Investment anomalies?

[Jeff Barlow]

On 01/18/2016 05:25 PM, Jack wrote:
> Two separate issues.  First, I'm not sure we're using the same
> terminology.  They pay a dividend, which needs an assigned income
> category, so it can be properly allocated for tax reasons.  Most
> commonly, all of that amount is used to buy shares, so some number of
> shares get added to the holdings, and there is no cash to be transferred
> to a brokerage account.

Hello, I don't mean to hijack your thread but I have some closely 
related issues. First let me concur that the category amount on a 
reinvested dividend sould never be zero. If it was then there is no 
transaction to record. As Jack says it's exactly a dividend and a buy 
rolled into one. The dividend is income and must be accounted for as such.

I receive dividends from several mutual funds. Some are reinvested in 
shares of the same fund. Some are used to buy shares in a different fund 
from the same institution (The Vanguard Group). Some are paid as a cash 
transfer to my checking account (an ACH transfer). No broker is 
involved. There is no actual brokerage account. Vanguard does not allow 
cash accounts. Most of these transactions represent taxable income and 
need to categorized as such even though many involve no cash flow.

The only way I've found to record all these transactions in KMM is to 
employ a fictional brokerage account within KMM. I have to record these 
single transactions as two separate transactions into and out of this 
fictional brokerage account.

Since this fictional brokerage account does not indeed exist in the real 
world one would at least expect it to maintain a zero balance. Alas, due 
to KMM rounding errors that is not even true.

I am currently waiting to fill out my income tax returns until I receive 
statements (1099s) from Vanguard because the numbers I get from KMM 
never quite match reality.

-- 
Later,
Jeff