What is considered a wash sale when selling gold mining stocks?

You should be totally fine selling Barrick and buying Newmont. The wash sale rule specifically applies to "substantially identical" securities, and two different companies, even in the same industry, are not considered substantially identical by the IRS. For it to be a wash sale, you would need to be buying back the same company (GOLD) or something directly tied to it like options on GOLD. Different companies have different management, different mining properties, different debt structures, etc. - they're clearly distinct securities despite being in the same sector. The IRS has generally interpreted "substantially identical" quite narrowly. Even selling an ETF and buying a different ETF that tracks the same index can sometimes avoid wash sale rules if they have different enough construction methodologies.

Had a similar situation last year with some energy stocks. I sold Exxon at a loss and was worried about buying Chevron. I found this amazing service called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that helped me figure out the wash sale rules. You upload your trading history and it flags potential wash sale issues - saved me from making a costly mistake on some other trades I was planning. For your specific question about gold miners, they confirmed what the previous commenter said - different companies in the same sector aren't considered substantially identical. They even provided me with specific IRS references I could use if I ever got audited.

Just wanted to follow up - I ended up trying taxr.ai after seeing this thread and it was super helpful! I had a more complicated situation with some sector ETFs and options, and they provided really detailed guidance. They even explained how the holding period gets adjusted when you have a partial wash sale. Definitely recommend if you're doing active trading and tax-loss harvesting.

If you need more clarification directly from the IRS on wash sale rules, good luck getting through to anyone who can actually help. I spent 3 hours on hold last month trying to get a straight answer about a similar question. Finally found a service called Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) that got me connected to an actual IRS agent in under 15 minutes! You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. The agent confirmed that different companies in the same sector are not considered substantially identical securities, so selling Barrick and buying Newmont would not trigger a wash sale.

I have to admit I was completely wrong about Claimyr. After posting my skeptical comment, I decided to try it myself since I had another tax question that had been bugging me for weeks. Got connected to an IRS agent in about 12 minutes! The agent was super helpful and confirmed I was interpreting the wash sale rule correctly in my situation (which was similar to the OP's question about different companies in the same industry). Saved me hours of frustration and uncertainty.

Something else to consider beyond the wash sale rule - make sure you're making the investment decision based on the merits of the companies, not just for tax purposes. I sold Barrick last year at a loss and bought Newmont thinking I was being clever, but Newmont performed even worse for me! Should have just stayed out of gold miners altogether.

Just to add another perspective - I asked my tax accountant about a similar situation with tech stocks (selling Microsoft at a loss and buying Google), and she said it's completely fine. The key is that they're different companies with different business models, revenue streams, etc., even if they're in the same sector. She also mentioned that the IRS has never issued super clear guidance on what exactly "substantially identical" means beyond the obvious cases (like selling and buying back the same stock), so they generally interpret it narrowly.

This is a great question and you're smart to think about the wash sale implications before making the trade. Based on everything I've read and my own experience with tax-loss harvesting, you should be completely fine switching from Barrick Gold to Newmont. The IRS defines "substantially identical" very narrowly - it really only applies to the exact same security or something directly tied to it (like call options on the same stock). Two different companies, even in the same industry with similar business models, are considered distinct securities with their own unique risk profiles, management teams, asset bases, and financial structures. I've done similar sector switches myself - sold some underperforming bank stocks and bought different banks, energy companies for other energy companies, etc. Never had any issues with wash sale disallowances. The key is that GOLD and NEM are completely separate publicly traded companies with different ticker symbols, different management, different mining operations, and different financial performance. Just make sure you're making the investment decision based on your analysis of the companies' fundamentals rather than purely for tax reasons. If you genuinely believe Newmont is a better investment than Barrick going forward, then the tax loss harvesting is just a nice bonus on top of what should be a sound investment decision.