On Sat, 2007-12-01 at 09:01 -0800, Andrew Sackville-West wrote: > On Fri, Nov 30, 2007 at 10:51:32PM -0500, Mike Alexander wrote: > > --On November 30, 2007 12:20:14 PM -0800 Andrew Sackville-West > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >>
[some good stuff about corporate splits] > On to lots: > > >>> If there are lots assigned to the splits for a stock or other asset, > >>> the report should use them. In this last case, the sale was part of > >>> the second of three acquisitions. This is correctly recorded in the > >>> splits (which I realize is hard to do now, but someday it might be > >>> easier) and the report should really use this information to > >>> determine the basis for the shares sold like the lot scrubber does. > >> > >> I honestly don't have a clue about lots and how they work. Its very > >> possible that I've duplicated code that the lots system already > >> handles. However, it's not immediately clear to me that lots will be > >> used and so we have to build for the case we know we have, which is > >> the txn data. At this point, I'm not sure I'm really willing to go > >> that deep into it, as my main goal is to get something usable out of > >> the mess that curerntly exists. But maybe there's something obvious > >> and simple that I'm missing. Again, a test file would be great. > > > > Use of lots simply assigns a lot to each split that represents a purchase > > or sale of shares. For the purposes of your report all I'm asking is that > > you ask each split what lot it is in and if you find a purchase and a sale > > in the same lot, you use that purchase to compute the basis for the sale. > > If the sale is not in a lot (or if you can't find the corresponding > > purchase in the lot, which indicates a bug) then use the FIFO, LIFO, or > > whatever rule to find the corresponding purchase. It's pretty simple and > > wouldn't complicate things much at all. You can use xaccSplitGetLot to get > > the lot a split is in. Then, if this is not null, you can use > > gnc-lot-get-split-list to get a list of splits in the lot. > > > Okay, I understand how that works. Basically I have to track the lots > along with the price and number of shares in the basis list. The > problem is how to deal with the "Average" basis. Currently, with the > average-method, instead of tracking separate cells for each txn, it > just collapses each txn into a single cell that gets adjusted > along. So first I'd have to *not* collapse it into a single cell, but > keep track of each txn. no biggie. The problem is how to adjust the > average when you yank a lot out of the middle while also performing > "non-lot" sales. I don't understand lots in the real world application > and whether its a case of "once you use lots you must always use lots" > or some other case. Here is an example of the situation, maybe you > have some insight. > > using average-method basis > > 1/1/01 purchase 10 shares @ 50 > 1/2/01 purchase 10 shares @ 60 assigned to lot 1 > 1/3/01 purchase 10 shares @ 70 > > at this point basis is 30 shares at 60=1800 (regardless of method) > > 1/4/01 sell 5 shares with no lot assignment > > because its average basis, the new basis is 25 shares at 60 = 1500 > but, if we're trying to track lots, how do we apply that? which 5 > shares do we remove? If the sale is a lot sale, it gets easier, > because you can recalculate the average with those specific shares > removed. Does it work if we track the average separately all along and > recalculate it when we get a lot sale? I just don't see how it would > work if you hit a non-lot sale. > > I'm not arguing against using lots here, BTW. Just trying to figure > out this corner case. > > hmmm... having just re-read all this, it may be as simple as > *ignoring* lots for the average-method, as it just doesn't apply. > Andrew, you are correct. FIFO and lots are cost basis calculations. Average basis is a different basis calculation. 'Once down the path of <basis> forever it will control your destiny' [or at least that account] http://www.irs.gov/publications/p564/ar02.html#d0e1350 Here are some additional links to IRS publication that might be useful. http://www.irs.gov/faqs/faq-kw34.html http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p550.pdf http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p564.pdf Of course since the report applies the same rule to all accounts regardless of intent, hopefully the user knows better and talks to their accountant or tax advisor. -Morrison _______________________________________________ gnucash-devel mailing list gnucash-devel@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel
