Splitting an investment sale transaction

Jeff Kantner

This question pertains to the behavior of transactions in an Investment account, not specifically about investing itself. If this post belongs elsewhere, let me know.

When an investment is sold (or in my case, a mutual fund is closed - which is pretty much same behavior as "Sell all shares"), Q drops the proceeds into the cash balance of the investment acct, at the MV. Not wrong, but: some of the $$ is funds I invested, some may be dividends reinvested, some (either + or -) is related to price changes.

Is it possible to mark some of the proceeds as mine (i.e., a 'return of capital'), but mark part as Capital Gain (short- or long-term), and thus subject to tax? Objective is to align the Q records a bit more closely to the 1099-Div that will come next year.
It does not appear that investment transactions are "splitable" (a la bank or credit accts), but that is the effect I'd like to achieve.

If I haven't missed something, may turn this into an RFI.
Any guidance appreciated. Gracias.

Jeff Kantner
(This is Q 67.7 classic Premier on Win11, if that matters.)

q_lurker

The distributions reported to you on year end 1099-Div forms are not related to the sale of any of the funds. While during the year, they may all get reported as 'dividends', the 1099-Div may report the toals for the year broken down to:

• Qualified Dividend
• Non-qualified Dividend
• Short-term Capital Gain
• Long-term Capital Gain
• Non-dividend distribution (aka Return of Capital)

I choose not to differentiate the Qualified and Non-qualified portions. Other users do attempt to monitor that distinction for more accurate tax planning.

Usually I see the fund company make the ST/LT/Div distinction at time of payment (and reinvestment) but that is not absolute and they make corrections to that at year end.

I don't recall ever seeing a tracking of the non-dividend payment except as part of the 1099-Div.

If I deem it helpful when I get the 1099-Div, I may make correcting entries in my Quicken records, such as:

• 12/31/xx - RtrnCap - Fund name - Amount
• 12/31/xx - MiscExp - Fund Name - Amount - Category=_DivInc

Or

• 12/31/xx - LTCapGn - Fund name - Amount
• 12/31/xx - MiscExp - Fund Name - Amount - Category=_DivInc

The first transaction puts cash into the account; the second expenses that right back out and reduces previously accumulated total dividends for that fund by that same amount. If you have more specific timing data, the dates can be associated with the dates of actual transactions.