Sales without a purchase

A sale without a purchase is a sale whose matching purchase is not in your files – usually because you bought the security in an earlier year or at another broker.

In short:

• Without the purchase, capi.tax does not know the acquisition cost and cannot compute a gain. So the sale stays out of the tax; capi.tax does not estimate anything.
• The header then says "Incomplete: 1 sale without a purchase – not included in the tax ↓", and the Tax as calculated is greyed out.
• You resolve it in one of two ways: add the earlier year's file or add the purchase.

How you spot it

A sale without a purchase shows in three places:

• in the header: "Incomplete: n sales without a purchase – not included in the tax ↓"; the arrow leads to step 1 Review,
• on the Overview under step 1 Review, e.g. "GME · 15 shares without a purchase – not taxed", with Add purchase,
• in the Audit trail under the check Sales without a purchase, and at the top of the Adjustments tab in the list Sales without a purchase, with date and quantity.

Legally the gain is the proceeds less the costs of sale and the acquisition cost (§ 20 (4) EStG). Without acquisition cost there is no gain capi.tax could report. The substitute of 30 % of the proceeds (§ 43a (2) sentence 7 EStG) is only used by a German bank for its withholding; capi.tax does not apply it to your tax return.

Way 1: add the earlier years' files

The most accurate is the real purchase from your broker's files, from the purchase year to last year:

1. Open the Adjustments tab.
2. Under Files, click Add file and choose the exports of every year from the purchase year to last year, from the same broker. You can pick several files at once.
3. Click Add and recalculate.

capi.tax takes over the holdings from the earlier year, matches the sale under FIFO and recalculates. Your adjustments stay. If capi.tax itself notices that an earlier year is missing, step 1 Review offers Add prior-year file for it directly. For Tastytrade capi.tax even needs the files from account opening on, because the export has no year-end holdings – see Upload & files.

Way 2: add the purchase

If you don't have the old file, for example after a transfer from another broker, you enter the purchase yourself:

1. Click Add purchase at the sale – in step 1 Review, in the audit trail or on the Adjustments tab.
2. Add a missing purchase or opening position opens on the right. Symbol and quantity are already filled in.
3. Enter the purchase date and the acquisition cost: the total for all shares including purchase fees, in the purchase currency (e.g. USD or EUR). capi.tax converts it at the purchase date's rate.
4. Leave Position on Long (buy). Choose Short (sell) only if you had sold the security short.
5. A reason is optional, e.g. "Transfer from previous broker (2022)". It then appears in the audit trail and the report.
6. Click Apply & recalculate.

You find the figures on the purchase confirmation or in the earlier year's export. The purchase date matters: it sets the FIFO order and, for gold securities, the one-year period. After a transfer between brokers, the original purchase date at the old broker counts, not the transfer day; date and cost are on that broker's statements. If you bought in several parts, add one entry per purchase.

For an option you bought back, the button is Add opening: then what is missing is not the purchase but the sale that opened the position.

Important: Do not simply add holdings bought before 2009: shares bought before 2009 are tax-free when sold (§ 52 (28) sentence 11 EStG). More in Adjustments.

When there is no sale without a purchase

• Options written in an earlier year. If you buy back, let expire or are assigned on an option you wrote last year, capi.tax books the buy-back as negative writer income in the year of payment (§ 20 (1) no. 11 EStG). You need to add nothing. Shares delivered after an assignment are different: if you sell them later, capi.tax needs their purchase – see below. See Options & writing.
• Deliberate short sales. If you open a short position, e.g. with "Sell to Open" or IBKR code O, that is a short sale, not a sale without a purchase.

Short sale or missing purchase?

Whether a sale closes a position or opens a new one, capi.tax reads from your broker's marker:

• Interactive Brokers marks every trade O (opening) or C (closing); an option's expiry, exercise and assignment (Ep, Ex, A) always close.
• Tastytrade names the action, e.g. "Sell to Close" or "Sell to Open".

A sale marked as closing without holdings never opens a short position. It is listed under Sales without a purchase. That covers, for example, shares delivered after an assignment from an earlier year, and an option bought last year that expires.

Only when your export has no such marker – DEGIRO, and IBKR rows without a code – does capi.tax book a sale without holdings as a short sale. If your security then shows a negative holding at 31 Dec in the Holdings check although you never sold short, the purchase is missing. Add it on the Adjustments tab with Add a missing purchase or opening position.

See also: How FIFO matches purchases and sales: The FIFO method. Other upload problems: Common issues.