Avoiding Wash Sales: A Smart Date Check for Your Stock Trades Why You Should Watch the Wash-Sale Rule In stock trading, one of the most important tax considerations is the Wash-Sale Rule , enforced by the IRS. This rule disallows claiming a loss on a security if you repurchase the same or a "substantially identical" security within 30 days before or after the sale. For traders who "short their own shares" —meaning they sell stocks at a loss with the intention of repurchasing later—this rule can be a tax trap . If you don’t track your trades carefully, you might accidentally repurchase the same security too soon, voiding your ability to deduct the loss. To prevent this , I use a formula that checks whether the trade date is at least 30 days past the sale date before allowing a repurchase. If not, it returns "Hold" to prevent premature trading. note: I use a spreadsheet for trading stocks and dictates when to make a move Google Sheets Formula for Date Che...
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