I'm getting an early start on my 2012 taxes.

Way back in the heady days of 1998 I bought 200 shares of CBS.

In 2000, that turned into 217 shares of Viacom. There was no cash paid out at the time -- no cash-in-lieu, no partial dividends, no nothing. Just the 217 shares.

In 2006, Viacom split off new CBS shares , leaving me with 108 shares of CBS-B and 108 shares of Viacom. A few days later I got two cash-in-lieu payments, one for each of the new companies.

I sold both issues this year for a gain. I figure I'll split my original CBS cost based on the relative value of the two daughter companies. That is, if Viacom was worth $20 per share after the split and CBS was worth $10 per share after the split, I'll apportion 2/3 of the basis to Viacom and 1/3 of the basis to CBS. How I do it won't affect the bottom line, but I want to get it right on general principle.

Then there's the matter of the cash-in-lieu payments. Since I already paid taxes on that, I assume I can increase my basis in each stock by the amount of the cash-in-lieu.

Do I have that right?

Thanks.

--fleg, who is glad he's saved all his brokerage statements since he started investing