Tracking cost basis of shares
Robert Graham Merkel
rgmerk@mira.net
Mon, 10 Jul 2000 14:37:34 +1000 (EST)
Dave Peticolas writes:
> Robert Graham Merkel writes:
> > Whilst discussing reports in the past week or two, it's become clear
> > that we need to track
> > which parcels of shares are sold when a sale is made. Dave, Rob, Bill
> > - have you already got a solution for this, or do you want me to come
> > up with one?
>
> Right now we have a partial solution using the src/engine/Queue.c
> routines and the xaccSplitGetCostBasis call. This is currently used in
> creating the portfolio report. This uses FIFO rules for selling.
> However, you can't configure it to use a different rule and brokerage
> fees are not included in the cost.
The point, however, is that a "rule" isn't enough. People play around
with this from transaction to transaction in order to minimise tax,
so we need to be able to store the details for each transaction.
> So, we do need a more general solution. No one is working on it,
> so feel free to do so. The current code really needs to be more
> independent from the engine and part of the 'calculation module'
> we've been talking about creating.
Yes, the calculation can and should be taken out of the engine, but
storing the data is very much an engine issue.
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Robert Merkel rgmerk@mira.net
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