On 2024-12-26 20:30, Bob Plantz wrote: > I realize that an IRA distribution is not income, but the (USA) IRS treats it > as income.
Not always. If you have a basis in your IRA, because at some time (possibly decades ago) you made a nondeductible contribution, or rolled over some other account that contained some after-tax money into your IRA, then you will have to compute how much of each distribution is taxable and how much is not. > How do I get gnucash to treat the total cash distribution as income? In my view, the question is not "how?" but "why?" Just because the IRS calls it income doesn't mean you need to account for it as income in GnuCash.(*) And, as mentioned above, some of it may not even _be_ income for tax purposes. GnuCash doesn't fill in your Form 1040 for you, so where is the need to credit an income account when you take a distribution? Sherlock suggested a way you might account for distributions from your IRA. I won't say that's wrong, if it works for you. My own approach is simple: an IRA distribution is the same thing as a withdrawal from a savings account: a debit to the checking account and a credit to the savings account or the IRA. (If you're having taxes withheld, it would be a debit to income tax, a debit to the checking account, and a credit to the IRA.) If you use the same distinctive Description line in every withdrawal, it's easy to do a Find in the Asset account at the end of the year and add up the withdrawals. (Your broker should be sending you a 1099-B with that total, but of course you'll want to check the broker's figures.) (*) There's an even better example of the futility of trying to make your GnuCash income equal your taxable income. Consider Social Security benefits. Some portion of them is not income, but is a return of FICA tax you paid while working. And some _different_ portion of the benefits may be taxable on your Form 1040. You won't know how much of your Social Security benefit is taxable till the end of the year, so how would you allocate each month's payment between income and non-income? Stan Brown Tehachapi, CA, USA https://BrownMath.com _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list [email protected] To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
