It's been rumoured that Christopher Browne said:
> > Imagine a 2-for-1 split ...
> >
> > One could create a balancing transaction by 'selling' 100 shares at
> > $100 and 'buying' 200 shares at $50.
>
> Unfortunately, that establishes a taxable event, which _hasn't_ taken
> place.
Oops, 'sell' & 'buy' was an unfortunate choice of wording. 'debit' &
'credit' are the words I should have used.
> What has occurred is just the same as a price change, and price changes
> don't result in there being new transactions.
We need to detach the meaning of 'transaction' as an interaction between
human entities and 'transaction' as a chunk of data kept by the server.
They're not the same.
The gnucash engine records a price as a 'transaction' involving
the exchange of zero dollars/shares.
I'd propose that the stock-split be recorded as a 'transaction'
where an account is debited a set of shares at one price, and
that same account being credited with a different amount of shares
at a different price. Insofar as there's no transfer of cash to a bank,
or other party, its not taxable.
--linas
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