# Override Capital Gain subtotal in Sch.#3 (StudioTax)



## CryInBeer (Apr 12, 2015)

For it's Personal Portfolio Services (let's leave the cost/benefit of this for another conversation!!), CIBC Wealth Management provides an annual "Client Tax Satement - Gains (Losses) from Sale of Securities". There is a long list of transactions and related particulars, but there is also a overall Gain(Loss).

In previous years, I was able to enter this the overall Gain into Schedule 3 as the subtotal "Gain (or loss)" for Section/Paragraph#3 ("Publicly traded shares, mutual funds, etc..."). I could do this because I was either completing the paper returns manually or using a spreadsheet-based return known as MyTax (MyTax lets me punch in the number).

I moved to StudioTax this year because MyTax 2014 is not available. In StudioTax's Schedule 3, the subtotal "Gain (or loss)" for Section/Paragraph#3 is a "computed field", and I cannot directly enter the overall Gain. Instead, the form requires all the particulars for each transaction, and the fields do not match those in the CIBC statement.

Is there a way to override the computed field so that I can directly enter the overall Gain from the CIBC statement? I do not consider it feasible for me to figure out what has to go into the form otherwise. In previous years, I've tried a number of times to delve into the technicalities of how to generate the required data from the CIBC data, and it is a neverending labyrinth. I suspect that forensic accountants might be able to figure it out with sumpreme effort, but that's hypothetical scenario is not helpful in this reality.


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## GoldStone (Mar 6, 2011)

You should be able to enter CIBC totals on Schedule 3. See table 3, Publicly traded shares...

Enter column 2 Proceeds of disposition and column 3 Adjusted cost base. Studio Tax calculates column 5, Gain or loss.


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## CryInBeer (Apr 12, 2015)

The table in the CIBC statement has the fields "Date", "Units", "Fund Name", "Proceeds from Sale", "Average Cost", and "Gain (Loss)". No ACB. The ACB is the doozer that I've spent days on end in previous years trying to understand.

My cop-out solution for now is just to enter 1 record, with the Name of Fund being "CIBC Client Tax Statement", and putting the overall Gain in column 2. This results in the same figure in the subtotal Gain for section 3 of the schedule, which is the effect I want in order to be consistent with previous years' practice.


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## GoldStone (Mar 6, 2011)

Surely "Average Cost" in CIBC statement is the same as ACB.


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## CryInBeer (Apr 12, 2015)

I guess that's the key question. As I mentioned, I've delved down that alley multiple times in past years, and it was never clear.


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

^^^^

I'm not following why it would be difficult to figure out.

Pick an investment that all the info is available for the buy/sells and that is on the annual statement. Preferably, this will be a stock where the ACB calculation is as simple as possible. For example, 100 shares bought in 2014 and 100 shares sold in 2014, where the only income paid was dividends. Investments that pay return of capital (RoC) as part of the cash distributions will complicate the calculation a bit (REITs, ETFs & Index MFs are a few examples).

Calculate the ACB similar to this link:
http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/calculating-your-adjusted-cost-base-acb.htm

The ACB you calculate might need to be adjusted for the numbers of shares sold (ex. bought 200 shares with an ACB of $3K but sold 100 shares, which will mean the ACB for the 100 shares sold is $1.5K).

Compare the two to see if they match.


As long as one is sure they have the complete history for the shares (i.e. the ACB includes shares bought in 2001, 2012 and 2014 where the first time to sell shares is 2014), the numbers should be equal.


Cheers


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## CryInBeer (Apr 12, 2015)

Errr...OK. I'll take a 2nd look. It'll have to be a weekend. Thanks. But to be sure, it doesn't sound or look simple. Keeping track of individual transactions through the years. We get a statement every month, about 10 pages long. We have funds, pools, and all manner of nested aggregation.


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

CryInBeer said:


> ... But to be sure, it doesn't sound or look simple ...
> We get a statement every month, about 10 pages long ...


Perhaps you are thinking I'm recommending reconciling the full statement versus the spot checking I am suggesting.

If I understand correctly, the annual statement has all the particulars of the investments sold. 

I expect the monthly statements in addition to the blow by blow particulars provide an end of the month summary along the lines of "108 BCE shares". If so, start with the January statement to look for something sold that is not on the Jan statement. Anything that is on the annual Gain (or loss) statement that is not in the Jan statement info will have to have been bought/sold within the year.

Picking on of those then check if it pays return of capital (RoC) on the company web site in the investor section. If it fits this, then the transactions that will affect the ACB are buys, sells or automatic buys (referred to as DRIPs). The buys add to the ACB (don't forget to include any commissions that were charged) the sells will generate a gain or loss.

The sell transactions should show up on the annual statement with matching numbers (or close to it if the commissions paid aren't clearly documented).

Where your info matches the annual summary to end up with the same gain/loss and the calculated ACB = average cost, you will be confident it is the proper number. Repeat for as many as you want to have confidence.


Once you are convinced, then you can confidently use the numbers for investments that were bought over several years.




CryInBeer said:


> ... We have funds, pools, and all manner of nested aggregation.


Start with the simple ones (ex. BCE where only buy/sell/automatic buys using dividends will change the ACB or average cost). Then move on to the more complicated ones (ex. ETFs that also have the buy/sell/automatic buys using cash distributions plus add in RoC and re-invested capital gains).

Odds are ... your numbers for the simple case will confirm ACB is the Average Cost ... which will let you plug in the columns to Schedule 3, Part 3. 

At the end of the day, if the annual statement is correct ... you should be able to plug the appropriate columns and have StudioTax rebuild the totals to end up with an overall gain or loss that matches.


Cheers


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