Re: Complex Calculations

[John Machin <sjmachin lexicon net>]

Norman Frederick wrote:
> Ralph Shumaker wrote:
> > Norman Frederick wrote:
> I thank you both for your answers. You got me on the right direction in 
> spite of my typing errors.
> In my SS C is the date Sold, D is the amount rcvd, E is the date Bought, 
> F is the amount Paid, G is short and H is long term. Even the IRS will 
> not argue with 365 days as a year.

The IRS will not argue with 365 days as a year if and only if the law 
says to use 365 days for this purpose.

> Exactly 365 is a condition so 
> improbable that I can live with it.

A corollary to Murphy's Law says that the more one dismisses unfortunate 
events as improbable, the more probable they become :-)

> When I finally put Shumakers formula 
> in correctly it worked just as I wanted. What I ended with is:
> =IF(Cn-En<365,Dn-Fn,) for Gn and
> =IF(Cn-En>365,Dn-Fn,) for Hn

It's become worse. If you had followed Shumaker, a bad guess about the 
365 thing would have led to your wife paying the wrong rate of tax on 
exactly-365-days gains. However you haven't put Shumaker's suggestion 
in. You have inverted the "days < 365" condition incorrectly as "days > 
365" instead of "days >= 365". If the difference is exactly 365 days, 
the amount of gain is put in neither column G nor column H, and the IRS 
will nab you as an accessory to your wifes's tax evasion :-)