Cap gains question

Steve Wallace s.wal at verizon.net
Thu Jul 17 16:05:38 CDT 2003


On Thu, Jul 17, 2003 at 01:45:56PM -0300, Jon Lapham wrote:
> James Leone wrote:
> >lapham at extracta.com.br wrote:
> >
> >>Can income from interest be considered cap gains?  Interest from a
> >>bank account, CD, etc.
> >
> >
> >No.  However, a bank may report an investors share of capital gains
> >earned in a mutual fund on the same earnings report.
> >
> >James Leone, CPA
> >
> 
> That makes sense.  That is why I'm putting mutual funds in the same
> part of the manual as stocks.
> 
> In terms of gnucash (and I guess taxes), stocks and mutual funds are
> essentially the same thing.  Right?

In the US tax treatment of stocks and Mutual Funds is substantially
different.  They are subject to different rules on how basis and taxable
gains are calculated.  Mutual funds pay "Long-term Capital Gains"
distributions as well as ordinary dividends.  Capital gain distributions
are treated like gains from sales not like dividends from stocks.

Of course this may be moot, as GnuCash does not seem to have a way of
calculating basis or gains on Stocks or Mutual Funds.

-- 
Steve Wallace


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