Audit trail & checks
The Audit trail tab shows what capi.tax did with your files and how each figure comes about – for you or your tax adviser.
In short:
- It opens with the Checks; next to them are the Tax events trail and, with several years, Earlier years.
- The number on the tab counts the checks with the status needs attention, like the Review step on the Overview.
- Behind every tax event are the rows of your broker export, the FIFO matching and the arithmetic.
Checks
At the top are two counts, as numbers, not percentages:
| Row | What it counts |
|---|---|
| Covered | How many bookings of the tax year capi.tax matched: taxed, open at 31 Dec and without a tax event (for example deposits and withdrawals). Open positions are normal: they only count for tax in the year you close them. |
| Tax results | How many tax events came out of them, split into sales, dividends/interest, withholding tax entries and other. |
What is not covered is named by the check Sales without a purchase. Below, where it applies, a line says that your export ends before 1 December.
Then follow the same six checks as in the PDF report, each with a status: done, needs attention, not checked or not applicable. What needs attention comes first. Each check says in one line what it is about; a click opens it.
| Check | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Read in | Files, period, how many rows capi.tax read, gaps between years and rows capi.tax does not support (for example crypto). |
| Holdings check | The computed holding at 31 Dec per security next to the broker's holding, when your export has it. Open positions such as an ETF you hold or written options are listed here. |
| Sales without a purchase | Sales and buy-backs whose opening is not in your file, and shares sold short at 31 Dec. |
| Processing notices | Skipped rows and classifications capi.tax assumed. Notices for information are listed here too but do not count. |
| Currency results | Whether capi.tax assumed the treatment of a foreign-currency account (§ 20 or § 23 EStG) or you chose it. |
| Investment funds | Funds whose kind capi.tax assumed or did not recognise. |
done means this comparison ran without anything standing out – not that your tax figures are right.
What an entry looks like
Inside an opened check, every entry has the same parts:
- Affected – the securities (or currencies) and how many rows.
- Finding – for reconciliations such as holdings: what capi.tax found.
- What capi.tax assumed – in a sentence or two, how capi.tax calculated.
- What you can do – if there is something to do; a button takes you there, such as Add purchase, Add prior-year file, Change tax category or Looks right.
- Background – the full explanation with the legal basis, collapsed. For processing notices it is the same text as in Processing notices.
Sales without a purchase
For a sale without a purchase, usually a purchase from an earlier year is missing. Such sales are not in the tax until you add the purchase or the earlier year's file; the header then says "Incomplete". How to resolve it: Sales without a purchase.
Tax events trail
Above it is the same filter bar as under Transactions: search, Category, Symbol, Result and Date range, set filters as chips with Reset all; top right you see how many events are left ("10 of 24 events").
Under Tax events trail, every tax event is a row of its own, grouped by tax category in the same order as on the Overview. A category's header row shows its sums: amount, exemptions and taxable amount. There is no tax per event in the table, because capi.tax calculates the tax for the whole year. Clicking a row shows how the figure comes about — on a phone as a sheet from the bottom:
- Bookings — the rows from your broker export the event is based on, with price, amount in the original currency, exchange rate and euro amount. You will find the same rows on your broker statement.
- FIFO matching — for a sale, which purchases FIFO used up and how far, with holding days and gain or loss per purchase. For written options it shows the premium and the buy-back.
- Tax calculation — the arithmetic from proceeds (or gross amount) through fees and Teilfreistellung to the taxable amount.
Previous and Next (or the ← → keys) step to the previous or next event. A payout from an ETF is called a fund distribution (§ 16 InvStG) here, even if your broker books it as a "Cash Dividend": the Teilfreistellung applies to it and it belongs on Anlage KAP-INV, not with dividends.
Withholding tax is its own group, Withholding tax (withheld), not a category: it is credited against the tax and does not reduce the income.
Ignored transactions
At the very bottom are bookings capi.tax deliberately leaves out of the tax, each with a reason – for example debit interest, which is not deductible (§ 20 (9) EStG). If there are none, it says "No ignored transactions".
Earlier years
If you uploaded files from several years, Earlier years shows the FIFO matching of those years that produces the Holdings carried over from earlier years. More in Upload & processing.
See also: What the PDF report contains: Save & export the report. The method behind the figures: Method & sources.