Hi beancount list, I have three questions about capital gains and trading commissions:
1. I understand Beancount 2 doesn't have good support for factoring trading commissions into capital gains calculations. Is my example below a reasonable workaround, or is there a better way? (See bottom of email. I think this more or less implements the suggestion at https://beancount.github.io/docs/trading_with_beancount.html#commissions) 2. Is there a syntax for specifying the total cost of a lot, instead of the per-unit cost? E.g. instead of Assets:Brokerage:ACME 10 ACME {10.50 USD} I would like to write something like Assets:Brokerage:ACME 10 ACME {@@ 105.00 USD} or even Assets:Brokerage:ACME 10 ACME {@@ 100.00 + 5.00 USD} The latter two would be more pleasant to use when the cost per unit is not a nice round number. 3. Is there a plan for dealing with this in a clever way? I found a reference to a "proposal" at https://beancount.github.io/docs/trading_with_beancount.html#commissions but when I click the link I get a 404 at https://beancount.github.io/docs/a_proposal_for_an_improvement_on_inventory_booking.md Thanks for your time. For question #1: here is how I am thinking of dealing with it. First, here's a ledger before the workaround. Capital gains will be computed incorrectly. (My ledger is like this right now.) option "operating_currency" "USD" plugin "beancount.plugins.auto_accounts" 2000-01-01 * "Buy ACME" Assets:Brokerage:ACME 10 ACME {10.00 USD} Expenses:Trading-commissions 5.00 USD Assets:Brokerage:Cash -105.00 USD 2000-01-02 * "Sell 1 ACME" Assets:Brokerage:ACME -1 ACME {10.00 USD} @ 12.00 USD Expenses:Trading-commissions 2.00 USD Assets:Brokerage:Cash 10.00 USD Income:Capital-gains 2000-01-02 * "Sell 9 ACME" Assets:Brokerage:ACME -9 ACME {10.00 USD} @ 20.00 USD Expenses:Trading-commissions 2.00 USD Assets:Brokerage:Cash 178.00 USD Income:Capital-gains And here is what I'm thinking of changing that to. The Expenses:Trading-commissions account disappears, but now commissions are subtracted from capital gains, which my tax jurisdictions allow. option "operating_currency" "USD" plugin "beancount.plugins.auto_accounts" 2000-01-01 * "Buy ACME" Assets:Brokerage:ACME 10 ACME {10.50 USD} Assets:Brokerage:Cash -105.00 USD 2000-01-02 * "Sell 1 ACME" Assets:Brokerage:ACME -1 ACME {10.50 USD} @ 12.00 USD Assets:Brokerage:Cash 10.00 USD Income:Capital-gains 2000-01-02 * "Sell 9 ACME" Assets:Brokerage:ACME -9 ACME {10.50 USD} @ 20.00 USD Assets:Brokerage:Cash 178.00 USD Income:Capital-gains -- James -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Beancount" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beancount/20210504134212.pczxfpx54isjchif%40moth.falsifian.org.
