Gift of stocks to others

denismegan1951

I have read many discussions, but none offer a simple solution, yet follow normal accounting for the transfer of stock. I have one share of Bigco purchased years ago at $500. I gave it to a relative as gift today. Market value of share is $1500.

Create an account called memo:

Create sub accounts called memo gift, memo cost of gift, memo unrecognized gain

Record in the securty register:

Deposit of $500 to cost of gift, deposit of $1000 to memo gain, payment of $1500 to memo gift expense.

all three are non tax accounts. When running reports, you can include or exclude those that are useful.

q_lurker

So you are suggesting that as a reasonable procedure, at least for your needs. Fine.

It seems everywhere you used the word ‘account’, you meant in Quicken nomenclature ‘category’. There is no sub-account structure in Quicken.

Follow-up questions:

1. What do you do in the investment account that held the gifted shares with respect to the shares? Presumably a simple Remove Shares.
2. What added value do you see in tracking the basis of the gift in that memo category? And for this procedure overall?
3. Are you using this approach for gifts to charitable organizations and for more general gifts to individuals?

For gifts to individuals, I have been satisfied with a simple memo on the Remove Shares transaction. For gifts to charities, I do have a more complex process to get the charitable value to a Schedule A summary.