Missing acquisitions, the finding that protects you

This page is a stub. The full guide is written against the shipped app version and is on its way.

The heaviest findings in the app, missing cost basis and its sibling the negative wallet balance, both point at the same underlying problem, the workspace shows you disposing of units it never saw you acquire.

Why it is a 20-point finding and not a shrug. Units with no recorded acquisition carry no cost, so when they are sold the entire proceeds read as gain, and your tax is overstated. This finding exists to protect you from paying tax on money you did not make, which is why the app refuses to work around it without telling you.

The usual causes, in order of likelihood. An exchange or wallet you have not imported yet, the buy lives there. A partial export, one year instead of the whole history, pooling needs everything since your first purchase. A transfer with the wrong wallets on it, making a genuine move look like an exit and an unexplained arrival. And occasionally, an airdrop or income receipt recorded by the source as appearing from nowhere.

The honest fixes. Import the missing source, the complete history this time. Correct the wallets on the mislabelled transfer, per-wallet balancing shows exactly which wallet and asset to look at. If the record genuinely no longer exists anywhere, an exchange long dead, add the acquisition manually with your best-evidenced date and cost and keep whatever evidence you have, record keeping covers what HMRC expects when history is imperfect.

What not to do. Do not file from a workspace still carrying the finding. The number on screen is wrong in your disfavour while it stands, and clearing it is usually one import away.