[GNC] Automatic capital gains question

[NoobAlice]

On 2024-10-07 09:52 PM, Jon Schewe wrote:
> In my case there are no transaction fees, those are handled separately
> though a cash account. However that wouldn't explain why the numbers
> don't add up. Shouldn't GnuCash put the trades into lots and if I've
> sold off all of my shares shouldn't all of the buys minus the sells
> give me my capital gains? I'm trying what I feel like is a pretty
> simple account to understand how the automatic lots work. If it can't
> get that right, I can't trust it to get the gains right when I don't
> sell off all of the shares.
> Again, what am I missing in my understanding of how GnuCash does things
> that would explain why the numbers don't add up?


My guess is that your basis may be off.  Does your cost basis in GnuCash 
actually match the cost basis your brokerage has?  If not, can you 
pinpoint the differences?  I am assuming that you already checked that 
the number of shares matches.

You may already know this, but for anyone who doesn't:
- If you have reinvested dividends, they will be part of your cost basis.
- If the stock or mutual fund paid any dividends that were partial (or 
entire!) "return of capital" dividends in a time of lower or no profits, 
then your basis will be reduced by that return of capital amount.
- If the stock had a spin-off, part of your old basis will go to the new 
stock.  (For example, if Tech company does a spin-off of Division at 10% 
of cost basis, you will end up with Tech at 90% of your original basis 
and Division at 10% of your original basis.)
- If the purchase prices in GnuCash accidentally got switched for two 
different stocks, you would end up with the wrong basis for both stocks 
but still have your cash/clearing account match.  I've done that with 
funds with similar tickers.

And sometimes I've had a broker allocate basis for a sale/split one way 
initially, then a while later silently correct it, which I only notice 
when I get the 1099 forms.

If you have few enough shares acquisitions, it might be easiest to go 
through these manually, just scrolling down the lines of your ledger and 
comparing them to information from your brokerage.

I cannot see your books, so this is just my best guess.

(I don't currently use the lots function just because of how particular 
I am about gains display in my records.)

- NoobAlice