Question about Lots and Capital Gains

Charles Day cedayiv at gmail.com
Mon Mar 31 20:02:21 EDT 2008


On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 4:39 PM, Rich Bloch <richbl at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks for the info Charles.
>
> I cannot repro the situation that you describe.
>

Here's what I recall in a little more detail:
1. Open the stock account's register.
2. Enter a stock buy of 4 shares @ $2 on day 1.
3. Enter a stock buy of 10 shares @ $3.50 on day 2.
4. Enter a sell of 6 shares @4.10 on day 3, with no splits for capital
gains.
5. Actions->View Lots
6. Click Scrub Account.
7. View Lots shows Lot 0 with 4 shares (all sold), and Lot 1 with 10 shares
(2 sold, 8 remaining).
8. The stock account's register shows two new transactions for the capital
gains: one for the 4 shares sold from Lot 0, and one for the 2 shares sold
from Lot 1.

I am using the latest build of GnuCash from SVN on Windows XP, but I doubt
that this part of the source code has been modified for at least several
versions.

Tell me if the above doesn't help, and I'll attach a screen shot.

Cheers,
Charles


> After entering a stock sale, and then scrubbing the equity account, I do
> not see any changes made to that account. I see the list of lots in the
> dialog, but nothing is altered in the equity account.
>
> Perhaps there are some subtle account settings that need changing? What
> version and what platform are you running?
>
>
>
> On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 1:44 PM, Charles Day <cedayiv at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 11:22 AM, Derek Atkins <warlord at mit.edu> wrote:
> >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > Quoting Rich Bloch <richbl at gmail.com>:
> > >
> > > > Hello all,
> > > >
> > > > I'm running 2.2.1, and I'm in the process of learning how to manage
> > > stock
> > > > purchases/sales. However, I'm having a difficult time understanding
> > > how
> > > > "lots" work.
> > >
> > > Unfortunately Lots are not fully implemented at this time.
> > >
> > > > There's a dialog accessed by View Lots off the main account window,
> > > > which--not surprisingly--permits me to scrub and view stock lots.
> > > However,
> > > > this dialog doesn't appear to do much else (either that, or I'm just
> > > not
> > > > seeing any functional changes). So, here are my questions:
> > > >
> > > > --If I want to sell a stock, how does gnucash identify the stock
> > > lot--and
> > > > it's basis--to determine capital gains?
> > >
> > > It doesn't... Nor does it compute capital gains for you.
> > >
> >
> > I found by accident yesterday that "View Lots" actually seems to do
> > capital gains calculations:
> > 1. Enter a sale of stock in the register without accounting for the
> > capital gains.
> > 2. Choose Actions->View Lots.
> > 3. Click the "Scrub Account" button.
> > 4. Capital gains get calculated and a new transaction is automatically
> > created in the register to account for them.
> >
> > So there would seem to be more functionality behind the "View Lots"
> > dialog than viewing alone.
> >
> > > --What accounting policy does gnucash use for determining capital
> > > gains? I
> > > > believe FIFO is most typically used, though LIFO is also legal, as
> > > is lot
> > > > selection.
> > >
> > > None.  See above.  But the partial implementation is FIFO, IIRC.
> > >
> >
> > The "Scrub Account" button used FIFO in my experiments.
> >
> > -Charles
> >
> > > --Are there specific docs available that address how gnucash handles
> > > lots
> > > > (in 2.x)? I spent some time picking through notes and conversations
> > > on
> > > > gnucash.org and the wiki, and haven't really found anything
> > > definitive.
> > >
> > > There may be a lots.txt somewhere.  But the only definitive source
> > > would be, um, the source.
> > >
> > > > Thanks much.
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > rich
> > >
> > > > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> > > > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
> > >
> > > -derek
> > >
> > > --
> > >       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
> > >       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
> > >       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
> > >       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available
> > >
> > >
>
>
> --
> rich


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