A Very Cool Tax Tool

Need help determining your tax basis? This database might help.

If you're searching for lost tax-basis information for your 2006 tax return, take heart: BasisPro, a service offered by Wolters Kluwer, will fill in the blanks of what you paid for securities you sold in 2006. All you need to know is when you bought them.

The online BasisPro database is packed with info about every corporate action -- think mergers, spinoffs and stock splits -- for every stock and mutual fund since 1950, plus all dividends since 1973. Reconstructing those basis-altering events is painful even with great records. This tool takes seconds.

BasisPro is part of the GainsKeeper.com service ($349 a quarter); it's also built into TurboTax Premier tax-preparation software. (Kiplinger's provides expert advice for TurboTax software and its Web site.)

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Anne Kates Smith
Executive Editor, Kiplinger's Personal Finance

Anne Kates Smith brings Wall Street to Main Street, with decades of experience covering investments and personal finance for real people trying to navigate fast-changing markets, preserve financial security or plan for the future. She oversees the magazine's investing coverage,  authors Kiplinger’s biannual stock-market outlooks and writes the "Your Mind and Your Money" column, a take on behavioral finance and how investors can get out of their own way. Smith began her journalism career as a writer and columnist for USA Today. Prior to joining Kiplinger, she was a senior editor at U.S. News & World Report and a contributing columnist for TheStreet. Smith is a graduate of St. John's College in Annapolis, Md., the third-oldest college in America.