Morgan Stanley at Work (Alphabet)¶

cgt-calc reads the Releases Report.csv and Withdrawals Report.csv files produced for an Alphabet GSU Class C stock plan. This importer was built from that specific export and has not been validated for another employer, plan or Morgan Stanley brokerage account.

Morgan Stanley currently offers several distinct stock-plan platforms. The files described here come from Morgan Stanley at Work (formerly StockPlan Connect); they are not Shareworks or E*TRADE exports. The official employee login page identifies the three platforms separately.

Export your complete reports¶

Sign in to the Morgan Stanley at Work account used for your Alphabet awards and download the complete history from its report download page.

Place the downloaded report files in one directory. Keep at least these files unchanged:

• Releases Report.csv
• Withdrawals Report.csv

Their names are required, although matching is case-insensitive, including the .csv extension. Other CSV files in the directory are ignored. In particular, cgt-calc does not read the Releases Net Shares Report.csv or Withdrawal Wire Report.csv files found in the original example export.

Export from the first award or transaction through today, or at least 30 days after the end of the tax year you are calculating. Earlier vesting establishes the cost and quantity of shares sold later, and acquisitions in the following 30 days can affect UK share matching.

You can compare the two recognised files with the sanitised example reports.

Generate the report¶

For the 2025/26 tax year, run:

cgt-calc --year 2025 --mssb-dir morgan_stanley/

--year 2025 means 6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026. Pass the directory containing the two CSV files, not either file itself. Follow Generate and Review a Report to find and check the output.

Supported activity¶

The importer recognises only these rows:

For a release, cgt-calc uses Net Share Proceeds, not the pre-tax Quantity, as the number of shares acquired. Net Cash Proceeds must be exactly $0.00. All prices and amounts are treated as USD, and GSU Class C is mapped to the Alphabet Class C ticker GOOG.

Morgan Stanley's withdrawal report says that Alphabet sales on or before 15 July 2022 use pre-split values, while later sales use post-split values and GSU vests are always displayed post-split. cgt-calc therefore adjusts those earlier sales for the 20-for-1 split that Alphabet executed on 15 July 2022.

Known limitations¶

• This is an Alphabet-specific equity-award importer, not general Morgan Stanley support. Any plan other than the literal GSU Class C or Cash value stops with Unknown plan.
• Autosale releases are not supported. They can put a non-zero Net Cash Proceeds in the releases report while recording the actual sale in a separate Autosale report that cgt-calc does not parse. The import deliberately stops rather than silently losing either the vest or sale.
• Only the report names and row values listed above are recognised. Other report files are ignored; another type, status, header layout or price currency stops the import.
• Dividends, interest, wires, transfers of shares, and other corporate actions are not imported from this report directory. Add any relevant missing activity through another supported export or the RAW format, after verifying its date, amount and UK tax treatment.
• A Staged release is treated as an acquisition. Confirm that it completed and agrees with your final award record before relying on it.

Troubleshooting¶

No transactions detected in directory¶

Check that the directory passed to --mssb-dir directly contains Releases Report.csv and Withdrawals Report.csv. A parent directory, a Shareworks or E*TRADE export, or a directory containing only the ignored reports will not load any transactions.

Non-zero Net Cash Proceeds¶

This is a known Autosale pattern, but the releases report alone does not provide enough information to reconstruct both the vest and the later sale safely. This history is not currently supported. Keep the downloaded reports unchanged: do not delete the row, change its proceeds to zero or add guessed RAW transactions.

First upgrade cgt-calc using the same method you used to install it. If the error remains, open a GitHub issue with your cgt-calc version, the complete error, and sanitised copies of the failing release row and its corresponding Autosale record.

If you can independently reconstruct and verify every Morgan Stanley acquisition, sale, fee and cash movement, you can instead convert the complete history to the RAW format and omit --mssb-dir. Do not combine a partial RAW replacement with the failing report: cgt-calc will still reject the report, and overlapping inputs can duplicate transactions.

Unknown plan, Unknown type, Unknown status or Unknown price currency¶

Compare the named value with Supported activity. The export may be for another employer or may contain an unsupported transaction. Changing the text would not make the underlying activity equivalent to an Alphabet GSU release or sale.

First upgrade cgt-calc using the same method you used to install it. If an unchanged supported export still fails, open a GitHub issue with your cgt-calc version, the complete error and a sanitised copy of the failing row.

CSV header mismatch¶

Use the unchanged Releases Report.csv or Withdrawals Report.csv from the report download. Do not rename columns or convert a PDF or spreadsheet into CSV. If Morgan Stanley has changed an unchanged report's header, open a GitHub issue with the header and a sanitised row.

Do not upload an unredacted report: it contains order identifiers, holdings and other sensitive financial information.

Reached a negative balance or Tried to sell¶

Re-export the complete history and confirm that every sale has its earlier release. Also include the Cash withdrawal rows when present. Do not use --no-balance-check until you have identified why the cash or share history is incomplete.

The share quantities or sale prices look wrong¶

Check the section headed “Portfolio at the end of … tax year” against your award and brokerage records for 5 April. Pay particular attention to 2022 sales: sales on or before 15 July should be normalised to post-split quantities and prices. Compare each sale's proceeds and derived fee with the confirmation before relying on the calculation.