Does exchanging funds from an S&P 500 index fund into a Russell 3000 index fund at a loss constitute a "wash sale" if losses are claimed?

Question

I converted a 'lot' of my Russell 3000 index into an S&P 500 index (first time investing in the SPY index) for a capital gain at the end of 2017 (for purposes of tax gain harvesting).
A few days ago I exchanged the holdings of my S&P 500 index back into my Russell 3000 index shares at a capital loss.
For my 2018 taxes that will be due next near, am I allowed to claim the latter loss?

mhoran_psprep · Accepted Answer

You are safe from considering it a wash sale. The two transactions are more than 61 days apart (December 31st 2017 to mid-March 2018); and the two funds are different.
An S&P 500 fund is different than a Russell 3000 fund. The two funds are stock funds, but they are not based on the same index.
I looked at the makeup of the Russell 3000 at barchart.com
As of today the 500th biggest company in the Russell 3000 has a market cap of $9.8 Billion, the smallest company in the index has a market cap of $6.9 Million. For the S&P 500 the smallest company has a market cap of more than $2 Billion. That means that the market they are trying to index are not similar.

eSurfsnake · Answer

Check with a tax expert, but the usual rules are (1) are the investments substantially similar and (2) is it the same issuer.  The latter is easy to make come out so they are not.

I think it is still an open question: if you swap one S&P 500 fund/ETF for another, is that a wash?   Last I heard, they were different issuers and it hasn't been challenged, but I may be out of date.

Does exchanging funds from an S&P 500 index fund into a Russell 3000 index fund at a loss constitute a "wash sale" if losses are claimed?

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