@GoodShip: I agree with your reading of the tax code: unified basis seems to be pretty explicit in the way its written, which implies that a partial sale should be treated as a pro rata sale of each lot. But implementing that still requires providing lot specific information:
1) The total adjustments to basis and the ordinary gain that is reported on the K-1 is based on the lots the partner uses for the sale. So if they use LIFO, you'll get a different K-1 than if they use FIFO. So the first challenge is to get an accurate K-1. I do this by informing the K-1 preparer how many shares of each lot I sold. If I sold 33% of my holdings, then I report that I sold 33% of each lot.
2) As for the broker, I just try to keep their records in sync with the partnership records, so I give them the same splits.
With that said, I don't think many people actually adhere to this. The brokers don't seem to care, and the K-1 preparers default to FIFO even though that definitely doesn't adhere to a 'unified' interpretation. And to make it worse, one of the two major preparers (I don't remember which at the moment) doesn't generate a K-1 for anything other than LIFO or FIFO, making the unitholder do their own best-guess calcs.
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**Note also, I'm not a Tax Preparer/CPA. Just a volunteer, seasoned, TurboTax user.
Use any advice accordingly!
