How to separate dividends, short-term and Long-term gains from Fidelity?Closed
Fidelity Investments doesn't download reinvestments in a mutual fund the way they did many years ago (or, for that matter, show them on printed statements). This means the categorization of income is wrong.
Here's an example of hypothetical quarterly reinvestment, as it appears in four separate transactions downloaded into Quicken:
DIVIDEND INCOME $25 (actual dividend)
DIVIDEND INCOME $10 (actually, a long-term capital gain)
DIVIDEND INCOME $5 (actually, short-term capital gain, noted in the Memo column)
BUY 8 shares @ $5 (sweeping out $40 from cash in one transaction)
What this ought to be is three reinvestment transactions:
REINVEST DIVIDEND $25 5 shares
REINVEST LT CAP GAIN $10 2 shares
REINVEST ST CAP GAIN $5 1 share
so that everything winds up in the right category, because long-term gains are in a different tax category (ST are treated as dividends for taxes, at least for now).
Is there some way to do this automatically, or do we have to "fix" it manually?
Here's an example of hypothetical quarterly reinvestment, as it appears in four separate transactions downloaded into Quicken:
DIVIDEND INCOME $25 (actual dividend)
DIVIDEND INCOME $10 (actually, a long-term capital gain)
DIVIDEND INCOME $5 (actually, short-term capital gain, noted in the Memo column)
BUY 8 shares @ $5 (sweeping out $40 from cash in one transaction)
What this ought to be is three reinvestment transactions:
REINVEST DIVIDEND $25 5 shares
REINVEST LT CAP GAIN $10 2 shares
REINVEST ST CAP GAIN $5 1 share
so that everything winds up in the right category, because long-term gains are in a different tax category (ST are treated as dividends for taxes, at least for now).
Is there some way to do this automatically, or do we have to "fix" it manually?
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I personally edit all the Dividend and Gain transactions to be Reinvestments, and delete the Buy. This results in a more accurate Amount Invested for the security, and any statistic (e.g., Return and ROI) which uses Amount Invested. If you use a Buy instead of a Reinvest, Quicken will increase Amount Invested, which is incorrect, because you haven't added any money out of your pocket.
[EDIT: I just noticed you're on a Mac. I know nothing about QMac, so my comment about Amount Invested may not even be correct on that platform.]
I have complained about the incorrect transactions to Fidelity many times over the years. They shrug it off and don't care to fix it. I have given up complaining and just do the painful transaction editing when needed.
Quicken user since version 2 for DOS, as of 2025 using QWin Premier (US) on Win10 Pro & Win11 Pro on 2 PCs.
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The ONLY method that I've ever found is to accept all of those transactions ... and then manually edit them. What they really are is in the Memo field ... instead of being used to create the proper type of transaction.
As a side note, this is really only an issue in a taxable account ... as in a non-taxable account (say, an IRA) there aren't the tax implications, but there are investment performance implications.
Also, in your scenario, I'd only edit the 3 Dividend Income transactions and leave the BUY intact. That, to me, is easier than trying to convert the BUY to a Reinvest and inputting all of the Income transactions there.
Q user since February, 1990. DOS Version 4
Now running Quicken Windows Subscription, Business & Personal
Retired "Certified Information Systems Auditor" & Bank Audit VP
This post has been closed.
Q user since February, 1990. DOS Version 4
Now running Quicken Windows Subscription, Business & Personal
Retired "Certified Information Systems Auditor" & Bank Audit VP