Stock Donations to Charity

daleziegler

I have donated appreciated stock to charity and used the remove/add procedure outlined in a discussion from July 2023 to get the correct Quicken tax treatment.

Although this gives the correct tax planning and reporting, it removes the transaction from financial and investment performance analysis and reporting. Quicken already handles differences between tax and financial reporting such as retirement accounts and tax-free interest so could Quicken please correct this discrepancy.

Thank you

Quicken Classic Premier R64.30

Windows 11 Home

q_lurker

it removes the transaction from financial and investment performance analysis and reporting. 

I am not clear what you mean by that. To what form of performance analysis are you referring? For Portfolio view, you might want to change the 'Options' to include closed lots.

daleziegler

The "Income/Expense by Category" report is wrong because it does not include the realized gain as income.

q_lurker

Did you properly customize the repot to include the investment accounts? By default, that report uses only 'Banking' accounts, not "Investment" or "Property and Debt" accounts. When I include investment accounts in that report, I get Realized Gains included.

However, with respect to this topic of Donated securities and the procedure using Removed (at cost), Added (at donated value), Sold (at donated value), that procedure (by design) does not generate any realized capital gains.

daleziegler

Yes, I include all investment and property accounts in the report. Why would you not?

Do you have another work around or why not just have a tax free capital gain category like you do for tax free interest income?

daleziegler

After further consideration, I deleted the removed and added transactions, let Quicken calculate the realized gain, and entered an offsetting adjustment in the tax planner.

Simpler is better.

q_lurker

Why would you not?

Because it is presented as a “Spending” report and most people don’t look to investments for spending activity. That, I presume, is why the default is only Banking accounts.

Do other income streams get reported in that report or is Realized gains the only omission?

Do other Realized gains get reported or is this set the only omission?

My objection to your approach would be that the Capital Gain Reports would be off. I do not rely very much on tax planner information.

daleziegler

Do other income streams get reported in that report or is Realized gains the only omission?

Yes, dividends and interest income are spent.

Do other Realized gains get reported or is this set the only omission? Yes other gains get reported.

My objection to your approach would be that the Capital Gain Reports would be off.

It is off for tax purposes but correct for investment reporting.

This works for me, do whatever works for you.

NotACPA

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20514511#Comment_20514511

If you bought the security for, say, $1000, but it was worth $1500 when you donated it … that $500 difference is NOT income. It's part of your $1500 donation to charity.

As you're asking, only the $1000 original cost would be a contribution … not the full $1500.

That's why the process has you remove the security at cost ($1000) and then re-add it at contribution value.

volvogirl

You might read this post on Turbo Tax by Opus17. It seems to explain it

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/tax-credits-deductions/discussion/if-i-donate-shares-of-stock-to-a-charitable-organization-how-do-i-figure-my-charitable-contribution/00/3706244

NotACPA

@volvogirl Valuable info. I've only donated long-term stock, so I was unaware of the different handling.