Lots and Capital Gains Discussion

[Emily Zora]

Hi all. I've been working a lot with bitcoin lately and I've noticed some
deficiencies in the way lots and capital gains are handled, particularly
when multiple wallets (accounts) are involved. From my googling, this
appears to be an acknowledged problem. Before taking a stab at trying to
fix, I wanted to get some input from y'all.

Using a FIFO policy, say I bought 1 btc in wallet #1 two years ago, 1 btc
in wallet #2 one year ago, and today I sell the 1 btc from wallet #2, if
I'm not mistaken, the cost basis and acquisition date for the sale should
be the purchase in wallet #1 two years ago, not the purchase in wallet #2
last year. However, with current implementation, the purchase from the same
wallet as the sale would be used.

Options to fix it: 1) track lots by commodity rather than account. 2) allow
lot tracking at a common parent account. 3) Keep the current implementation
and search for other accounts in the same commodity and kinda hack it to
work.

Another issue: Wash Sales, transfers and acquisition date

When there is a wash sale according to US tax law, no capital loss is
allowed for the recent sale, instead the loss is added to the cost basis of
the new purchase and the acquisition date is adjusted by the days
previously held.

With current implementation, a lot does not track its acquisition date.
Instead, you use the earliest split. This is also a problem with transfers
between accounts, as the earliest split will be later than the acquisition.
Propose adding an acquisition date field to lot.

Let me know your thoughts.

Cheers,
Emily