Interestingly enough, when IBM spun off KD, my shares were registered with the registry agent ComputerShare, and I got to keep the fractional share, since the registry agent already handles fractional shares easily. No broker involved.
On Thu, Jun 18, 2026 at 9:55 PM David T. <[email protected]> wrote: > Clint, > > With use case 1: was the inheritance split as a percentage or as a set > number of shares? If, as I suspect, it was a percentage, then why not > simply take the final share count at the time of distribution and split > that in half? I don't see any point in doing it the other way round. > Presumably, the aggregated shares all appreciate at the same rate, and two > equal holdings would have appreciated at the rate rate as well. So, half at > the beginning will be half at the end. > > As for the stock spinoff, you "sell" the shares and "receive" a total > dollar amount, then you "buy" a different number of shares for that same > dollar amount. Technically, the rates don't really matter that much. Just > the number of shares involved at each stage. Note that in many spinoff > situations, your original number of shares results in a fractional number > of new shares (you are spun back 55.3 shares, say). This is usually handled > by the brokerage as "Cash in lieu." I have usually handled this in GnuCash > by creating a single transaction that has the accurate spinoff amount in > shares and dollars, with a separate split to sell the fractional share at > the cash in lieu amount. It is then quite clear what happened, the basis is > accurate, and you can derive the gain on the fractional sale easily. I add > notes to the splits to explain what's going on. > > David T. > > > On June 19, 2026 8:58:42 AM GMT+05:30, John Ralls <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> You can. But as you might have discovered empirically it’s not consistently >> used: A rough grep finds 35 uses of xaccAccountGetCommoditySCU, which >> returns the fraction set in the Account Edit Dialog, and 104 uses of >> gnc_commodity_get_fraction, which returns the fraction set in the currency >> editor. >> >> Regards, >> John Ralls >> >> On Jun 18, 2026, at 15:49, Clint Chaplin <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>> What I find interesting is that GnuCash has the ability for me to set any >>> arbitrary USD cash accounts to 3, 4, 5 or more decimal digits, and yet that >>> ability cannot be carried over to the USD cash side of >>> conversions/transfers to and from non-USD accounts. >>> >>> On Thu, Jun 18, 2026 at 10:46 AM John Ralls <[email protected] >>> <mailto:[email protected] <[email protected]>>> wrote: >>> >>>> Clint, >>>> >>>> Don’t sweat the pennies in stock basis, they don’t make a practical >>>> difference anywhere. >>>> >>>> For splitting the DRIPs bases alternate the rounding so that for the first >>>> one your basis is (e.g.) .45 and your sister’s is .46, the second your >>>> basis is .46 and your sister’s is .45, and so on. Notice that if there are >>>> an even number of such dividends you come out even and if there are an odd >>>> number your sister comes out .01 ahead. That’s to promote familial peace. >>>> It doesn’t actually matter, >>>> >>>> Regards, >>>> John Ralls >>>> >>>> On Jun 18, 2026, at 09:30, Clint Chaplin <[email protected] >>>> <mailto:[email protected] <[email protected]>>> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> Hmm, I actually have two use cases, neither of which involve stock >>>>> splits, sorry for the deke. >>>>> >>>>> I and my sister inherited some stock from our father, split 50/50. It >>>>> took several years to settle the estate, and meanwhile the stock split 2 >>>>> for 1 twice and kept DRIPping. When it came time to actually distribute >>>>> the stock, we had to split the original stock with the basis at the time >>>>> of death, and also the subsequent DRIPs. If the total value of a DRIP >>>>> happened to be odd, then the amount bequeathed to each person when split >>>>> 50/50 would have a half cent. >>>>> >>>>> Second use case: spinoffs. To record the split, the original stock is >>>>> "sold" for the original value and basis, and then "bought" for the >>>>> modified value and basis, which could be any fraction of the original >>>>> value and basis (in my case, .9581688 of the original amount and basis), >>>>> while the remainder value is used to "purchase" the spun off stock (in my >>>>> case, .0418312 of the original value). This ain't gonna be an even >>>>> number of cents... >>>>> >>>>> On