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Wash-sale Cost Basis Adjustment question

Personal Finance & Money Asked on January 4, 2021

I wonder about the Adjustments to Cost Basis after a wash sale occur. Considering this Example 1 ( from marketwatch.com) where someone:

On 1 Dec, 2018 used an amount of money in his account to buy 100 shares of XYZ Co., for $2000 (to make it simple , let’s say 1 Feb, 2019 to turn all the transactions into the same year)

On 1 Apr, 2019 he sells the shares for $1200, and incurred a loss of 800$.

On 10 Apr, 2019 he bought back 100 shares for $1300, and had a wash sale. The 800$ loss gets added to the cost basis of this transaction( and the basis becomes $2100)

Now, If on 13 Apr 2019, he sold 100 shares for $1400; I’m pretty sure that the realized Gain/Loss record of this transaction would show something like this: " XYZ Co. shares 100 , Proceeds $1400 , Cost basis $2100(adjusted), Short-term Gain/Loss -$700 ". So, even though the Gain/Loss shows a negative number, he still got an actual profit of $100 from this sale, right?

One Answer

Wash sale accounting doesn't change the amount of the gains or losses, just possibly when you can claim them.

Buy at $20, sell at $12 is an $8 loss and buy at $13 and sell at $14 is a $1 gain - for a total loss of $7.

Adjusting the cost basis due to the wash sale just shifts the cost basis around but the answer is still the same, a total loss of $7.

This would only become a tax issue if the $800 wash sale loss occurred in one tax year and the replacement shares were not sold until the following year (a carryover wash sale violation). You'd still have the same total loss but claiming it would occur on two different tax returns.

Correct answer by Bob Baerker on January 4, 2021

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