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Wash Sale - Please Help!

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El_Queso

Junior Member
Hi, I think I did a wash sale, and I need help trying to figure out what counts and what doesn't. My understanding of a wash sale is that anytime you sell a stock at a loss, if you buy that same stock back within 30 days before or after the sale, you are unable to count that as a loss. The loss amount then gets added to the cost basis of the replacement stock.

Having said that, here is the bad investment that I did:

7/12 - Buy 300 shares @ $10
7/18 - Buy 600 shares @ $9.5
7/25 - Buy 500 shares @ $9
7/26 - Sell 1060 shares @ $8.5
8/11 - Sell 340 shares @ $8

Total Bought: 1400 shares
Total Sold: 1400 shares

Okay, so here's my reasoning. I think that for the sale on 7/26 of 1060 shares, only 720 shares of those are able to be counted as a loss, and only 340 shares of those are a wash sale. This is because out of the 1400 that I bought, I sold 1060, leaving 340 left. These 340 shares get counted as replacement shares, so from 1060 - 340 = 720 shares that can be counted as a loss and the other 340 must move on to the next cost basis.

Furthermore, does the second sale count as a wash sale? I do not believe that it does even though shares were bought within the prior 30 day period, those were not replacement shares for the amount sold the second time.

Can someone confirm or help me calculate the proper wash sales? Thanks in advance.
 


LdiJ

Senior Member
El_Queso said:
Hi, I think I did a wash sale, and I need help trying to figure out what counts and what doesn't. My understanding of a wash sale is that anytime you sell a stock at a loss, if you buy that same stock back within 30 days before or after the sale, you are unable to count that as a loss. The loss amount then gets added to the cost basis of the replacement stock.

Having said that, here is the bad investment that I did:

7/12 - Buy 300 shares @ $10
7/18 - Buy 600 shares @ $9.5
7/25 - Buy 500 shares @ $9
7/26 - Sell 1060 shares @ $8.5
8/11 - Sell 340 shares @ $8

Total Bought: 1400 shares
Total Sold: 1400 shares

Okay, so here's my reasoning. I think that for the sale on 7/26 of 1060 shares, only 720 shares of those are able to be counted as a loss, and only 340 shares of those are a wash sale. This is because out of the 1400 that I bought, I sold 1060, leaving 340 left. These 340 shares get counted as replacement shares, so from 1060 - 340 = 720 shares that can be counted as a loss and the other 340 must move on to the next cost basis.

Furthermore, does the second sale count as a wash sale? I do not believe that it does even though shares were bought within the prior 30 day period, those were not replacement shares for the amount sold the second time.

Can someone confirm or help me calculate the proper wash sales? Thanks in advance.
You bought all of the shares before you started selliing.....you clearly have a loss. I don't know where you are coming up with the "wash sale"...but its obviously that you made a bad investment (three times...LOL) and then got out. If some of the losing sales had taken place prior to some of your purchases then I would view things differently....however that wasn't the case.
 

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