A spinoff is a stock dividend issued in a new or different (child) company and not in the original (parent) company. As no money changes hands, the spinoff distribution is generally a non-taxable event.
Brokers vary widely as to how (and if) they report spinoffs on their statements. This makes it virtually impossible to automate the importing of these transactions in a software program, so manual adjustment is required by the user to account for the new stock.
Since you have received new stock, you should manually enter a trade in your data file:
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Click the "+" toolbar button to add a new trade record. See Adding or Inserting a Record. TradeLog® will automatically assign a new trade number to this trade record.
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In the Date column, enter the spinoff date.
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In the O/C column, enter "O" for a new opening transaction.
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In the L/S column, enter "L" for a new long position.
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In the Ticker column, enter the ticker description exactly as shown on your trade history report. This will enable TradeLog® to correctly match the appropriate closing transaction with this opening transaction.
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In the Sh/Cont column, enter the total number of shares you received from the spinoff.
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In the Price column, enter the cost basis for the new shares.
See our Online Tax Topic: Stock Spin-Offs for more details.
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Leave the Commission field blank.
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Hit the <Enter> key twice to save your new record.
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A Confirm popup window will appear, asking "Save your changes?" Click YES to save, NO to cancel.
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If you selected YES, TradeLog® will re-sort and re-match your trades.
You then need to adjust the cost basis of your original shares of stock so that the total amount of the original shares purchased plus the total amount of the shares spun-off equal your original cost. See our Online Tax Topic: Stock Spin-Offs for more details.
