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How to edit cost basis in Roth IRA

ocman

My cost basis in my Roth IRA has a bunch of zeros, did a search on cost basis and looked at the help files, but nothing registered.

Any suggestions?

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NotACPA

Cost basis is usually established when you buy (or otherwise add to the account) the securities.

SO, How did the securities get added to Q? What ACTION was used in your Q acct register?

ocman

I just went to the "add account" option under the tools menu...

Rocket J Squirrel

You misunderstood the question, which was how did the shares of securities get added to the account in Quicken?

You have Bought and/or Added transactions in your account. Find them and edit them to enter the prices you paid for each lot of each security. That will set up your basis.

ocman

I believe I added the transactions...

volvogirl

For taxes the cost basis doesn't matter for IRA accounts either Traditional IRA or ROTH IRA. In a ROTH IRA all distributions come out tax free.

Rocket J Squirrel

It's true that cost basis is irrelevant in tax-advantaged accounts. But Quicken needs it in order to calculate gain & loss, which many people like to see despite that.

NotACPA

@ocman Double click on each ADDED transaction and it should bring up the "Edit Add - Shares added" dialog where you can input the "Total Cost", AKA cost basis

ocman

Do I need to be tracking "complete investing" to be able to get the details needed?

NotACPA

Try it and see

ocman

Ok now I have a transaction register...it shows the total cost in the register, but it's 0.00 in the cost basis column in the portfolio...it's showing a gain of 2177, but there was a cost of 1974.

ocman

I think maybe because the transaction says "added" instead of "bought" that it's show the initial buy as a gain? I could change the transaction to "buy - shares bought"?

Mark1104

you really don't need to keep track of cost basis as @volvogirl stated in a Qualified account. if you want to understand your return, just run the investment performance report. it looks at the date you invested and the current value to determine the return; THAT is the 'return on investment'.

For example, when I do conversions, I simply move one of my holdings in my TRAD IRA to the ROTH IRA. That is a taxable event, but I do not buy or sell the security in question. But I do like to understand what the performance of the securities are from the date I transfered into the Roth, which is the benefit of the investment performance report - it doesn't need 'cost basis' to provide the ROI.

Further, I sometime want to understand performance from the time I purchased the security, regardless of whether it is in the TRAD or the ROTH IRA. Again, the investmern performance report gives me that answer - it doesn't need "Cost basis" to provide ROI.

Cost Basis is really only required to determine capital gains / losses for tax purposes, which is irrelevant for IRAs, whether Roth or TRAD

ocman

When I look at the accounts list it has the right amount of money...when I look at the portfolio it has the right amount of money, but in the portfolio window it shows the following for that equity.
Market Value 7680
Cost Basis 5000
Gain/Loss 2680

But the gain is 680 not 2680.

ocman

I changed the transaction to "boughtx" and it's correct now...