Capital gains

[Eric Angell]

On Tue, Jan 24, 2006 at  6:41:23 -0500, Jean-David Beyer wrote:

> Derek Atkins replied (in part)
>
> > Yes, you could do this manually for now.  An "Income:Capital Gains"
> > account would probably be best. 

Yes, I found that thread and I'm trying to understand how to use
said I:CapGain account.

> And the sell transaction looks like this (liberties taken to fit columns):
> 
> 2006-01-04 Sell                                            -1.00
>                        Assets:Investments:Ameritrade:Margin          2989.00
>            Commission  Expenses:Investment Expenses:Ameritrade Margin   8.00
>       Sell             Assets:Inv:Amer. Marg:Berks Hatha   -1.00  1487.12
>                        Income:Capital Gains:Ameritrade Margin        1509.88

I'm afraid I don't quite follow all of those splits - let's do
some abbreviation and realignment; is this correct?

A:Inv:AmMargin                              $2989.00
E:InvExp:AmMargin                              $8.00
A:Inv:AmMargin:BRKb    -1.00      $1487.12            $1487.12
I:CapGain:AmMargin                                    $1509.88

But doesn't that say that you sold one share of BRKb for
$1487.12?  Wasn't the price actually $2997?  It seems
disingenuous to misrepresent the sale price in that fashion.

My previous proposal applied to this transaction would look like
the following:

A:Inv:AmMargin                              $2989.00
E:InvExp:AmMargin                              $8.00
A:Inv:AmMargin:BRKb    -1.00      $2997.00            $2997.00
I:CapGain:AmMargin                                    $1509.88
A:Inv:AmMargin:BRKb     0.00         $0.00  $1509.88

At least in this case, the sale price of the asset is clearly
indicated, even though it requires an additional disingenuous
split to make it balance.  I don't really like either way.

Derek, when you suggested using I:CapGains, how did you imagine
the split fitting into the sell transaction?

-E

-- 
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