GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 765131
Need to document how to do investment Return of Capital
Last modified: 2018-06-29 23:48:32 UTC
I will soon add some documentation to the Guide showing how to do an investment return of capital. Specifically, need to enter for the stock split: Shares 0, Price 0 and Return of Capital value in Sell. Refer http://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2005-January/012667.html
I thought maybe it would be possible to use the Stock Split Assistant to do (or partially set up) a return of capital but I don't think this is possible as: 1) Cannot progress (assistant Forward button is disabled) unless non-zero value is entered in Shares 2) If you enter a dummy no of shares in the assistant with the intention of later changing the no of shares and price to 0, you cannot enter Buy or Sell on the stock split (those fields are not visited). Can some-one please confirm so I can include a note in the documentation that it is not possible to use the Stock Split Assistant to set up a Return of Capital?
Well, a return of capital isn't really a buy or a sell. From an accounting standpoint it's a return of some of your principal with no associated reduction in shares. I just book them as zero share (or I suppose unit, since they're mostly issued by master limited partnerships) zero price credit on the security account and a balancing debit in my brokerage cash account. But I don't use the advanced portfolio report so I have no idea what that needs to show the reduction in basis.
Thanks for you comment John. I can confirm that the advanced portfolio report does properly handle returns of capital transactions by reducing the cost basis.
Created attachment 326214 [details] [review] Document Investment Return of Capital in the Guide - Bug 765131
Committed to maint, thanks! This will appear in the next gnucash (documentation) release.
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