Capital Gains report using wrong cost basis

Question

I have a stock A.  Let's say the cost basis at the time of purchase was $100.  Later the stock did a spin-off, with $70 cost basis staying in stock A and $30 going into the new stock B.  I've entered all of this in Quicken (Windows).  When I look at holdings or portfolio, it clearly shows the $70 stock A and $30 stock B cost basis as described.  Yet - when I enter the transaction to sell stock A (but am keeping stock B), the capital gains report instead of correctly showing the $70 cost basis, instead is incorrectly showing the original $100 cost basis.  How do I fix this so Quicken uses the correct cost basis ($70) in the capital gains report, especially since the correct cost basis is what Quicken is displaying?

q_lurker · Answer

I am curious how you actually entered the spinoff.  There are a variety of was including and varying the built in Corporate Spinoff.  In that same context, what release of Quicken were you using for the spinoff?

SchJA · Answer

I encountered this issue when entering the transaction to sell stock A.  On researching, after entering the sale of the stock (which I then no longer held), the "Portfolio Value & Cost Basis" Investing Report still showed stock A but with a cost basis of -$30 and stock B with a cost basis of +$30 (using the sample numbers in my original question).  I was able to fix the problem by editing the sales transaction for stock A to click the box "Sell all shares in this account".  That corrected the cost basis on the Capital Gains report and removed stock A's cost basis on the "Portfolio Value & Cost Basis" report.  I don't know why this was needed - if I had say 20 shares and then sold 20 shares it should be obvious to a computer that I had sold all my shares - and clicking the box should not have affected the cost basis.  However, I'm posting this in case it helps others with similar issues to realize a possible fix is clicking that box.  Perhaps it has something to do with my data being upgraded from a much earlier Quicken version.

Frankx · Answer

HI @SchJA,

That is strange indeed.  Did you actually sell  stock A yet?  Did you actually input the sales transaction in Quicken or are you testing the Quicken application?  I suggest that either way, you double check the date of the spin as well as the date are you using for the sale transaction.

Frankx