Tax Basis - Specific Lot reporting

[jbaron]

I am trying to produce a report (for export into a more complicated excel spreadsheet) that provides information for some after-tax returns. In order to do this, I produce a custom report (for 3 times periods, but that is not relevant) for every item in my portfolio.

The problem that I'm having is that today, I closed out one position. As a result, the "Tax Basis ID" value for today is NA, even though I have duly specified "all lots" as part of the lot assignment for the sale.

I can deal with the one NA value in Excel, but now I realize that for each of my three periods, I do not have values for the Tax Basis at the beginning or the end of each period; rather, I seem to have the Tax Basis as of when the report is run. if I run the report - with today's periods - in a week, I'll presumably get different values.

I'd like to know what my basis is as of some date. I can use any value that FM can produce - the basis, the unrealized gain via the specific lots, the tax basis per share (Specific Lots) - anything, as long as I can have the number for a particular day rather than today.

Is this possible?

Thanks,

Jeff

[Mark]

Hi Jeff,

Unfortunately, no. The basis and unrealized gain numbers in the Custom report for the Specific Lot method are reported for the currently owned shares. The calculation includes all recorded transactions, not just transactions up through the ending report date. This is different than the AVG or FIFO fields. You'll notice the FIFO/AVG fields have the label "(ending)", where the specific lot field does not. Also, the field description shown when you select that field in the "Custom Report Settings" dialog describes the specific lot fields as the "current" basis, where the FIFO/AVG are for the shares owned on the ending report date.

[jbaron]

OK. First, do you expect this to change at any point in the future?

Second, do the capital gains reports work "correctly" as I'd like them to work, reflecting specific lot gains as of the date that is specified in the report rather than the date that the report is run?

Thanks,

Jeff

[Mark]

Hi Jeff,

We may possibly add this flexibility in the future. I cannot say for sure when though.

This is not an issue for the Capital Gains report because that report lists information for sell transactions, and not the unrealized gain/basis for the whole investment at a point in time. The Capital Gains report will list all sell transactions within the date range of the report.

You can however use the "Open Lots" report. This will give you the cost basis information on open lots as of the report date. Unlike the Custom report where you get one number for the whole investment, this report will give you one number per open lot, but it will work with the dates the way you're looking for.

[jbaron]

Thanks for the help, Mark.

Jeff