Understanding Cost Basis

After you have sold shares, you need to calculate the cost basis of those shares to determine whether you have realized a taxable gain or loss from the proceeds. Evergreen has provided answers to its most frequently asked questions about cost basis:

What is cost basis?

Cost basis is used to determine whether the sale of shares resulted in a taxable gain or loss. Cost basis takes into consideration original investment and subsequent purchases (including sales charges) and reinvested dividends and capital gains. To determine whether you have a taxable gain or loss, subtract the cost basis from the proceeds of your redemption.

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Does Evergreen report cost basis?

If Evergreen is able to calculate the cost basis for the shares you sold during 2006, that information will appear on your Form 1099-B. Cost basis information, however, is not reported to the IRS. Although Evergreen provides cost basis information as a service to shareholders, Evergreen is unable to provide this information for certain accounts, including:

  • Older Evergreen or former Keystone accounts
  • Former Blanchard, Virtus, or Corefund accounts
  • Retirement, foreign, corporate or money market accounts
  • Accounts held through a brokerage firm
  • Accounts where redemptions are processed by a broker/dealer
  • Accounts with outstanding certificates
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How does Evergreen calculate cost basis?

Evergreen uses the Average Cost Accounting (Single Category) method. There are three other ways of calculating cost basis. All four methods are explained on page 12 of Evergreen’s 2006 Tax Guide.

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How can I calculate cost basis?

If cost basis information for your account is not available, or if you want to use another method, you will need all your account statements from opening to present.

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How can I obtain missing account statements?

You have three options:

  • Contact your financial advisor; your advisor may be able to supply you with past statements
  • Contact your brokerage firm
  • Contact Evergreen’s Client Services. If your account is held at Evergreen, Evergreen can provide statements for accounts going as far back as 1980. A rolling five-year history is provided free of charge; for statements dated prior to that a research fee may apply. Please note: If your account was transferred from a brokerage firm, Evergreen will not be able to supply statements for the period that the brokerage firm held the account.
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As an Evergreen shareholder, can I download my account information?

Evergreen encourages shareholders to get into the habit of downloading their account history once a year. Saving the information to your computer is easy.

  1. Log in to Your Evergreen Account.
  2. From the left navigation pane, go to “Account Portfolio,” then click Details
  3. Select View History, which is located under “Additional Information”
  4. Click Download Data
  5. Select the file format:
    • CSV – to download the information into an Excel file
    • QIF – to download the information in Quicken or other accounting software that accepts QIF (Quicken Interchange Format)
  6. Select a date range. The defaults are the date of the earliest transaction in your history and the current date
  7. Press Continue or press 'Cancel' to cancel the process and return to the account history page
  8. Review the information displayed. Press Download to retrieve the information and save it to your computer
  9. Once the download is complete, you will return to the page titled Download Data Verification. Press Close to exit this page and return to the account history page

Start now — Log in to Your Evergreen Account

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