I sold some mutual funds I bought years ago & can't determine the cost basis. What to do? I have no records.

I bought this mutual fund in installment payments over a number of years. This was several years ago. Last year I sold the funds and transferred the account so I can't access it online and have no records of the prices I paid. I don't know if I had a gain or loss. I have to file taxes now. The 1099 came in showing sales of $3905.92. I have no records and can't get help from the investment company since I closed the account. What should I do on my income tax return?

You can call the brokerage firm that held your funds as see if they have a purchase history. If they do not you will need to look at the history of the mutual fund around the time you purchased, try to be as precise as possible. You should also reveiw your previosly years tax returns if you reinvested any dividend and paid taxes already. Only include dividends paid by this fund.

Good luck

When you sold the units, the mutual fund company should have sent you a record of it. If not, contact them to send you that record, which will include the price at which you bought the mutual funds and it will detail if you have a capital gain or loss from the sale, then your accountant or tax agent will be able to help you with the appropriate tax office requirements for the sale.

for further clarifications on the income tax returns u go for the tax filing sites. these can help u . here is one of the site address go for it. all the best.

Generally, you can forget about any assistance from the old brokerage firm since you're no longer a client. They'll seem to be friendly and want to help but won't since you don't pay the fees anymore. Hopefully you'll find someone friendly to assist you but don't expect much if anything!

Try to locate your old records from them regarding the cost information, if still available.

You can also try to estimate when you bought them then research the dates and amounts of the closing cost of a particular day for each stock's basis online via an online brokerage company who provides historical data or from the WSJ.

Otherwise, by law, if you can NOT provide any basis, the cost is ZERO.

You can estimate the cost but if the IRS audits you, you'd better have some records of how you estimated your stock basis.

Otherwise, the IRS can (and may) disallow your cost amounts and use Zero as the cost basis and may even treat the sales as short term sales due to lack of evidence from the taxpayer to substantiate the capital gain claims on your return.

You're not going to get anything but the sales price on your 1099. Brokerages don't collect cost information because they want you to pay them for it. (I've slammed a few brokerages for doing this because it's an abdication of fiduciary duty. I don't think they're legally bound, but for the love of St. Pete, who else will have the information, if not them?)

You can look up old prices in a few different places if you know when you bought the shares or how much. If you have an idea of when you made the buys, you can also get your old bank information or old pay stubs, depending on how you bought it.

Some of us might be able to help you rebuild the information. If I can find your fund at Ameritrade, I'd be happy to look it up for you. They have some information on companies going back 20 years or more.

I wouldn't worry about being audited. Unless you're in the habit of sending up red flags, you'll never be investigated for a $3900 sale.