Working Around the Wash Sale Rule
There are a couple of acceptable workarounds that could help you maintain all or part of your deduction while purchasing substantially identical securities. The first is that a partial deduction can be taken if more stock is sold then repurchased within the 61 days surrounding the sale. For example, if you own 1,000 shares of XYZ and you sell them all at a loss then repurchase 200 shares, you may still be entitled to deduct the loss of the net 800 shares sold. Since the disallowed loss and the other 200 shares will be added to the cost basis of the newly purchased 200 shares, the rest of your loss doesn't exactly disappear; it is simply delayed.