Wash-Sale Rule: What it is and How to Avoid | The Motley Fool (2024)

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Wash-Sale Rule: What it is and How to Avoid | The Motley Fool? ›

Designed to prevent abuse, it disallows tax deductions if you repurchase similar securities within 30 days. To maintain tax benefits, refrain from purchasing identical securities 30 days before or after a sale or adjust by selling again later.

To avoid a wash sale, you could replace it with a different ETF (or several different ETFs) with similar but not identical assets, such as one tracking the Russell 1000 Index^® (RUI). That would preserve your tax break and keep you in the market with about the same asset allocation.

To avoid triggering the wash sale rule, an investor can employ a strategy such as buying more of the stock that they'd like to sell, holding on to the new stock purchase for 31 days, and then selling it. An investor could also sell a stock at a loss, register the loss, and then buy a similar investment.

A wash sale happens when you sell a security at a loss and buy a “substantially identical” security within 30 days before or after the sale. The wash-sale rule prevents taxpayers from deducting paper losses without significantly changing their market position.

If you have a wash sale, however, you cannot claim the write-off until you finally sell the asset and avoid repurchasing it for at least 30 days. After that period, you can re-buy the asset without triggering the wash-sale rules.

Keep in mind that the wash sale rule goes into effect 30 days before and after the sale, so you have a 61-day window to avoid buying the same stock. Alternatively, if waiting 61 days isn't feasible, you can purchase a security that is not substantially identical to the one you recently sold.

Note: Wash sales are in scope only if reported on Form 1099-B or on a brokerage or mutual fund statement. Click here for an explanation. A wash sale is the sale of securities at a loss and the acquisition of same (substantially identical) securities within 30 days of sale date (before or after).

Your loss is a "wash" in this scenario, just as though you had held your original shares without selling. The tax benefit of your capital loss isn't gone forever, but it's deferred.

You'll need to figure the basis for shares sold in a wash sale. When you do, add the amount of disallowed loss to the basis of the shares that caused the wash sale. These are the new shares you received. By doing this, you defer the loss, but it's not disallowed for good.

However, if you violate the wash sale rule, any loss from the sale of stock or securities is disallowed for tax purposes and can't be deducted from your capital gains or ordinary income. A disallowed loss is not completely wasted, though.

Why are capital losses limited to $3,000? ›

The $3,000 loss limit is the amount that can be offset against ordinary income. Above $3,000 is where things can get complicated.

The Wash-Sale period is defined as 30 days before and 30 days after the sale date, totaling 61 days (including the sale date).

Instead, the loss is added to the cost basis of the new security, which will impact the amount of gain or loss on any future sales of that security. understanding wash sales is crucial for day traders who are looking to manage their tax consequences.

Use tax-advantaged accounts

Retirement accounts such as 401(k) plans, and individual retirement accounts offer tax-deferred investment. You don't pay income or capital gains taxes at all on the assets in the account. You'll just pay income taxes when you withdraw money from the account.

The wash rule claims that, in case you sell any investment at a loss, and then you re-buy it within a month (30 days), the loss that you made initially cannot be accounted for the purpose of taxation.

To avoid triggering the Wash Sale Rule, you can wait at least 31 days before repurchasing the same or a substantially similar option. Alternatively, you can purchase a different option with similar characteristics to the one you sold.

If you trade with a normal unleveraged account, a cash account, the PDT rule does not apply because you are not borrowing funds in the first place. But at the same time, this also limits your ability to day trade. In this account type, you, of course, avoid margin fees but it takes three days for trades to settle.

It is always possible to sell a stock for profit purposes, as the Income Tax Department has you paying taxes on the profit you make. This is, as mentioned earlier, a capital gains tax. You can buy the same stock back at any time, and this has no bearing on the sale you have made for profit.

The wash sale period for any sale at a loss consists of 61 days: the day of the sale, the 30 days before the sale and the 30 days after the sale. (These are calendar days, not trading days.