Can You Buy Back Stocks After Selling at a Gain? | Forex Education (2024)

A stock buyback, or a share repurchase, is a financial strategy companies use to buy back their shares from the marketplace. This practice can serve multiple purposes, including consolidating ownership, increasing earnings per share, and potentially boosting the stock price by reducing the supply of shares available. Buybacks can also signal to the market that a company’s management believes the stock is undervalued, reflecting a positive outlook on its future performance. Corporations often use This financial maneuver to manage excess cash and return value to shareholders, impacting the company’s capital structure and shareholder value.

Yes, you can buy back the same stock at any point, and this action does not affect any profitable sale you have made. This is the wash-sale rule! The primary rule is that taxes must be paid on any profit derived from assets, with successful stock investments yielding substantial financial gains.

The wash-sale rule, often called the 30-day rule, is a tax regulation that disproportionately worries investors despite its relatively minor impact.

Firstly, this rule doesn’t restrict your ability to trade. As long as you have the funds, you can buy and sell securities freely, abiding by the general rules of the marketplace.

Secondly, the wash-sale rule comes into play only in taxable accounts and only after you’ve sold a security at a loss.

For example, imagine you sold SPY shares, an S&P 500 index fund, at a $1,000 loss during the market downturn in the pandemic. You might still believe SPY is a solid investment. Still, you decided to sell to capture the $1,000 capital loss to offset taxes on either an equal gain from another investment or your income — a completely valid approach for reducing your tax liability.

If you choose to repurchase SPY or a similar S&P 500 fund within 30 days, you cannot claim the $1,000 loss for tax purposes. The IRS views such a repurchase as a non-genuine transaction aimed merely at tax evasion.

However, suppose you wait at least 31 days to repurchase SPY or replace it immediately with a different Large-cap fund that doesn’t replicate SPY’s holdings. In that case, the IRS recognizes the loss as stemming from a legitimate investment decision.

Here are the main mechanics of this rule:

• Selling Stocks for Tax Losses: Investors sometimes sell stocks with declined value to take advantage of tax loss harvesting. This can be an effective strategy, especially if the stock isn’t performing well, as it allows investors to offset capital gains from other investments or reduce their taxable income from other sources, like wages.
• Desire to Retain the Stock: If investors still like the stock and don’t want to part with it permanently, they might consider selling it to realize a loss and then repurchasing it. However, this strategy is restricted by the wash-sale rule.
• Definition of a Wash Sale: The wash-sale rule is a tax regulation that prevents investors from claiming a tax deduction for a loss on a stock if they repurchase the same or “substantially identical” stock within 30 days before or after the sale date.
• Mechanics of the Wash Sale Rule: If an investor sells a stock at a loss, repurchases it, or acquires a similar stock within 30 days before or after the sale, the loss is disallowed for tax purposes. This rule prevents people from selling stock solely to claim a tax benefit while continuing to hold the investment.
• Example of How It Works: Consider an investor who sells 100 shares of XYZ Corp at a significant loss. If they repurchase the same number of shares within 30 days before or after selling them, the IRS does not recognize the loss for tax purposes. If they buy back fewer shares, the rule applies proportionally.
• IRS Definition of Wash Sale: According to IRS Publication 550, a wash sale occurs when an investor sells stock at a loss and, within 30 days before or after this sale, does any of the following: buys a substantially identical stock, acquires it through a trade, buys a contract or option to purchase it, or acquires it for an IRA or Roth IRA.
• Extension to Other Accounts: The wash-sale rule applies not only to direct repurchases in the same account but also to purchases in different accounts, such as IRAs or Roth IRAs, thus preventing tax-loss harvesting across different investment accounts.
• No Wash-Sale Rule for Gains: It’s important to note that the wash-sale rule does not apply to stocks sold at a gain. Investors can sell a stock for a profit and repurchase it immediately, but they must report and pay taxes on the gain.

This summary outlines how the wash-sale rule works and its implications for investors looking to manage their tax liabilities through stock sales and purchases.