Corporate actions

Corporate actions are events initiated by a company that affect its stock. TrackMyShares handles these automatically, preserving your cost basis and holding periods for accurate tax reporting.

Supported corporate actions

Action	What happens	Tax impact
Bonus issue	Extra shares issued to existing holders	No tax event. Cost basis spreads across more shares.
Delisting	Stock removed from exchange	Capital loss equal to remaining cost basis.
Symbol change	Ticker renamed (e.g., FB to META)	No tax event. All history moves to new symbol.
Merger	Company acquired for stock, cash, or both	Cash component may trigger gains. Stock portion defers gains.
Spinoff	Company distributes subsidiary shares	No tax event. Cost basis splits between parent and spinoff.

Bonus issues

A bonus issue (also called a scrip issue or bonus shares) gives existing shareholders additional shares at no cost. It works like a stock split: your share count increases but total cost basis stays the same.

Recording a bonus issue

1. Click Actions then Add transaction
2. Select Bonus issue
3. Enter the ratio. For example, a 1-for-2 bonus (1 new share for every 2 held) uses ratio 3:2
4. Enter the effective date
5. Click Add transaction

Example

You hold 100 shares of XYZ at $50 each ($5,000 total cost basis). The company issues a 1-for-1 bonus:

• Ratio: 2:1
• Before: 100 shares at $50 average cost
• After: 200 shares at $25 average cost
• Total cost basis: $5,000 (unchanged)

Delistings

When a stock is delisted or becomes worthless, you can record this to realize a capital loss for tax purposes.

Recording a delisting

1. Click Actions then Add transaction
2. Select Delisting
3. Enter the symbol and the delisting date
4. Set the quantity to your current holding and price to 0
5. Click Add transaction

The system will:

• Realize a capital loss equal to your remaining cost basis
• Classify the loss as short-term or long-term based on each lot's holding period
• Mark the holding as delisted

Example

You hold 500 shares of ABC with a cost basis of $10,000. The company is delisted:

• Capital loss realized: $10,000
• If you held 200 shares for over a year and 300 for under a year, you get $4,000 long-term loss and $6,000 short-term loss

Symbol changes

When a company changes its ticker symbol, all your transaction history needs to move to the new symbol. TrackMyShares handles this seamlessly.

How it works

A symbol change:

1. Moves all existing transactions to the new symbol
2. Preserves all cost basis lots and purchase dates
3. Removes the old holding
4. Creates no tax event

Processing a symbol change

Symbol changes are processed through the corporate action API or MCP tools. Contact support if you need to process one manually, or use the MCP tool:

process_corporate_action(
  action: "SYMBOL_CHANGE",
  holdingId: "your-holding-id",
  targetSymbol: "NEW_TICKER",
  targetMarket: "US",
  date: "2025-01-15T00:00:00.000Z"
)

Mergers and acquisitions

When a company is acquired, shareholders typically receive some combination of cash and shares in the acquiring company.

Types of mergers

Pure stock merger (no cash): Your shares convert to the acquiring company's shares. No gains are realized. Cost basis transfers entirely to the new shares.

Pure cash acquisition: The acquirer pays cash for all shares. This is treated like a sale: you realize capital gains or losses.

Cash and stock merger: You receive both cash and shares in the new company. The cash component reduces the cost basis transferred to the new shares.

How it works

When you process a merger:

1. Your old holding's lots are examined
2. For stock mergers, new lots are created on the target holding with:
   • Quantity adjusted by the conversion ratio
   • Cost basis transferred (minus any cash received)
   • Original purchase dates preserved (for holding period tracking)
3. The old holding reflects the merger transaction

Example

You hold 100 shares of TargetCo at $50 each ($5,000 cost basis). AcquirerCo offers 0.5 shares + $10 cash per TargetCo share:

• Cash received: 100 x $10 = $1,000
• New shares: 100 x 0.5 = 50 shares of AcquirerCo
• Cost basis transferred: $5,000 - $1,000 = $4,000
• Cost per AcquirerCo share: $4,000 / 50 = $80

Your 50 AcquirerCo shares retain the original purchase dates from your TargetCo lots.

Spinoffs

In a spinoff, a parent company distributes shares of a subsidiary to existing shareholders. Cost basis is split between the parent and the new company based on an allocation percentage announced by the company.

How it works

When you process a spinoff:

1. The parent holding's cost basis is reduced by the allocation percentage
2. A new holding is created for the spinoff company with:
   • Quantity based on the conversion ratio
   • Cost basis from the allocation percentage
   • Original purchase dates preserved
3. The parent's share count stays the same

Key information you need

Before recording a spinoff, you need two pieces of information from the company's announcement:

• Conversion ratio — How many spinoff shares per parent share (e.g., 0.25 means 1 spinoff share for every 4 parent shares)
• Cost basis allocation — What percentage of the original cost basis goes to the spinoff (e.g., 15% means 15% of cost basis moves to the spinoff, 85% stays with the parent)

Tip: The cost basis allocation percentage is usually published in the company's press release or IRS Form 8937. Search for "[company name] spinoff cost basis allocation" to find it.

Example

You hold 200 shares of ParentCo at $100 each ($20,000 cost basis). ParentCo spins off SubCo at 0.25:1 with 20% cost basis allocation:

Parent (ParentCo):

• Shares: 200 (unchanged)
• Cost basis: $20,000 x 80% = $16,000
• New average cost: $80 per share

Spinoff (SubCo):

• Shares: 200 x 0.25 = 50
• Cost basis: $20,000 x 20% = $4,000
• Average cost: $80 per share

Total cost basis: $16,000 + $4,000 = $20,000 (unchanged)

CSV import support

All corporate action types can be imported via CSV. Use these values in the type column:

Action	CSV values
Bonus issue	BONUS_ISSUE, BONUS, BONUS ISSUE, BONUS SHARES
Delisting	DELISTING, DELISTED, WORTHLESS
Symbol change	SYMBOL_CHANGE, RENAME, TICKER_CHANGE
Merger	MERGER, ACQUISITION, TAKEOVER
Spinoff	SPINOFF, SPIN-OFF, DEMERGER

Tax reporting

Corporate actions are reflected automatically in your tax report:

• Bonus issues and spinoffs do not generate taxable events
• Delistings appear as capital losses, classified by holding period
• Cash merger components appear as capital gains
• Symbol changes have no tax impact

All holding periods are preserved across corporate actions, so your short-term and long-term classifications remain accurate.