Capital Gains Not Showing

[sdrowles]

I printed a Capital Gains -FIFO report and 12 of the 48 stocks list a cost basis of 0.00 which I know is not correct. Most of the stocks I have held for years and some were transferred from another brokerage many years ago.

Here is one example: 30 shares of MHS was acquired in 2007 for $2384.19 (including broker fee). It split on 1/24/2008 (not sure if that is relevant). I sold all 60 shares on 2/1/2012 for $3769.93.

The capital gains report is showing a cost basis of 0 and a gain of $3769. Obviously this is incorrect.

One other factor might be relevant here. The stock was bought out by ESRX in April 2012 so any historical prices are not available. The symbol MHS does not even show up at Yahoo.

What can do to get proper capital gains and cost basis data to show on the report?

Capital gains calculations are the main interest I have in this software, so it is very important to me that this is working properly.

Thank you

[Mark]

Hi sdrowles,

The cost basis is determined from your recorded transactions, so check what you have recorded using the Data Register (Edit / All Data...). It sounds like somehow your purchases or transfer ins were recorded at a cost of $0. One common way this can happen is if you retrieve transactions and positions when you first set up your account in Fund Manager, and your broker doesn't report transactions back far enough. In this case Fund Manager knows how many shares you own, but doesn't know how you got them, so it records a placeholder purchase at a cost of $0, which you should manually correct.

Look at the example investment you described, and in the Data Register under the data type of "Transactions (all)" you should see a purchase transaction for 30 shares for $2384.19 in 2007. If it is recorded incorrectly, select that transaction, and edit it. Next, change the data type to "Splits", and make sure you have a 2:1 split on 1/24/08. Sometimes brokers report splits as a purchase of additional shares at a cost of $0, but it is better to delete that purchase, and record an actual split transaction.

[sdrowles]

Hi Mark,

I found out what I was doing wrong. When I initiated the report I used a starting date of 1/1/12 thinking I wanted all capital gains for the year 2012. But it seems that I need a starting date prior to the date I bought the stock. When I did that I got more capital gains and cost data coming in. I suspect that the other capital gains and basis errors have a problem more in line with what you described. I will go back an make some adjustments and see if can get this working. If not, I know who to contact for assistance.

Thanks for your help.

sdrowles

[Mark]

Hi sdrowles,

When you run a Capital Gains report, any closing transaction (sell for long, buy for short) that happens within the date range of the report will be shown. So, your initial thought was correct, if you run a report from 1/1/12 to today, any gain/loss that happened this year will be listed. It does not matter when the opening transaction happened, as long as the closing transaction was within the date range of the report, it will be listed.