Wash sales again

I am not a tax professional, just an investor. :-)

Yes, the reinvestments are really two transactions: a) You are paid a dividend. b) You (or really the investment company on your behalf) buys more shares. So it is a purchase.

And a very pernicious one, as typically it is for a relatively small amount and yet triggers all of the wash sale accounting headaches.

The rule is a repurchase within 30 days before or after the sale. So you need to wait until after May 4th, as April only has 30 days.

But I do wonder why you are trying so hard to precisely time this. I don't expect that the two months of interest will amount to that much relative to the bond price. It looks like the yield is less than

They do count.

Right -- that's what I want to avoid.

Not so much "to precisely time" as just a desire to have it over with. I have low tolerance for unfinished business, so having this pending until the first week of May is not ideal. But letting myself in for all the wash-sale accounting would be even less pleasant.

BTW, I need to sell some BND and buy more stock fund as part of rebalancing because while stocks and bonds have fallen, stocks have fallen much further. Rebalancing essentially lets me take advantage of a "sale" on the stock fund.

A time will probably come when I need to buy BND to get back into balance, but I doubt that time will be before the wash-sale window ends.

Thanks for confirming.

According to Stan Brown <the_stan snipped-for-privacy@fastmail.fm:

If your accounts are held at Vanguard, they will recognize the wash sale and do the basis adjustments. BTDT.

You only have a wash sale adjustment for as long as you hold the "substantially identical" stock. Even if you purchased new shares on March 4, as long as you sell ALL your investment in this or "substantially identical" stock (even if at a loss, even if within 30 days of that purchase), and no longer hold ANY shares of that stock ANYwhere (in taxable or tax-deferred accounts), you do not have any wash sales to worry about (see the definition of wash sales). So if you sell ALL, you can sell on March 5.

Maria U. Ku, CPA Oakland, CA

I think the issue here is that the same security is owned in multiple accounts. Selling all the shares in one account doesn't eliminate the possibility of creating a wash sale through the activity in another account owned by the same individual. Should the "wash sale" include the acquisition of replacement shares in a retirement account, you lose the loss permanently.

Ira Smilovitz, EA Leonia, NJ