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发表于 2012-4-10 08:24 PM
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Consequences of a Wash Sale
The wash sale rule actually has three consequences:
You are not allowed to claim the loss on your sale.
Your disallowed loss is added to the basis of the replacement stock.
Your holding period for the replacement stock includes the holding period of the stock you sold.
The first one is clear enough, but the others may require some explanation.
Basis Adjustment
The basis adjustment is important: it preserves the benefit of the disallowed loss. You'll receive that benefit on a future sale of the replacement stock.
Example: Some time ago you bought 80 shares of XYZ at $50. The stock has declined to $30, and you sell it to take the loss deduction. But then you see some good news on XYZ and buy it back for $32, less than 31 days after the sale.
You can't deduct your loss of $20 per share. But you add $20 per share to the basis of your replacement shares. Those shares have a basis of $52 per share: the $32 you paid, plus the $20 wash sale adjustment. In other words, you're treated as if you bought the shares for $52. If you end up selling them for $55, you'll only report $3 per share of gain. And if you sell them for $32 (the same price you paid to buy them), you'll report a loss of $20 per share.
Because of this basis adjustment, a wash sale usually isn't a disaster. In most cases, it simply means you'll get the same tax benefit at a later time. If you receive the benefit later in the same year, the wash sale may have no effect at all on your taxes.
There are times, though, when the wash sale rule can have truly painful consequences.
If you don't sell the replacement stock in the same year, your loss will be postponed, possibly to a year when the deduction is of far less value.
If you die before selling the replacement stock, neither you nor your heirs will benefit from the basis adjustment.
You can also lose the benefit of the deduction permanently if you sell stock and arrange to have a related person — or your IRA — buy replacement stock.
As explained in my book, Consider Your Options, a wash sale involving shares of stock acquired through an incentive stock option can be a planning disaster.
Holding Period
When you make a wash sale, your holding period for the replacement stock includes the period you held the stock you sold. This rule prevents you from converting a long-term loss into a short-term loss.
Example: You've held shares of XYZ for years and it's been a dog. You sell it at a loss but then buy it back within the wash sale period. When you sell the replacement stock, your gain or loss will be long-term — no matter how soon you sell it.
In many situations you get more tax savings from a short-term loss than a long-term loss, so this rule generally works against you.
Additional Rules
There's a lot more to the wash sale rule. We get questions on our message board about all of the following issues:
You don't have a wash sale unless you acquire (or enter into a contract or option to acquire) substantially identical securities.
You don't have a wash sale, even though you bought identical shares within the previous 30 days, if the shares you bought aren't replacement shares.
There are mechanical rules to handle the situation where you don't buy exactly the same number of shares you sold, or where you bought and sold multiple lots of shares. See Wash Sale Mechanics.
If a person who's related to you — or an entity related to you, such as your IRA — buys replacement property, your loss may be disallowed under a different rule: you may be treated as if you made an indirect sale to a related person.
You don't actually have to purchase stock within the wash sale period to have a wash sale. It's enough if you merely enter into a contract or option to acquire replacement stock.
Short sales present a special problem in connection with the wash sale rule.
There are special considerations in applying the wash sale rule to traders.
Losses Only
The wash sale rule only applies to losses. You can't wipe out a gain from a sale by buying the same stock back within 30 days. |
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