Tax Lot Optimizer

Question

All brokers are allowing selection of Tax Optimizer for lot assignments on sale of a security.  Quicken investment features only two choices first in or last in, we need LIFO, FIFO, and new one tax Optimizer.  e.g. from Schwab website order of lot selection for Tax Optimizer:
 1. Short-term Losses	Lots reflecting short-term losses. If there are several lots with short-term losses, they are processed from greatest loss to least loss.
 2. Long-term Losses	Lots reflecting long-term losses. If there are several lots with long-term losses, they are processed from greatest loss to least loss.
 3. Short Neutral	Short-term lots with neither a gain nor a loss. 
 4. Long Neutral	Long-term lots with neither a gain nor a loss. 
 5. Long-term Gains	Lots with a long-term gain. If there are several lots with long-term gains, they are processed from least gain to greatest gain.
 6. Short-term Gains	Lots with a short-term gain. If there are several lots with short-term gains, they are processed from least gain to greatest gain.

Currently downloaded sales are matching incorrectly due to lack of such an option.

KD12 · Answer

Purpose of Quicken is to take out drudgery of keeping up with finances, so if Brokers are offering (and all of the majors are) a particular type of lot matching, we want to be able to download and match without intervention.

Jim_Harman · Answer

This sounds like a good idea, assuming there is general agreement on what the optimum assignments should be.

If you use Quicken's lot assignment dialog, you will see that Quicken currently offers four options for automatic assignment: FIFO, LIFO, Maximum gain, and Minimum gain. It does not distinguish between long and short term gains and losses.

Note that Maximum Gain is useful if you expect to be in a zero tax bracket for capital gains or if you are choosing shares for a charitable donation.

One issue that might be a challenge for Quicken is that the algorithm may change as tax laws change.