Investment Q&A

Q: I hold DYNAMIC ACTIVE GLOBAL DIVID ETF UNITS (DXG) and the bank has sent me a T3 slip (Box 21) indicating I have earned $5384 as a capital gain. I didn't sell my ETF. I thought you report gain or loss only after you sell in a calendar year.

If I would have sold my ETF on Dec 22 my gain would be close to 10K how did they come up with only 5384.

I call my bank and they advise slip was generated "Non-cash distribution as part of the phantom payment." however I didn't receive any money.

Can you please advise do I have to report this gain or report when I actually sell the units?

I do my own Taxes. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks for the great service.

Q: I have a position in a stock. I recently sold a portion of the stock at a loss. I know the loss based on average cost has to be added back to the original average cost (making my cost higher) I bought the stock back again within the 30 day superficial loss rule. Question: If I sell the WHOLE POSTION by year end and have to declare a profit or loss, do I have to do anything at all as it " would all come out in the wash" This is for a non-registered acct. Thanks

Q: Re: CRA. Thanks for the chuckle Ed. Takes me back to the late 90's when I was trading US tech stocks. After a year of that, and doing the taxes, I saw the benefit of holding Canadian domiciled US stock ETF's

Q: Publish publicly in whole or part (or none) at your discretion, within the limits of what is appropriate for an investing advice service.
This is in response to Ed's tax/accounting beef of April 1.
I'm a retired tax accountant who served many investors who were plagued by this same situation.
I used to give my investment clients a little mini-editorial about it being the responsibility of the investor to have all that data, either prepared and kept by the investor themselves, or by someone else (which may have been the broker) the investor paid to prepare it for them. I developed a spreadsheet (which I used myself as well as making it available to my clients) to assist them in doing it for themselves if they so wished. Simple spreadsheet, usable in Excel or Google Sheets, which anyone comfortable with spreadsheets could replicate.
I'm happy to post the above, as well as a copy of the spreadsheet if that is possible, in the forums, though I note the most appropriate forum (Tax & FX issues) is now 5 years old. Perhaps a new forum topic, but I don't know how to start one?

Q: This is a tax / accounting beef, but it may apply to a lot of subscribers.

I'm doing my taxes on my own, and it is extremely time-consuming and frustrating when it comes to investments. CRA wants all the US numbers converted to CAD.

I have a US-based margin account to avoid the constant back and forth with losing money on exchange rates. I own relatively small amounts of many US stocks. Almost half of my tax time is related to accounting for stocks, looking up the original purchase date or settlement date, figuring out the US exchange rate (from the Internet) on that particular day, then adding to the cost base another day and a different US exchange rate when I added a few more shares to it, then subtracting that from the sell price with the sell date's foreign exchange rate. If that’s not enough, CRA wants us to include the commission in the cost base, but then the sell price needs to have the commission stripped out (with its US exchange rate calculated). What’s that all about?

I don’t know why the trading platform doesn’t figure all this out for you. Are there any smarter ways of doing this, other than switching brokerage accounts?

Q: As a retiree, I invest in mostly growth stocks with little or no dividends in my non-registered accounts so as to manage my net income to avoid government clawbacks and high tax brackets. In doing my research, how can I find out how distributions and dividends being paid by a company will be taxed in the hands of shareholders? Do dividends from specific classes of purchased stocks taxed differently?
More specifically, how are the distributions from BAM.A and BEP.UN treated, and are any of these or other Brookfield stocks considered return of capital?
Any recommended reading in this area?
Thanks for your ongoing sound support.

Q: if one sold 100 shares of company x out of a tax account and rebought the same shares in a tfsa account does the 30 day rule apply

Q: Are our subscriptions of 5iResearch eligible for the Digital News Subscription Tax Credit? The limit is $500.

John

Q: If you had to bet on an increase of capital gains taxes in the next federal budget on April19, what would be the odds?
I know this rumor has been present for ages, but the probability is surely higher this year.
Good day.

Q: In a cash account, from a taxation perspective, which ETF would you prefer between XAW and VXC and why? Thanks

Q: I recently sold a stock at a loss of a few dollars. If I choose not to claim a loss on this transaction am I allowed to re-purchase the stock inside the 30 day
parameter without penalty?

Q: Hi Peter...If you could put on your CRA hat for a minute. I made a metal error this past summer and sold my WSP shares held in a margin account triggering a sizeable capital gain. The same day I rebought the shares. Scotia iTrade has now sent me their tax form but their numbers did not match mine. In essence Scotia raised the adjusted cost base of the shares up by including the new shares with the original shares. It is like I purchased the shares first (raising the ACB) and then sold a portion of the holding. Naturally I am tempted to go with Scotia's numbers because it reduces the tax burden. Do you have any thoughts?
As an aside it would seem one could always raise the ACB by buying shares on margin and then selling the holding after let's say 30 days. (We have to renovate the house in about a year so I will need to sell stocks to raise cash. All stock positions are currently positive thanks in no small measure to you, Ryan and the 5i team). The risk is the share price tanks after I have increased our position and one ends up with a loss instead of a profit. However you have advised us that in regards to rebuying shares after claiming a capital loss that generally the share price doesn't move much over 30 days.
Any thoughts you have would be appreciated,
Jim

Q: my granddaughter has an RESP. it holds apple Berkshire Hathaway and face book with a cumulative value of over 100,000 CAD. do I have to file a special form with revenue Canada since its value exceeded $100,000 to its value thanks Richard

Q: Not a question. There have been a number of questions regarding Topicus.com's ACB.
There is a thread started in the Forum.

Q: Good morning Peter, Ryan, and 5i Team,
Can an poorly performing stock in a TFSA be transferred 'in-kind' to an investment account for possible a tax-loss benefit later in the year? Can the TFSA then be 'topped up' or do you have to wait until next year? Are there any merits to doing this transfer? Thanks as always for your insight.

Q: I know you are not tax experts, so please disregard this question if it falls too far outside your field. I only venture it because you are so generous in answering all sorts of questions.

My wife and I each have a margin account. We are retired and take money from a rif each year. Dividends, capital gains and pensions are split at tax time.

The question is whether we are able to shift money back and forth between our accounts without tax consequences? Also, would it be possible to combine the two accounts into a joint margin account without tax consequences
Thanks as always for the great service

Q: If I were to sell TOI what do I use as the book value? My brokerage statement shows 1 cent, but I believe it was issued as a special dividend (if that is the term) with a value of about $60.00. Thanks.

Q: Good morning, could you highlight the types of investments and how best to acquire them, that are most ideal to be held in TFSA to minimize any foreign tax issues.

Q: RE: Taxes and Form T5008...I have bought the same stock from the 3 on line brokers I use. Can I combine all 3 buys and sells into one T5008 line or do I have to show trade each separately? thanks

Q: I have US stocks in my RRIF, Cash account, and TFSA that would total 150K. I am a Canadian, and I do not own any property in the US. Can I assume there are no US tax implications?