-=> Quoting Don Bueltmann to All <=-
 
 DB> Help,
 DB> 
 DB> I should know the answer to this but I don't. I recently received some
 DB> shares of Lucent Technologies as a spinoff from AT&T. How are these
 DB> shares accounted for in Quicken. They are not a stock split nor a
 DB> stock dividend. Do I simply record them as SHARESIN. What do I enter as
 DB> the initial price since I did not pay for them. I guess I really did
 DB> pay for them since the price of my AT&T was impacted. Is that right?
 
 Don --
 
 Since I'm not a CPA, the following is just a suggestion for you to
 check out ....
 
 If the Lucent Technologies stock wasn't treated as a stock divident
 by AT&T, then it probably was in the nature of a stock split -- that is,
 you still have exactly what you had before in terms of investment.
 
 However, now you have two companies, whereas in a true stock split, you'd
 just have more shares of the same company's stock.
 
 SO, what you probably need to do is to allocate your original investment
 (basis) between the two stocks.  There are several ways I see to do that
 and I have no idea how the IRS would prefer it.  One would simply be
 to take the stock prices the day after the split, and do a ratio.  Let's
 say that your AT&T stock was purchased at $100 (purely hypothetical!) and
 (again hypothetically)
 the day after the AT&T issuance of Lucent to you, AT&T was at $90
 and Lucent was at $60.  Assign 90/150s of your investment cost to
 AT&T and 60/150s to Lucent.  Document what you did!  I *think* this is
 a valid way to do this, but again, you should check it out.
 
 Cheers............................  c h u c k
 
 
 
... Spell chequers dew knot work write.
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