Cost basis is the original price or cost of an asset purchased by an investor. It is used for tax purposes when calculating capital gains or losses. Capital gains or capital losses is the difference ...

I am a CPA specializing in helping busy business owners decrease the amount of time and energy they need to manage their accounting system. It’s tax preparation season, and like most business owners, ...

Julia Kagan is a financial/consumer journalist and former senior editor, personal finance, of Investopedia. Gordon Scott has been an active investor and technical analyst or 20+ years. He is a ...

What if a husband and wife own a home together that increases in value by $500,000. When one spouse dies and the other owns the property themselves, do they receive a step-up in basis? Or do they only ...

Cost basis is the original purchase price of an asset. Tracking cost basis is key to tax-efficient investing. Many, or all, of the products featured on this page are from our advertising partners who ...

Cost basis affects capital gains taxes on investments. Cost basis varies by investment type and whether you purchased the asset or received it as a gift or inheritance. Optimizing cost basis can ...

The concept of basis is simple, but calculating basis for S corporation stock takes much of many CPA tax practitioners’ time and energy. Why is this the case? Basis measures the amount that the ...

When individuals contribute assets to form a partnership, they must calculate each partner's basis in the partnership using two separate methods. Outside basis, or book basis, tracks each partner's ...

Adam Hayes, Ph.D., CFA, is a financial writer with 15+ years Wall Street experience as a derivatives trader. Besides his extensive derivative trading expertise, Adam is an expert in economics and ...

Let’s start with a little dose of reality: There are areas of the tax law so complex, so convoluted, that try as you might, you will never attain a mastery of the material. You could spend the ...

Rental value depreciation is the reduction in the value of rental property over time, most often due to wear and tear. The IRS has determined that a building's value deteriorates over the course of 27 ...