I have too many transactions and lots to manually book them (wonky crypto exchange execution and pooled mining rewards). And the broker doesn't do lot tracking (crypto). I also have a lot of headache of needing to track lots through account transfers (again, crypto). So I'm in that tough spot of trying to integrate automated and hand-guided workflows. I have some processes and workarounds but I'm always looking for better ideas. Running and tuning automated booking for a while as a prep my taxes, then locking in those decisions when I file, seems useful.
Right now I'm experimenting with a tax-minimizing booking method that takes into account holding periods and short/long term rates, since I have had situations where I could sell newer lots with less gain but at the higher short-term rate, or older lots with more gain but at a lower rate ... sometimes it's better to go FIFO sometimes HIFO. The other fun aspect with transfers is that when you are transferring out of the exchange into cold storage, you generally want to invert your booking priorities, as it's not a sale, but rather, stashing away for long term storage, so you want to book the lots that you *wouldn't* want to sell. sigh. On Wed, Aug 21, 2024 at 5:50 PM fin <[email protected]> wrote: > Eric Altendorf wrote: > > --000000000000c902060620261b59 > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > hmm, in my newer transactions i've been doing everything > with explicit lots no matter what because i hate having > anything left to chance (my older transactions i mention > below). > > maybe this would make sense? > > when you change the booking method you are in effect > really changing the account nature itself so i would explicitly > close the account and give it a new name (reflecting the > booking method too) and reopen with the new booking method: > > > 2013-12-31 close Assets:Invest > 2014-01-01 open Assets:InvestFIFO "FIFO" > > > > I'm struggling to come up with the right workflow for filing capital > gains > > taxes each year. > > > > I have too many lots for manual lot selection to be feasible, so I rely > on > > automatic booking. However, the method I picked when I started filing my > > taxes a few years ago may no longer be what I want to use. > > > > One option would be to run parsing and booking for the older > transactions, > > and somehow persist the booking decisions. AFAIK, this isn't currently > > possible with Beancount but it doesn't seem too difficult in practice. > > > > Another option would be to create sub-accounts for each account, per year > > (or whatever time period), since then I can assign per-account booking > > methods for each year. This doesn't require any changes to Beancount, > but > > it makes my accounts messier and requires synthetic transfers from one > > year's account to the next. > > > > Finally, another option is to implement a new virtual booking method that > > dispatches to a particular booking method based on the date of the > > transaction. This is kind of easiest but seems the ugliest. > > > > any thoughts? > > > > eric > > now i prefer to fully specify my lots and trades so there > is no ambiguity allowed no matter what booking method might be used. > > for my older data i did change my booking method part way through > and i had to have my importer code know those dates for when things > changed. i decided after running into that situation to always > fully specify the lots to avoid any future problems. > > it was a bit of fun for me to write the importer code and to > figure out the different booking methods. i noticed that different > brokers offer different booking methods too so that can be a > complication (one that having complete information about the > data involved may be important to answer questions in the > future about what was actually going on and what was reported > to the tax people). > > > fin > > -- > 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/3ieipk-edr.ln1%40anthive.com. > -- 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/CAFXPr0vcfiQCH32L6v8VbMu%2BPwxeppe_vb64C9eC81d7zaFNmQ%40mail.gmail.com.
