What are “wash sales,” and does Vanguard track them?
Under current IRS regulations, a wash sale occurs if a shareholder attempts to claim a loss on the sale of an investment if a substantially identical investment is purchased within 30 days before or after the sale; this loss would be disallowed. For shares covered by the new legislation effective January 1, 2011, Vanguard is only required to track wash sales where both the sale and the purchase resulting in the wash sale are from identical securities occurring in the same account. To view information on wash sales, log on to your account and select Taxes & Income under the My Portfolio tab. Wash-sale information is displayed in the Total Gain/Loss column of the Realized Gains tab. Vanguard does not track wash sales across accounts with different registrations; for example, between your individual account and your joint account or between your individual account and your IRA.
