Thanks, Martin, for the comprehensive response! I'll catch a few
highlights right now.
I think my original showed a stock split in which I destroyed the original
shares and added new ones with the same date, something like
2001-06-01 * "stock split"
Assets:BrokerA:AA -20 AA {40.00 USD, 2001-01-05}
Assets:BrokerA:AA -18 AA {50.00 USD, 2001-04-05}
Assets:BrokerA:AA 40 AA {20.00 USD, 2001-01-05}
Assets:BrokerA:AA 36 AA {25.00 USD, 2001-04-05}
I sense this maintains the issue date of the original shares on the new 40
AA and 36 AA while keeping them as distinct lots. That seems useful to me
if they are certificates, for the 40 sh. could be a different piece of
paper from the 36 sh. It could be important if you direct the sale of
specific lots: "Sell 20 sh. AA acquired at 20 USD"). (As I understand it,
once you start selling by lot, then it's hard to sell by average cost.
It's even harder to change what you did years ago.)
To make that a bit easier, I added labels to the certificates.something
like this:
2001-06-01 * "stock split"
Assets:Cert:AA -20 AA {40.00 USD, 2001-01-05, "C1"}
Assets:Cert:AA -18 AA {50.00 USD, 2001-04-05, "C2"}
Assets:Cert:AA 40 AA {20.00 USD, 2001-01-05, "C3"}
Assets:Cert:AA 36 AA {25.00 USD, 2001-04-05, "C4"}
Except that's not how it works, right? Typically they'd just send out the
new, incremental shares:
2001-06-01 * "stock split"
Assets:Cert:AA -20 AA {40.00 USD, 2001-01-05, "C1"}
Assets:Cert:AA -18 AA {50.00 USD, 2001-04-05, "C2"}
Assets:Cert:AA 20 AA {20.00 USD, 2001-01-05, "C1"}
Assets:Cert:AA 18 AA {25.00 USD, 2001-04-05, "C1"}
Assets:Cert:AA 20 AA {20.00 USD, 2001-01-05, "C3"}
Assets:Cert:AA 18 AA {25.00 USD, 2001-04-05, "C4"}
That updates the basis on C1 and C2 and adds the new C3 and C4. Now each
labelled stock has the right date and basis.
But that's not how it works, either, right? Typically they'd just send out
one certificate for 38 sh.:
2001-06-01 * "stock split"
Assets:Cert:AA -20 AA {40.00 USD, 2001-01-05, "C1"}
Assets:Cert:AA -18 AA {50.00 USD, 2001-04-05, "C2"}
Assets:Cert:AA 20 AA {20.00 USD, 2001-01-05, "C1"}
Assets:Cert:AA 18 AA {25.00 USD, 2001-04-05, "C1"}
Assets:Cert:AA 38 AA {22.37 USD, 2001-01-05, "C3"}
Now C3 has a basis that's 22.3684210526 USD (or 22.37 USD -- the weighted
average of the new 20 and 18 AA).
Is that the way you'd track it? (I realize that's both a tax and a
Beancount accounting question.) I think both the IRS and Beancount would
be happy, at least if I never sell, oh, 25 sh. of C3 and keep the remaining
13 AA out of that lot. Even if I did, in a practical sense, that
*probably* leads
to a *de minimus" *error, I'm hoping.
If those lots were at a broker, then I'd now have 76 sh. AA there. I would
do myself a service by identifying the lot to sell as being from one or
more of C1, C2, and/or C3, and I would make my life a bit easier (in an
audit, at least) if I sold C3 all at one time. Make sense?
I don't think I've ever done that with a certificate, but, once it's lumped
at a broker, it might be easy to do inadvertently.
On Fri, Aug 31, 2018 at 7:40 PM Martin Blais <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> I hope this helps,
>
Quite a bit; thanks!
Bill
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Bill Harris
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