Scrub Lots and Capital Gains

[Mike Alexander]

--On December 9, 2011 9:24:51 PM -0800 "David T." <sunfish62 at yahoo.com> 
wrote:

> I was just going over some stock sales in Gnucash, and I think I've
> found an error in how the scrub lots feature calculates gains.
>
> As far as I can tell, the scrub lots feature fails to take into
> account sales fees and commissions when calculating gains or losses.
> So, for example, if I buy a stock at $950 with a $50 commission and
> then sell the stock for $1500 with a $50 commission, the scrub lots
> will generate a gain transaction for $500, rather than what I believe
> should be $450 ($1000 initial cost, $1500 final sale minus $50
> commission yields $450). At least, when I compare the Gnucash gains
> with my broker's, that's what I see.
>
> Do I have this right, or is there another explanation?

You have it correct.  Gnucash's capital gains calculations don't agree 
with what the IRS requires in the US.  I don't know if they agree with 
taxing authorities anywhere else.  I've thought about changing that in 
the past, but one of the problems is that it isn't obvious what other 
splits (in either the purchase or sale transaction(s)) should be 
included in the basis when computing the gain or loss.  In simple cases 
it might be possible to make a reasonable guess, but not in general.

           Mike