[GNC] Asset accounts: cost, or value?

[Adrien Monteleone]

Marcus,

Are you absolutely certain you are allowed to tack those items on to the 
cost basis? There may be tax implications there.

Just because you are a 'regular person' doesn't mean you don't have to 
keep accurate books, especially if you have to file tax/legal documents 
based on the figures from those books.

You should get professional advice on this topic. (this list is not the 
place for it)

Otherwise, the *how* part we can help with. Christopher's example shows 
one way of how to craft the transactions.

If you aren't allowed to include some items in the cost basis, but you 
want to see 'net profit' on the entire sale, you might have to craft a 
creative report to do so. (Which is not terribly difficult. It could be 
a simple matter of deciding the right basic report, then selecting the 
limited proper accounts.)

Regards,
Adrien

On 9/2/20 10:14 AM, Marcus Winston wrote:
> Well, yes, it isn't necessarily a gnucash question. But pen and ink are 
> a bit cumbersome, and so I use gnucash.
> 
> Let me illustrate, perhaps it will help to identify whether I'm 
> fundamentally doing it wrong, or just have the wrong accounts.
> 
> In the assets:fixed assets:house account, I have (I'm making up numbers 
> to make things simple):
> 
> purchase price of house: +$100,000, balance $100,000
> 
> costs to purchase: +$1000, balance $101,000
> 
> costs to sell: +$2000, balance $102,000
> 
> capital gains: $20,000, balance $122,000
> 
> 
> What I'm attempting to do is see the cost or value of the house (or, 
> that's what I thought it would do) in the assets:fixed assets:house 
> account.  The purchase price is, of course, fine. The costs to purchase 
> add to the basis, which is what I want to do in order to easily 
> see/calculate (eventually) capital gains (for tax-related purposes). I 
> add the selling costs before capital gains because, when I add the 
> capital gains, then I get to the actual selling price of the house, 
> which is convenient. It might be wrong from an accounting perspective, 
> but I'm just a "regular person", not an accountant. I'm trying to figure 
> out how to use GnuCash to track all this stuff.  What I see in the other 
> accounts tells me I am probably doing it wrong. The "costs to purchase" 
> account is an expense. But that account has a -$1000 balance, and the 
> "costs to sell" account (also under Expenses) has a -$2000 balance. The 
> capital gains is the only thing that's right, because that's an income 
> account.
> 
> The fundamental question is, should I be trying to use the assets:fixed 
> assets:house account to track this stuff? What I see in there has me 
> thinking that account tracks my actual costs, but when I add the capital 
> gains, it appears to reflect the value of the house, not the cost. 
> Hence, my original question: is the "house" account intended to track 
> the value, or the cost, of the house?