Ooh...not quite. I put the weighted average basis on C3, which I think is correct. What acquisition date should I use? I think the tax word is "Various", but Beancount doesn't seem to like that. Perhaps the best choice is to use the latest of the underlying dates -- April, in this case -- and add a note to treat the acquisition date manually on the tax return.
Sound reasonable? Bill On Sun, Sep 2, 2018 at 8:23 AM Bill Harris <[email protected]> wrote: > Thanks, Martin, for the comprehensive response! I'll catch a few > highlights right now. > > I think my original showed a stock split in which I destroyed the original > shares and added new ones with the same date, something like > > 2001-06-01 * "stock split" > Assets:BrokerA:AA -20 AA {40.00 USD, 2001-01-05} > Assets:BrokerA:AA -18 AA {50.00 USD, 2001-04-05} > Assets:BrokerA:AA 40 AA {20.00 USD, 2001-01-05} > Assets:BrokerA:AA 36 AA {25.00 USD, 2001-04-05} > > I sense this maintains the issue date of the original shares on the new 40 > AA and 36 AA while keeping them as distinct lots. That seems useful to me > if they are certificates, for the 40 sh. could be a different piece of > paper from the 36 sh. It could be important if you direct the sale of > specific lots: "Sell 20 sh. AA acquired at 20 USD"). (As I understand it, > once you start selling by lot, then it's hard to sell by average cost. > It's even harder to change what you did years ago.) > > To make that a bit easier, I added labels to the certificates.something > like this: > > 2001-06-01 * "stock split" > Assets:Cert:AA -20 AA {40.00 USD, 2001-01-05, "C1"} > Assets:Cert:AA -18 AA {50.00 USD, 2001-04-05, "C2"} > Assets:Cert:AA 40 AA {20.00 USD, 2001-01-05, "C3"} > Assets:Cert:AA 36 AA {25.00 USD, 2001-04-05, "C4"} > > Except that's not how it works, right? Typically they'd just send out the > new, incremental shares: > > 2001-06-01 * "stock split" > Assets:Cert:AA -20 AA {40.00 USD, 2001-01-05, "C1"} > Assets:Cert:AA -18 AA {50.00 USD, 2001-04-05, "C2"} > Assets:Cert:AA 20 AA {20.00 USD, 2001-01-05, "C1"} > Assets:Cert:AA 18 AA {25.00 USD, 2001-04-05, "C1"} > Assets:Cert:AA 20 AA {20.00 USD, 2001-01-05, "C3"} > Assets:Cert:AA 18 AA {25.00 USD, 2001-04-05, "C4"} > > That updates the basis on C1 and C2 and adds the new C3 and C4. Now each > labelled stock has the right date and basis. > > But that's not how it works, either, right? Typically they'd just send > out one certificate for 38 sh.: > > 2001-06-01 * "stock split" > Assets:Cert:AA -20 AA {40.00 USD, 2001-01-05, "C1"} > Assets:Cert:AA -18 AA {50.00 USD, 2001-04-05, "C2"} > Assets:Cert:AA 20 AA {20.00 USD, 2001-01-05, "C1"} > Assets:Cert:AA 18 AA {25.00 USD, 2001-04-05, "C1"} > Assets:Cert:AA 38 AA {22.37 USD, 2001-01-05, "C3"} > > Now C3 has a basis that's 22.3684210526 USD (or 22.37 USD -- the weighted > average of the new 20 and 18 AA). > > Is that the way you'd track it? (I realize that's both a tax and a > Beancount accounting question.) I think both the IRS and Beancount would > be happy, at least if I never sell, oh, 25 sh. of C3 and keep the remaining > 13 AA out of that lot. Even if I did, in a practical sense, that > *probably* leads to a *de minimus" *error, I'm hoping. > > If those lots were at a broker, then I'd now have 76 sh. AA there. I > would do myself a service by identifying the lot to sell as being from one > or more of C1, C2, and/or C3, and I would make my life a bit easier (in an > audit, at least) if I sold C3 all at one time. Make sense? > > I don't think I've ever done that with a certificate, but, once it's > lumped at a broker, it might be easy to do inadvertently. > > On Fri, Aug 31, 2018 at 7:40 PM Martin Blais <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >>> I hope this helps, >> > > Quite a bit; thanks! > > Bill > -- > Bill Harris > -- Bill Harris http://makingsense.facilitatedsystems.com/ -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Beancount" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beancount/CAOBquGpym7G6LW8Yzz9%2BZtZ-6V2syMpTB1ZrSqHWKcZ1gJA7bg%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
