selling physical bullion coins - how to handle postage costs ? (edit)

jgosney

I sold some physical bullion coins. I paid for registered mail to send those to the vault. How do I properly enter this in Q to adjust the capital gain/loss

Tom Young

I assume that you paid for this as part of your sale of the physical gold? If that's the case, you could just include that cost in the sale itself, either as an adjustment of the cost or as a form of "commission" on the sale.

q_lurker

a) Did you have the gold coins as a "security" in a Quicken investment account with an accurate associated cost basis?

b) How did you receive payment for the coins? Deposit into investment account or into a separate checking account?

c) Are you also asking about recording the payment to the 'post office' for the registered mail?

I'll put some numbers to this:

• Cost Basis = $1000
• Gross sale amount = $2050
• Mailing Expense = $100
• Net sale proceeds = $1950
• Realized cap gains = $950

With that, what dollars went into and out of what accounts?

jgosney

Yes. I setup a security account in Q to show the cost of the coins. I sold them and the proceeds recorded as to the cash of account. Then that was transferred to my checking account via wire (Xout). All is good so far, the security shows a $0 cash balance. But I paid the US Post Office via a credit card. I have recorded that as a MiscExpX (from credit card account) which keeps the cash balance correct, but it does not report the proper "sales" price in a capital gains report.

Ps56k2

just following along - I happen to buy from APMEX but have not sold any of my silver/gold Eagles -
Wonder which broker you use ?

For me - I would not mess with the actual cost amount and actual selling amount - as that would show my actual gain/loss.
I would however - create a separate Category to track Bullion Postage - so I could then add/subtract it as needed in reports …

And then - use a Split transaction to enter 1st line item for actual amount for the coins - and then a 2nd line item for the postage.

q_lurker

@jgosney

As I see it, Options:

1. The Commission approach
   1. Sell 'shares' for the net total with the mail fee in the Commission field. $2050 gross less $100 commission = $1950 into cash in the account. This should produce your correct cap gain ($950).
   2. Record the mail expense as a transfer to the investment account thereby adding the $100 into the account and making the cash in the account the gross total of the sale.
   3. You then transfer that total amount ($2050) to your checking account matching the real world transfer.
2. A Return Cap approach
   1. Transfer the CC expense to the investment account (as b above). Now have extra ($100 mailing fee) in the investment account.
   2. Record a negative RtrnCap transaction to increase the cost basis of the coins and decrease the cash in the account back to $0.
   3. Record the Sale of the coins for their gross proceeds ($2050) which becomes cash in the account
   4. You then transfer that total amount ($2050) to your checking account matching the real world transfer.
3. Don't mess with this in Quicken. Keep track of this manually and fill out the tax forms accordingly