Corporate Spinoff

allgoodnamestaken

Hi, I have two separate accounts that hold shares of the same company. When doing a corporate spinoff I'm able to complete the spinoff in one account but in the second account I run into "Security Name Already In Use, Please Enter A New Name." Is there a work around for this? Thank you.

Sherlock

The Corporate Spinoff wizard should apply to all holdings.  I suspect Quicken thinks the holding of the original company are not the same security or the shares were added after the spinoff.

To work around the issue, you may manually enter the appropriate transactions to perform the spinoff.

allgoodnamestaken

Hi, and thank you for your quick response. The first account, the one that let me do the spinoff, had 67 entries. I wouldn't know how or what to enter in the other account. I'm assuming those 67 entries is Quicken doing the calculations for cost basis. I think I need a different work around so Quicken does the calculation for the second account as well?

Sherlock

allgoodnamestaken said:

Hi, and thank you for your quick response. The first account, the one that let me do the spinoff, had 67 entries. I wouldn't know how or what to enter in the other account. I'm assuming those 67 entries is Quicken doing the calculations for cost basis. I think I need a different work around so Quicken does the calculation for the second account as well?

Another work around:

You may use the Corporate Spinoff wizard specifying a temporary new name.  Then, you may replace the temporary new name used in the generated transactions with the correct security name and delete the temporary new name security.

allgoodnamestaken

Hi, so this work around sounds viable. Just to be clear, I use a temporary name in the spinoff wizard, after all the calculations are completed I go through all the entries and replace the temporary name with the correct name, and Quicken will allow that change? Thank you.

Sherlock

allgoodnamestaken said:

Hi, so this work around sounds viable. Just to be clear, I use a temporary name in the spinoff wizard, after all the calculations are completed I go through all the entries and replace the temporary name with the correct name, and Quicken will allow that change? Thank you.

Yes.  Quicken will allow that change.

murrymck

Several years ago, I discovered a way to deal with Corporate Spinoffs in Quicken without using their Corporate Spinoff notification. This has worked very well for me. it is more difficult for those who have multiple lots of the original stock, but creates the calculations correctly. It also uses a third party tool to do the calculations which can be found at https://www.costbasistools.com/spinoff/calculator.php IT took me a while to find the correct procedure so I have saved it in a document which I open each time a split occurs. Here is the procedure:

1) Go to this tool http://www.costbasistools.com/spinoff/calculator.php Select the name of the new stock in the first dropdown box. This normally appears within 2-4 days of the spinoff.
2) Use that tool to calculate the value as of the date of the spinoff by selecting the new stock, and the original purchase date, price and number of original shares purchased. It is important to do this for each lot to properly track your cost basis. Make sure that you include commissions in the price per share. If the new shares of the spinoff are fractional, you will often have a cash payment for the fractional shares. Enter that in 10 – Cash receive in lieu o fractional shares. Click SUBMIT when done and the results form will open. It is good to take a screen shot to save as a pdf for each lot from the spinoff.
3) Once this is done,
a. Enter a SHARES REMOVED TRANSACTION with the date of the spinoff in the account for the total number of shares owned even if you have multiple lots. In the memo field, enter, Remove Shares for Corporate Spinoff Tax Basis Allocation.
b. Enter a SHARES ADDED TRANSACTION with the date of the spinoff for EACH LOT of original shares of the old stock that you owned, making sure that you enter the original DATE ACQUIRED for each of the lots. To define the new cost basis, DO NOT ENTER, the Price paid per share, but enter the Total Cost for the shares from the Dollar amount of new cost basis from the calculator for the original stock. In the memo field, enter, Corporate Spinoff Tax Basis Allocation. IT IS BEST TO PERFORM STEP C before the second lot of original shares so that you don’t lose the cost basis info.
c. Enter a SHARES ADDED TRANSACTION with the date of the spinoff for Each lot of SPINOFF SHARES of the new stock that you owned, making sure that you enter the original DATE ACQUIRED for each of the lots. If there are fractional shares, use the Total Cost for the whole shares in the Total field. In the memo field, enter, Corporate Spinoff Tax Basis Allocation.
d. Normally, your broker will provide the cash received in lieu of fractional shares within a week of the transaction.

While it takes a little while to do this, it has worked very well for me. I hope it helps.

allgoodnamestaken

HI, Sherlock and murrymck. Thank you both for the work arounds. I went with Sherlock's suggestion, I did it yesterday, and it seems to have worked. Thank you again.