Tax on unassigned Covered Call premiums deferrable by reducing cost basis?

Question

I recently started selling covered calls and was curious how USA taxes for premium collected on unassigned covered calls worked. I was under the impression that such premiums will classify as short-term gains but this link (https://www.streetauthority.com/16452/use-this-strategy-to-save-thousands-on-your-taxes/) says that we can use it to lower cost basis and defer the tax on premium to the time when we actually sell the underlying shares. Can someone shed some light on this?
I tried searching more on this over past few days and haven't come across any IRS provision like this. I know the broker's platform doesn't change the actual cost basis of the underlying so seems like even if this was possible I would need to somehow manually track this. Any insights are appreciated.

Bob Baerker · Accepted Answer

The opinion expressed by Street Authority is utterly wrong.
From IRS Publication 550, page 57:

Writer of option. If you write (grant) an option, how you report your gain or loss depends on whether it was exercised.

If you are not in the business of writing options and an option you write on stocks, securities, commodities, or commodity futures is not exercised (or repurchased), the amount you receive is a short-term capital gain.

From page 58:

Writers of puts and calls

When a call is exercised: Increase your amount realized on sale of the stock by the amount you received for the call.

When a call expires: Report the amount you received for the call as a short-term capital gain.

If you buy back the call, report the difference between the amount you pay and the amount you received for the call as a short-term capital gain or loss.

Tax on unassigned Covered Call premiums deferrable by reducing cost basis?

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