Tax lots
You can select specific tax lots when selling stock in your Robinhood investing account. Tax lots are records of when you purchased shares of a stock or ETF. Each transaction creates a tax lot that includes details like the purchase date, cost per share, and number of shares purchased. This enables you to sell a specific tax lot to manage your capital gains and losses for tax purposes.
Selling in tax lots is only available in the app for Robinhood investing (taxable) accounts in the US. This option is part of a phased customer release. If this option isn’t shown yet, it will be soon for eligible accounts.
If you select Tax lots at the top right when selling a stock, then you can select which tax lots you want to sell. You can view details for each lot like its purchase date and cost per share. You can also sort the list based on date or cost and enter how many shares you want to sell per tax lot.
Cost per share is how much you paid for an individual stock or ETF share.
The gain or loss shown is estimated based on the current market price or conditional price you set for the order. This price is subtracted by your cost per share, which is multiplied by the number of shares that you’re selling.
The S and L icons shown next to the Date in the Choose tax lots screen represent:
No. The gain or loss and cost per share calculations are estimates and are subject to change. When you file your taxes, use your end-of-year tax forms.
Robinhood doesn’t give tax advice. For questions about your specific tax situation, consult with a tax professional.
Sometimes outside brokerages don’t give us the cost basis information for assets you transfer into your Robinhood account. Without this baseline, we can’t calculate the cost per share or estimate the gain or loss. Contact your outside brokerage to obtain the missing information.
Selling in tax lots is currently available in the US for Robinhood investing (taxable) accounts. Additionally, tax lot orders may be temporarily unavailable in some cases, such as for a corporate action, same-day lots, and ACATs. Existing orders are unaffected, but placing a new tax lot order may be temporarily unavailable.
If you select multiple tax lots when placing a sell order, the lots are filled based on the order they were sorted in when the order was submitted. The lots at the top of the list get the highest priority and are filled first before the lots lower in the list.
Let’s say you placed an order to sell 3 tax lots (A, B, and C) and you sorted the list by purchase date with the oldest lots at the top and newest at the bottom. They’d sell in the sorted order listed of A, B, and then C.
This can happen if you have a tax lot order where you’ve selected specific lots but place an order with no tax lots, which gets filled first and depletes shares previously selected in a tax lot order. Any shares you selected in the tax lot order, which are no longer available will be filled following your account’s default disposal method, first-in-first-out (FIFO).
If you need to make adjustments to a tax lot order after it has been placed or executed, contact us before 9 PM ET on the settlement date for the order.
When selecting tax lots for securities to sell at a loss, be aware that additional trading activity within 30 days before and after this sale may trigger a wash sale. The IRS prohibits taxpayers from claiming losses from wash sales for tax purposes. For additional information and an example, please review Wash sales.
Content is provided for informational purposes only, which does not constitute investment advice, and is not a recommendation for any security or trading strategy. All investments involve risk, including the possible loss of capital. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
Robinhood doesn’t give tax advice. For questions about your specific tax situation, consult with a tax professional.