Processing notices

After a calculation, a collapsible Processing notices box may sit above your results. It is not an error and not a warning in any dramatic sense — it is the honest answer to one question: what could capi.tax not read cleanly in your file?

The principle behind it: better a visible notice than a silent assumption inside a tax figure. Nothing is passed over without comment. If something is listed there, you know exactly which rows are affected and how many.

Three severities

Each notice carries one of three meanings, and they have very different consequences:

• Skipped. The row never entered the calculation at all. Your totals are short by that transaction.
• Filed under a fallback category. The row was calculated, but in a substitute tax category. The amount is right; the tax treatment may be wrong — a missing Teilfreistellung, for example.
• Approximated. The row was calculated, but a missing value was filled with a default. The amount itself may be off.

Each notice shows the number of affected rows and a few examples, so you can find them again in your broker export.

What you may see

Forex rows skipped. Your IBKR export contains currency conversions (such as EUR.USD). Gains on foreign-currency balances are a private disposal under § 23 EStG, and capi.tax does not yet calculate them — so these rows stay out rather than being counted wrongly. For the tax rules that apply, see Currency gains.

Unrecognised rows skipped. Rows that are not trades — subtotals, statement headers, broker notes — or a row type capi.tax does not know. Usually harmless; check the examples to confirm no real trade is among them.

Unknown transaction type treated as shares. capi.tax could not determine the type and calculated the row as a share trade. Check the tax category — if the transaction belongs to forward transactions or a fund, the result changes.

Fund treated as shares. The transaction looks like a fund or ETF, but the fund kind is missing. That means 0% Teilfreistellung applies — so you pay too much. The link in the notice takes you straight to symbol classification to assign it. Why this has to come from you is explained in Funds & Teilfreistellung.

Futures without a contract multiplier. The multiplier was missing from the export and was set to 1. For futures it is almost never 1 — the affected amounts will then be substantially too low. Check these trades particularly carefully.

What to do about it

1. Expand the box and read it. It is collapsed, but not hidden.
2. Look up the affected rows in your broker export. The examples give you the date and description.
3. Supply what capi.tax asks for. Fund kinds and wrong categories are corrected in the Adjustments tab; the figures recalculate immediately.
4. Carry the rest knowingly. For skipped items capi.tax cannot compute — currency transactions, for instance — the transaction remains your own to handle in the return.

No notices — what then?

Then capi.tax could assign every row in your file. That does not automatically mean the result is complete: a sale without a matching purchase does not appear here, but in the audit trail as unmatched. It is always worth a look.

capi.tax prepares your data; it is not tax advice. Please review the figures and ask a tax advisor (Steuerberater) about your personal situation.