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Since the IRS was stupid and decided to declare all cryptocurrency transactions as property unlike currency as other countries have done, it makes it problematic for deciding how to track in Quicken. Here's my thinking so far on how to do it properly:
Each cryptocurrency is setup as a Other / Other stock security with a blank ticker and no online price updating. Due to the limitation of Quicken having only 6 decimal places vs 8 with cryptocurrencies, each cryptocurrency also needs to be setup as a "mini" version, i.e. share qty multiplied by 100 and price divided by 100. This helps to avoid severe rounding errors.
Wallet to wallet transfers can be done via "Shares Transferred Between Accounts" which doesn't change the cost basis or cash sub-account.
There's "Sell - Shares Sold" to sell shares of a cryptocurrency to buy a product/service or to exchange for a different cryptocurrency. That will deposit the currency equivalent into the cash sub-account and should incur a capital gains liability. But for the former, you can put the entire currency equivalent of the transaction into the commission field to net out the cash sub-account or for the latter you can use (or transfer to another account) that currency equivalent as capital and the cost basis for shares of a new cryptocurrency you bought.
For mining payouts received, there is "Add - Shares Added", "Div - Stock Dividend (non-cash)" or "Reinvest - Income Reinvested" (dividend or short-term capital gain). My understanding of the last option is that it will affect the cash sub-account as it is actually two transactions in one ("Inc - Income (Div, Int, etc.)" and "Buy - Shares Bought"), but it will continually update (raise) the cost basis of the cryptocurrency and show an interest/dividends kind of liability when tax reporting. The second option may change the cost basis without affecting the cash sub-account. The first option will change neither the cost basis nor the cash sub-account. Which is best? Another problem is how to track the upfront capital investment required to mine that will not be reflected in the received cryptocurrency's cost basis. As mining is not a business or self-employment, cost cannot be a separate line item.
Comments?
Each cryptocurrency is setup as a Other / Other stock security with a blank ticker and no online price updating. Due to the limitation of Quicken having only 6 decimal places vs 8 with cryptocurrencies, each cryptocurrency also needs to be setup as a "mini" version, i.e. share qty multiplied by 100 and price divided by 100. This helps to avoid severe rounding errors.
Wallet to wallet transfers can be done via "Shares Transferred Between Accounts" which doesn't change the cost basis or cash sub-account.
There's "Sell - Shares Sold" to sell shares of a cryptocurrency to buy a product/service or to exchange for a different cryptocurrency. That will deposit the currency equivalent into the cash sub-account and should incur a capital gains liability. But for the former, you can put the entire currency equivalent of the transaction into the commission field to net out the cash sub-account or for the latter you can use (or transfer to another account) that currency equivalent as capital and the cost basis for shares of a new cryptocurrency you bought.
For mining payouts received, there is "Add - Shares Added", "Div - Stock Dividend (non-cash)" or "Reinvest - Income Reinvested" (dividend or short-term capital gain). My understanding of the last option is that it will affect the cash sub-account as it is actually two transactions in one ("Inc - Income (Div, Int, etc.)" and "Buy - Shares Bought"), but it will continually update (raise) the cost basis of the cryptocurrency and show an interest/dividends kind of liability when tax reporting. The second option may change the cost basis without affecting the cash sub-account. The first option will change neither the cost basis nor the cash sub-account. Which is best? Another problem is how to track the upfront capital investment required to mine that will not be reflected in the received cryptocurrency's cost basis. As mining is not a business or self-employment, cost cannot be a separate line item.
Comments?
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