[GNC] Stock Split - am I doing this right?

David T. sunfish62 at yahoo.com
Sun Jul 31 03:04:26 EDT 2022


Depending on your situation, the built in mechanisms for calculating your basis and subsequently your gain may or may not generate accurate results. 

The lot feature is great when it works, which for me has been about 80%of the time. But if it doesn't get the right numbers (for whatever reason) then the lot feature can cause a world of pain. Holdings that have overlapping lots, or ones where particular lots are sold to minimize gain, or have complex origins (think gifted stock, or stock obtained through employee stock options, and yes occasionally split stocks) can have especially puzzling and inaccurate results. 

My practice now is to consult the brokerage statement when processing all sales and change the gains figures in GnuCash to match those on the statement. After all, the tax authorities are going to be using those figures when they hit me up for tax payments. 

While this would seemingly contradict the concept that we are supposed to use our books to monitor the accuracy of our broker's figures, the reality is that I don't have the skill, knowledge, or background to actually challenge the figures they've provided in regards to gains on sales, so I just accept their numbers on this front. 

Your decision, is of course up to you. 

David T. 

On July 31, 2022 2:59:55 AM GMT+03:00, nvsoar <nvsoar at charter.net> wrote:
>On 07/30/22 16:10, replicon wrote:
>> I'm trying to capture the AMZN stock split that took place a while back.
>> 
>> I was surprised by the UI, since instead of "enter split ratio" or
>> something like that, it wants me to manually calculate additional stock.
>> 
>> Is the correct way to do it:
>> 
>>     - Multiply stock holdings by 19, and add that as additional stock (since
>>     it's 20-to-1)
>>     - Set the "new price" to the value it had when the split occurred
>> 
>> My concern is, since stock purchases we track in GNUCash include the basis,
>> doesn't the stock split tool cause it to lose track of cost basis?
>> 
>> I imagine the correct way to track things like capital gains is that any
>> transaction where stock was received at a certain price should be
>> supplanted with a new transaction for 20x that much stock, at 1/20 of the
>> value at time of receipt. Is that not correct? Or is that actually
>> happening under the hood without my noticing?
>> 
>> Thanks!
>
>FWIW - costbasis.com  has assisted me in getting numerous stock transaction calculations correctly.  No charge, donations accepted.   nvsoar
>
>
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