Quicken Is Miscalculating Long Term Capital Gains on a Mutual Fund Sale

HardRightEdge
HardRightEdge Member ✭✭
edited February 2023 in Reports (Windows)
I recorded a mutual fund sale on 9/21/22 that involved 11 lots purchased between 10/14/13 and 12/30/15. The purchase dates and number of shares shown on the Quicken Capital Gains report match exactly those on the mutual fund company's confirmation, however the Quicken report shows an inflated cost basis for EACH lot.

The problem is that the Quicken report is using an incorrect mystery purchase price in calculating the cost basis for each lot. Here's an example:

The oldest lot was a sale of 87.151 shares purchased on 10/14/13. The Quicken report shows a cost basis of $21,078.97. This would imply a purchase price of $241.87 per share. But when I look in the account register the purchase transaction shows the price per share was $157.79.

After recalculating the cost basis for all 11 lots using the purchase prices from the register transactions the total capital gain matches to the dollar what the mutual fund company has reported. If you're wondering if each lot is off by the same percentage, they are not.

I also checked the historical purchase prices in Quicken for the security and they match what is in the purchase transaction. The Quick register purchase prices also match the historical prices shown at Yahoo Finance though that should have nothing to do with anything. It is a complete mystery where Quicken is getting the purchase prices in calculating the cost basis for these 11 lots. I don't know how long this this has been broken but at one time it was not.

This inaccuracy is going to cost me money at tax time since I relied on the Cap Gains report to target a specific cap gain. Frankly, I've been a 30 year user of Quicken
and since Intuit sold it off it stopped getting better and started getting worse, not exactly a surprise for anything in the hands of private equity. Now, I will never be able to trust this report and will have to go through the manual calculations when needed.

Comments

  • q_lurker
    q_lurker SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    Doubtful it would apply, but did you confirm that the MF security in Quicken is not set to use average cost?

    Have these shares ever been transferred from one account to another in Quicken?

    Also doubtful given your comments and checks, but have these shares ever been subject to a stock split, merger, conversion, or similar event?
  • HardRightEdge
    HardRightEdge Member ✭✭
    > @q_lurker said:
    > Doubtful it would apply, but did you confirm that the MF security in Quicken is not set to use average cost?
    >
    Thanks, q_lurker. I am chagrined. The security was set to average cost basis. Once I unchecked that box the Cap Gains report reverted to a FIFO calculation.
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