Ahh, interesting. I like that idea. I was not aware of contra accounts. Thanks.
On Mon, Dec 20, 2021 at 8:00 PM Chris Grinton <[email protected]> wrote: > You could consider using a contra expense account to reverse the effect of > the expense and apply it to the cost base of the asset purchase? Then you > can still report on the Expense:Commissions account (*without* the > including contra account in the report) to show how much you're paying in > commissions, while also having the asset's cost base accurately include the > cost of the commission. > > For example: > > Assets:Investments:Brokerage Account:Stock:XYZ 1 share * $100 = > $100 (DR) > Assets:Investments:Brokerage Account:Stock:XYZ > $ 5 (DR) > Expenses:Commissions > $ 5 (DR) > Expenses:Commissions:less applied to asset cost base > $ 5 (CR) > Assets:Investments:Brokerage Account > $105 (CR) > > On Tue, 21 Dec 2021 at 13:35, Daniel Torstenson <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> Hi, >> >> I've been looking into tracking my capital gains and commissions for a >> brokerage account, and I'm running into an issue that I see others have >> run >> into. Namely, I'd like to account for my commissions and also keep track >> of >> my capital gains, as my brokerage reports them (and as the IRS expects >> them). >> >> I found a few threads on this topic, but didn't really see a good >> resolution. >> >> https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2016-April/065058.html >> https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2017-February/069173.html >> https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=778455#c4 >> >> The problem, as has been pointed out, is that in a double-entry accounting >> system, you can only account for expenses once. Either you count >> commissions as an expense, or you count them as a lowered capital gain. If >> you do both, you're double counting and your book is out of balance. >> >> You can force GnuCash to do it by tweaking the following the instructions >> for manual calculation of capital gains >> >> >> https://lists.gnucash.org/docs/C/gnucash-guide/invest-sell1.html#invest-sell-man >> >> You simply enter the "net profit" instead of the "gross profit" for the >> capital gains in that example. I gather some people do that, but it's >> wrong, and when you run a Trial Balance report, you'll see the credits >> don't equal the debits. >> >> In the bug report above, John Ralls suggests a solution that I didn't >> completely understand. I have a method that's inspired by that comment >> that >> seems to work for me, but I'm not an accountant and I'm wondering what the >> "standard" method is. In other words, what do the accountants at, say >> Berkshire Hathaway or any other firm with a trading desk do? >> >> I attached a snapshot of the transactions for a fictitious XYZ stock. I >> simply break up the "Capital Gains" into two subaccounts: "Capital >> Gains:Net Capital Gains" and "Capital Gains:Commissions". When I do this, >> the Trial Balance report checks out as desired. >> >> But it seems a little funny to me to have both a commissions expense >> account and a commissions income account (Capital Gains:Commissions), so >> I'm wondering if there's a more standard way of doing this. >> >> Thanks! >> _______________________________________________ >> gnucash-user mailing list >> [email protected] >> To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: >> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user >> If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see >> https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. >> ----- >> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. >> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. >> > _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list [email protected] To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
