Do I really really have to keep track of wash sales?

I had a similar issue when looking at shares sold at a loss when shares were being purchased as part of a stock dividend reinvestment. Similar, I rationalized that the percent was so small, purchased shares less than

1% of shares sold, that the paperwork and tracking of proper wash sales accounting made no sense. It would have negated my taking about $50 of a $5000 loss at the time. I decided to risk it, trusting that coming after me for the $15 difference is not what they are going after, and long term, it would cancel out. That said, no one here should advise you to ignore preparing proper returns. Joe

What you could do, if you don't mind potentially paying a tiny bit more tax down the line, is declare the wash sale properly on this year's taxes, so that the $50 loss is negated. But don't bother to keep track of it, i.e. don't add the $50 to the cost basis of the replacement shares.

The consequence is that if you eventually sell the replacement shares, you'll pay tax on $50 of capital gains that you could have avoided. It's probably only going to be about $10, if capital gains rates stay as they are.