interesting Figures (Shouldn't They Match?)

[David T.]

> On Feb 28, 2017, at 7:56 PM, Michael Churchill via gnucash-user <gnucash-user at gnucash.org> wrote:
> 
> Jay, I believe you are correct about US IRA rules.  I have similar reports and have finally decided I need to get the cash values separately and combine it all in a little spreadsheet. Mike
> 
> 
> On 02/28/2017 04:13 AM, Jay Ridgley wrote:
>> On 02/27/2017 10:45 PM, Chris Good wrote:
>>> 
>>> AFAIK, Advanced Portfolio Rpt is only for accounts of type 'Stock' or
>>> 'Mutual Fund'.
>>> Cash is usually under Assets:Current Assets, not Assets:Investments.
>>> 
>>> Regards, Chris Good
>>> 
>> Good Morning Chris,
>> 
>> I understand that cash is an asset, however, AFAIK to make my IRA correct and to satisfy the IRS (United States). The cash that is held in that account MUST be included there, the account is of type cash. It contains money that is available to be invested, proceeds from sell transactions and funds that may be transfered to my bank as a distribution from the IRA. I will verify that is correct with my accountant when we next meet.
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> Jay
> 

The IRS doesn’t care about what the Advanced Portfolio report includes. It only cares that your retirement funds are properly identified and isolated from taxable accounts. As long as your broker maintains the distinction, you probably could do just about anything you want in GnuCash. Of course, that might make your own tracking more difficult. 

With the report, you’re mixing apples and oranges. As far as I understand, the Advanced Portfolio’s purpose is to report on your investment holdings. Cash holdings don’t have capital gains, share prices, etc., and so aren’t included on the report. I’m also not sure why your accountant would need to see the APR to evaluate your IRA. 

In my own books, I have separate hierarchies for taxable and untaxable accounts and transactions (dividends, interest, long term gains, short term gains, etc.). This isolates these transactions in the books, and makes it quick to determine the tax status of my books, since I have designated tax lines for all of them.

David