In microsoft.public.money, mak wrote:

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It sounds as if separate Money files might make sense then.

On Thu, 12 Feb 2004 23:38:15 GMT, via_newsgroup[at]please.tnx(Cal Learner--
MVP) wrote:

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Not necessarily... If your income isn't significant you can file one
return and that's it. However once income reaches a certain level, or if
you have employment deductions, then both file seperately. Incomes are
combined for certain credits but each individual to get their personal
credits must file seperately.

In microsoft.public.money, <anonymous[at]discussions.microsoft.comwrote:

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Does a married couple usually file two federal tax returns in
Canada?

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I am prety sure that in Canada the tax is based on a
personal income, not family. The overall family income has
only impact to the tax creadit, which is not in the range
we talk about here. This is why there is so-called Spousal
RRSP account in Canada in which a persone with higher
income can make contribution to his/her spousal's
requirement account, becaues it will be taxed only to the
people wisthdraw from the account. It make sense to
indicate that each Canadian is taxed based on his own
income only, not family. And it is why it become important
for people to track their own account. Whatever the
reason, Microsoft Money "transfer" a higher investment
cost basis to an another account, and show it out as a
number which was never put in, that is ridicularse.

In microsoft.public.money, <anonymous[at]discussions.microsoft.comwrote:

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In doing my reading, I run across "registered account" as the phrase
that distinguishes what should be combined for basis purposes and
what should not.

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Really? In the US, most married people file jointly, and there the
finances are commingled for tax purposes. Are you fairly confident
that the holdings of your wife in a regular taxable account do not
affect your basis calculation for funds you hold in a taxable
account? I understand that in your case the funds are in retirement
accounts, which we believe makes the basis not affect the basis in
any other account -- even if held by the same person.

The tax basis of a fund/stock is called Adjusted cost base (ACB),
and it appears to be fairly complex. Page 21 of T4027
http://www.ccra-adrc.gc.ca/E/pub/tg/t4037/t4037-e.pdf talks about
it, but that particular area does not touch on possible affects of
holding by a spouse.

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I think what you would like to see is to make the basis calculations
in a retirement account independent of that in all other accounts.

The thing that would give another way to work around this is to let
you define different securities that share the same symbol.

Is unclear to me if the basis of the holdings in a Canadian
retirement account has tax implications, or if rather the retirement
account itself has a basis for all holdings.

It is true that Money gives less attention to the Canadian Money
customers. The tax on both sides are complicated, but the number of
customers using each set of rules will be a significant factor.

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Candian Money version's implementation, I take an example
like this: if I buy a stock ABC in $5000 in my retirement
account, and later my wife buy the same stock ABC in $1000
in her retirement account later (may in different price),
Money will show the cost basis of my wife account for
stock ABC is around $2000 or more, not its real value of
$1000. From both tax or analysis reason, I can't get it
how it works. Even for tax reason, I think in Canada the
tax analsis for investment is based on person, not family,
how it can works in this way? I wonder if Microsoft really
understand the situation in Canada, and really take the
busniess in Canada seriously

In microsoft.public.money, ML wrote:

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In tax-related matters, logic is not the deciding factor. And I
would think most people basis is primarily a tax-related issue
rather than an analysis issue for non-retirement accounts. However
I suspect that the CRA rules about averaging basis among accounts
does not apply to RRSP holdings. Can you confirm that?

You tell Money Deluxe 2000 Canadian in the account details that the
account is an RSSP/IRA/401k/RetirementAccount, and that Money does
indeed average in the basis. I think that is what you are saying.

While I don't use Canadian Money or rules, I would like to
understand both the CRA rule and the Money implementation that you
see. It is my expectation that the behavior would be the same in
this regard in Money 2004 Canadian, but perhaps I can inquire about
future plans at some point.

Finally, let me suggest *another* workaround. If you temporarily
make the other accounts Watch accounts in the account details, they
should not affect the other accounts. Then after doing what you need
to do, change them back.

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not reasonable. The reason I want to keep one file for
both my wife and myself is that I want to have a global
glace to the whole family financial status. In Canada,
every one has his/her own RRSP account, and it is very
common that those accounts contains the same investments.
I found in Money that it even transfered the investment
cost from one account to another that contains the same
stock. For example, the investment cost shown in one
account was even much higher than the value it was really
put in. It was just caused by another account that
contained a higher investment cost. If another account is
removed, it appears as normal.

I just really don't understand how it is used as a RULE.
It doesn't make sense at all for people to track their
investment.

In microsoft.public.money, ML wrote:

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That is the interpretation of the Canadian rules by Money-- that the
basis is calculated amongst all holdings of that investment.

If you and your wife's holdings are separate for tax purposes, you
could each have a separate file. The other way is to create a
different investment for one of the holdings, but only one will be
able to use the symbol and therefore to allow downloading of quotes.

Do you believe that the rules do not require commingling of the
average basis between you and your wife?

I have Money Delux 2000 Canadian and find out it makes
confuse about investment across different account. For
example I hold NT stock in different account (my wife and
my RRSP account), but it caculate the return and
performance based on the single stock, not based on the
accunt. It even distribute the cost of the stock into the
two account, no matter how it was invested differently
into the account. It doesn't make sense at all! Anybody
experices the same problem, and know the solution?