I kind of like your approach - thus far I’ve tracked my retirement accounts outside of GnuCash, which is similar. The only pitfall I can see is if your gnucash file gets at all large, the time it takes to open a file gets long. And having multiple files means the file-open delay whenever you switch.
You don’t get a true calculation of Net Worth - but you can take the result of Net Worth as calculated in each of the two files and sum them (by hand if need be). > On Jan 2, 2018, at 8:49 PM, lejohnston <lejohns...@dccnet.com> wrote: > > Hi, > > Last year I treated the RRSP as an asset and contributions as transfers from > a Savings Account to the RRSP account. I think this is in line with what Dave > is saying. > > Although as you say contributions are tax deductible, earnings are > tax-deferred; withdrawals are taxable I am not especially concerned about > tracking that (my finances are fairly simple and I am not in any danger of > exceeding any limits). My main concern is related to my budgeting especially > when I start to draw down on the RRSP. If I merely transfer money from my > RRSP to my checking account then I don't see how it becomes available in my > Budget. That is why I was thinking it would be advantageous to treat > contributions as an expense, similar to a pension contribution and to track > it in a separate GNUCash file and then when I draw it down it would be an > expense in the RRSP file and Income in my Main file. That seems simpler to me > but I wanted to make sure I was not making creating other problems. > > Thanks for any further insights. > > Larry > > On 01/02/18 05:08 PM, "R. Victor Klassen" <rvklas...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> The remaining unanswered question, which I think is part of the original >> question, is what to do about withdrawals being treated as taxable income? >> For those in the US, an RRSP is roughly equivalent to an (non-Roth) IRA. >> Contributions are tax deductible, earnings are tax-deferred; withdrawals are >> taxable. >> >> So I think the question is, how to account for contributions to a >> tax-deferred account - not really expenses, but they do change current taxes >> owed - and distributions: while it is truly a transfer from one asset >> account to another, the distribution is treated as income by the taxing >> authorities. >> >> > On Jan 2, 2018, at 6:36 PM, DaveC49 <davidcous...@bigpond.com> wrote: >> > >> > Larry, >> > >> > I'm not familiar with the details of RRSP accounts in Canada so any >> > comments >> > here are general in nature and not taken as accounting advice per se. >> > >> > If it is a retirement savings account you would treat it as an Asset. >> > Depending upon the conditions associated with withdrawal of funds from the >> > RRSP you would most likely classify it as either a long term fixed asset or >> > a current asset. For personal accounting this distinction is not as >> > important as in business accounting, but can be still useful. (You could >> > simply record eveything just under Assets if you wished and this met your >> > requirements). >> > >> > If you can withdraw funds at any time at your discretion, then you would >> > normally classify it as a current asset otherwise as a fixed asset. If >> > there >> > are rules about how much you can withdraw and how often in the future, you >> > could continue to classify it as a fixed asset when you gain ready access >> > to >> > the funds at some future time. If the funds become freely available (on >> > retirement for example), you could reclassify it as a current asset at this >> > point in time. This simply requires having placeholder subaccounts for >> > Fixed Assets and Current Assets under your Assets top level account and >> > changing the parent account for your RRSP from Fixed Assets to Current >> > Assets for example. It will just change what heading it appears under on >> > the >> > Balance Sheet >> > >> > If you are paying into the RRSP yourself, you are not creating an expense >> > when you transfer the money even though it may actually go to whoever >> > holds >> > and maintains the RRSP account (it may be your bank for example) as you >> > still retain ownership and the right to access the funds in the future. >> > >> > You are in this case exchanging one asset (cash in your bank account) for >> > another asset (the increase in the balance of the RRSP), so there is no >> > expense component of the transaction. The basic transaction will be: >> > >> > Debit >> > >> > Credit >> > Asset:Bank:CheckAccount >> > >> > xxxx >> > Asset:RRSP xxxx >> > >> > >> > >> > If you select double line mode (Menu->View->Double Line) when you click on >> > a >> > transactionof this type in an account register e.g. your RRSP account >> > Register you should lines corresponding to both of the above components. >> > >> > Interest should be recorded as: >> > Debit >> > >> > Credit >> > Asset:RRSP yyy >> > Income:InterestRRSP >> > >> > yyy >> > >> > Whether that interest is taxable or not under your local legislation will >> > determine whether you classify it under TaxableIncome or NonTaxableIncome. >> > >> > When you withdraw funds from the RRSP to your bank account, the transaction >> > will be the same as the deposit above with a reversal of the debit and >> > credit entries,i.e.: >> > >> > Debit >> > >> > Credit >> > Asset:Bank:CheckAccount xxxx >> > Asset:RRSP >> > >> > xxxx >> > >> > Hope this helps with the recording of your RRSP. If your records are in >> > anyway critical (e.g. tax and legal implications) it would be advisable to >> > seek professional advice locally. >> > >> > David Cousens >> > >> > >> > >> > ----- >> > David Cousens >> > -- >> > Sent from: http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/GnuCash-User-f1415819.html >> > <http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/GnuCash-User-f1415819.html> >> > _______________________________________________ >> > gnucash-user mailing list >> > gnucash-user@gnucash.org >> > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user >> > <https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user> >> > ----- >> > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. >> > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. >> >> _______________________________________________ >> gnucash-user mailing list >> gnucash-user@gnucash.org >> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user >> <https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user> >> ----- >> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. >> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. 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