Thu, Jun 18, 2026 at 8:54 AM Derek Atkins <[email protected] >>>>> <mailto:[email protected] <[email protected]>> <mailto:[email protected] >>>>> <[email protected]> <mailto:[email protected] <[email protected]>>>> wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> Keep in mind that gnucash does not store the price in the register, it >>>>>> stores the #shares and total $value. Are you saying you would have a >>>>>> mil in the total value of the split? >>>>>> -derek >>>>>> Sent using my mobile device. Please excuse any typos. >>>>>> >>>>>> On June 18, 2026 11:38:28 Clint Chaplin <[email protected] >>>>>> <mailto:[email protected] <[email protected]>> <mailto:[email protected] >>>>>> <[email protected]> <mailto:[email protected] <[email protected]>>>> >>>>>> wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>> Unfortunate. My use case is stock that has split. The suggested way to >>>>>>> record this change in basis in GnuCash is to sell all the stock, and >>>>>>> then >>>>>>> rebuy at the split quantities at the new pricing. This will lead to >>>>>>> amounts that are fractions of a penny, but simply cannot be recorded in >>>>>>> GnuCash with the current restriction. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Even worse is when a spinoff happens and needs to be recorded. The >>>>>>> basis >>>>>>> of the stock needs to be modified, but the only way I can see is to >>>>>>> "sell" >>>>>>> and "buy" at the new basis, but the total amount per purchase cannot be >>>>>>> in >>>>>>> fractions of a penny. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> When I have over 100 lots to do this to, the rounding to the nearest >>>>>>> penny >>>>>>> will catch up... >>>>>>> >>>>>>> On Wed, Jun 17, 2026 at 2:53 PM John Ralls <[email protected] >>>>>>> <mailto:[email protected] <[email protected]>> >>>>>>> <mailto:[email protected] <[email protected]> >>>>>>> <mailto:[email protected] <[email protected]>>>> wrote: >>>>>>> >>>>>>> No, no more than you can get a 10th of a penny at the bank or the >>>>>>> grocery >>>>>>>> store. Prices can be in fractions of a penny, amounts cannot. >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> Regards, >>>>>>>> John Ralls >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> On Jun 16, 2026, at 10:39 PM, Clint Chaplin <[email protected] >>>>>>>> <mailto:[email protected] <[email protected]>> >>>>>>>> <mailto:[email protected] <[email protected]> >>>>>>>> <mailto:[email protected] <[email protected]>>>> wrote: >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> Is there a way to set GnuCash to take USD tenths and mils on some >>>>>>>>> accounts? My default is USD, if that matters... >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> -- >>>>>>>>> Clint (JOATMON) Chaplin >>>>>>>>> ------------------------------ >>>>>>>>> gnucash-user mailing list >>>>>>>>> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected] >>>>>>>>> <[email protected]>> <mailto:[email protected] >>>>>>>>> <[email protected]> <mailto:[email protected] >>>>>>>>> <[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. >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> ------------------------------ >>>>>>>> gnucash-user mailing list >>>>>>>> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected] >>>>>>>> <[email protected]>> <mailto:[email protected] >>>>>>>> <[email protected]> <mailto:[email protected] >>>>>>>> <[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. >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> -- >>>>>>> Clint (JOATMON) Chaplin >>>>>>> ------------------------------ >>>>>>> gnucash-user mailing list >>>>>>> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected] >>>>>>> <[email protected]>> <mailto:[email protected] >>>>>>> <[email protected]> <mailto:[email protected] >>>>>>> <[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. >>>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> Clint (JOATMON) Chaplin >>>>> >>>> ------------------------------ >>>> gnucash-user mailing list >>>> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected] >>>> <[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. >>>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> Clint (JOATMON) Chaplin >>> >> ------------------------------ >> 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. >> >> -- Clint (JOATMON) Chaplin _______________________________________________ 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. 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