How to enter Return of Capital

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: Return of Capital.

yiplisa

What if your statement shows a return of capital that decreases the cost basis of the security without any increase in cash? I ended up booking a withdrawal entry and categorized it to Misc Exp to remove the cash booked with the RtnCap entry to reconcile my cash balance. Is there any other way to record this?

Tom Young

@yiplisa

Maybe you should indicate the name of the security involved.  Perhaps there's some information provided by the company that explains this. 

There really should be no way that your basis in a security would decrease - meaning you gain would increase if you immediately sold it - without something of value being received.  Maybe you received a warrant, or something else of value?

yiplisa

Thanks Tom. I will ask my account manager about it.

q_lurker

Another possibility is that the company redefined a prior distribution as RtrnCap instead of what might have been termed a Div previously.  Usually that only happens with the year-end data.  Your account manager should know if that was the case.

jr7107

Was there any change in the number of units? Thinking maybe that Return of Capital was "paid" then some sort of auto-reinvestment type of transaction?