Investment Q&A

Q: for tax purposes in Canada, is a Canadian money market fund ETF profit taxable as income or capital gain. Thanks. Merry Christmas to all there.

Q: I understand that VGT and XLK are extremely popular US technology ETF's.
I also understand that many popular US exchange ETF's are extremely tax efficient If I held these in my taxable account will there likely be capital gains/losses declared annually? If so, where can I find this historical information?
Would my broker provide this tax information annually to help me prepare my tax return?

Q: Recently you answered my question regarding US dividend WHT on Canadian domiciled ETF issues (Vanguard Canada, RBC Ishares etc) and noted that withholding taxes are owing on distributions since the Canadian ETF is simply holding the US ETF and the taxes would be levied when distributions are paid by the US ETF to the Canadian ETF.

Some follow up questions:
- I am assuming that the WHT would apply even if the Canadian ETF is held within a registered account?
- Does the WHT explain part of the difference in yield when comparing the US ETF and the Canadian ETF? For example - VIG yields 1.69% while VGG yields 1.17%. Assuming also that the higher MER on VGG also explains part of the yield difference??
- Given these factors - the WHT and higher MER - why would anyone choose the Canadian version of the same ETF. Further to this - In another question posed by Jacques - you point out that the Canadian ETF ZSP would be preferable to VFV since it holds the stocks directly and not thru the US ETF VOO....thereby avoiding WHT's for registered accounts. However - when you look at VOO - the yield is about 26 bp's higher than either VFV and ZSP....again why would you not just buy VOO.

Many thanks

Q: What is the recommendation to own in a registered account? What is the difference between these 2 securities?

Q: I have two questions re: tax loss selling. I have a three year old gain that I can offset by selling the above holdings.

1. First please help me with the math. If I buy a stock for $100, sell it for $90, I have a loss of $10 which would mean I can expect a $2.50 tax loss at a 25% rate. Does this mean that if I wanted to buy the stock back after 30 days, I would only be better off if I buy it back at less than 92.50 per share? Do you have a threshold whereby you must be down by a certain amount to justify a tax loss sale? e.g. 20%? Unless of course you are walking away from a company.

2. Which of the companies listed would you consider buying back after 30 days? I have too many holdings as it is so may just let them all go unless something is particularly interesting. I am overweight technology, underweight everything else but otherwise have a broad mix of funds and stocks.

Q: If I sell Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. (BEP.UN:CA) that I hold in my RRSP, will I have to pay the 10% U.S. withholding tax on the total proceeds? As you know this tax was implemented on Canadian Limited Partnership companies last year, but I do not know if BEP.UN has taken steps to avoid it. Thank you

Q: I am starting a non-registered portfolio. I would like exposure to the US tech market.
Here are 2 questions:
What are the tax implications of an ETF? (I have read several suggested documents in the Questions section of your website but I am still not sure about the tax cost). Are there any costs other than the MER to hold an ETF?
I am looking at XSP, XUS, VFV.
Thanks.

Q: Hello. I would like to add to an answer given today about selling TD Bank shares with significant capital gain and Tax mitigation

Asked by Dave: "Can you suggest any way to mitigate/reduce any tax hit if I were to dump my TD shares?"


If an investor is so inclined, it is beneficial to Donate shares where upon donation there is zero capital gains tax and the full amount of the share sale value is considered a charitable donation.

With annual charitable donations, I have been running off gains this way for years.

Q: Is the following true for holding the ETF ZID within a non-registered account:

- Does not have to be declared on the T1135 form.

- Distribution may contain Return of Capital (ROC) which itself is not taxed, but does affect the ACB of the shares.

- Distribution may contain (non-eligible?) dividends.

- Distribution may contain income which is taxed at the same rate as ordinary income , but at the highest marginal tax bracket.

- Distribution is not grossed up (i.e. the dreaded negative effect on OAS).

Q: I've owned TD for over 30 years and am sitting on a large unrealized capital gain. I know this is a great "problem" to have but I resent paying up to 33% tax on any sale now that the feds have upped the tax inclusion rate to 2/3 from 1/2. I took all the risk but lose close to 1/3 of the reward.
Can you suggest any way to mitigate/reduce any tax hit if I were to dump my TD shares?
I hate to say it but I suspect that this issue will only increase (i.e. next step will be 75% inclusion) as the feds look to gouge people to cover their horrific fiscal ineptitude.

Q: About taxes: Do you see any tax problem in buying FINB BMO S&P 500 (USD)
ZSP.U in december 2024? Is it better taxwise to wait for the beginning of 2025?

Q: I’m have some non registered stock investments that have capital gains. I was looking to make a donation to a charity using these to offset a tax on gains, as opposed to simply donating cash from cash flow. Is there anything to stop me from simply donating my stocks and then simply buying them back again, essentially to erase my tax burden?

Q: Are there US withholding taxes associated with the ETF's that are offered by Vanguard Canada (or any other Canadian ETF issuer) that pay a USD distribution??
Thanks

Q: Would tou confirm the last trading day for tax-loss purpose, Canadian and US ?
I’ve seen Dec 27 and Dec30 also (new settlement date?).
Thanks a lot. Great holidays to you.

Q: Hello,
I’m not sure if this question is out of scope. However my daughter and son in law are moving from Switzerland to Canada in the new year. They have some questions regarding their investments so I thought I would see if your team can help with answers.
- We have UCITS Irish domiciled ETFs so that we don’t have to pay US withholding tax - are these available in Canada?
- If not, are there any options to invest in for example an S&P 500 ETF (or other US ETFs) without having to pay withholding tax?
- do you have a brokerage account that you recommend? We currently use CornerTrader/CornerBank but they are not present in Canada so we have to switch

Q: Would any of these ETF's have year-end distributions?
Is it a good idea to just wait until the new calendar year now, to start a new position in one of these?

Q: Barry Ritholtz: Some investors have big, concentrated equity positions that have accrued big gains. Maybe it’s due to employee stock option plans. Perhaps they have some founder stock from a startup. Maybe there was an IPO or a takeover.

But suddenly they find themselves sitting on an uncomfortably large percentage of their portfolio in a single name. The challenge for investors is how can they diversify when selling shares leads to owing big capital gains? What’s an investor to do?

I’m Barry Ritholtz and on today’s edition of at the money we’re going to discuss how to manage concentrated equity positions with an eye towards diversification and managing big capital gains taxes.

To help us unpack all of this and what it means for your portfolio Let’s bring in Meb Faber He’s the founder and chief investment officer of Cambria. The fund runs 15 ETFs and manages nearly 3 billion in assets. Their new ETF is coming out in December 2024: The Cambria TaxAware ETF – symbol TAX – is a solution to address just these challenges of concentrated positions.

The above quote is intriguing. If I understand it correctly It will allow a tax deferred diversification from a single holding with large capital gains. It hardly seems possible. If I read this correctly, will this etf be available for Canadians? How do you view it?
Thanks

Q: Hello. I don’t understand how the US holding tax works, what it is and how it affects my portfolio. Can you please explain it to me. Thanks.

Q: Hi 5i,

For a US ETF in a non-registered account, would it be more tax efficient to hold HXS because it doesn't pay a distribution, versus ZSP which does? Would you recommend ZSP over HXS for any particular reason?

Thanks

Q: If I borrow to invest in a Canadian company that does not pay dividends,but has the potential to pay dividends in the future,is the interest cost still tax deductible?