as ordinary income (to the extent that a cash distribution from that IRA would be taxable - ie., you need to consider basis in the IRA). Since it was taxed once on distribution, the value isn't taxed again when the shares are sold.

Ira Smilovitz, EA Leonia. NJ

Are you considering that it might be a Roth IRA and some of that money is yours and can be withdrawn without penalty? Maybe the stock issue makes a difference.

It is not a Roth IRA. The idea is to move it out assuming the cost basis will remain the same since it is under water and sell it to take a loss.

According to D L snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com:

If it's a regular IRA, in the usual situation that all of the contributions were deductible, the cost basis for everything in the IRA is zero. So no, you can't do that. Everything you withdraw is treated as current income, not capital gains.

If some of the contributions were non-deductible, the non-taxable part of a distribution depends on the ratio of the deductible and non-deductible contributions. See pub 590-B:

I suppose there might be situations where it would make sense to take an IRA distribution in kind if you wanted to continue to hold the asset, but in a world of zero brokerage commissions, the benefit compared to selling in the IRA and then repurchasing outside it is hard to see.

Thanks a lot!