Trial Balance report -operator error or bug

[John Ralls]

> On Feb 10, 2017, at 9:16 AM, Geert Janssens <geert.gnucash at kobaltwit.be> wrote:
> 
> Op vrijdag 10 februari 2017 09:57:54 CET schreef David Carlson:
>> I have submitted Bug 778455
>> <https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=778455> which includes David
>> T's file and brief but incomplete description.
>> 
>> Now it on record.
>> 
>> David C
> 
> Thanks a lot David! That's great community service :)
> 

I've answered the bug, but for completeness I'll address it here, too.

You can't both expense the commissions and fees *and* net them out of the capital gain because that's counting the same money twice. Sure, you can make the transaction look like it balances because the splits sum up to zero, but the equation sale price - expenses - cap gain = basis doesn't work, so the trial balance fails: The commissions and fees are included in both expenses and cap gain.

If you want to separate how much your spending on commissions in a tax environment like the US where you're allowed to net them out then you need to create sub-accounts for them under each of your capital gains accounts and fiddle things around so that everything adds up correctly.

Regards,
John Ralls