So, personally, when calculating my cost basis (for personal reasons, not tax) I consider a spinoff as “a removal from total cost basis of original company”. i.e since the spinoff was 0.24 shares per 1 share, my cost basis for T is reduced by the calculated cost basis of the new stock.
But, in this case, Interactive Brokers gave me stocks of Warner Bros Discovery (with a ticker symbol WBD) and priced it at the price of WBDWV. Excel cannot find WBDWV ticker symbol and WBD ticker symbol leads to WeBuild (and even half the articles in financial websites show WBD and the other half show WBDWV).
The way I would calculate spinoffs in the past (e.g. OGN, ONL, KD etc) would be.
I received X shares of new company, multiplied by IPO price, that's the cost basis of the new shares I received, and that amount is removed from Original Company. Since my original purchase, is now divided into two companies at X and Y percentages, so does my cost basis.
Some people told me that's wrong, the new company is “free” and my cost basis on the original should not change, I disagree completely on that, but that's for my personal calculations, not for any tax purposes (I live in a country with no capital gains tax so it doesn't really matter).
Now, to the question, what should I consider as “IPO” price for Warner Bros Discovery? Also, Which ticker symbol should I use? This is confusing. Did they become a new company with a new ticker symbol?
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