Investment Q&A

Q: You recently responded to a question regarding the ACB of BEPC shares.
Could you please provide similar info. with respect to the ACB of BIPC shares and the revised ACB of BIP.UN units. Thanks Brian

Q: I recently purchased BIPC in my non registered account anticipating a dividend. I checked my transactions on this account last night and to my surprise I found that it paid interest. Can you help me clarify on what is correct.

Q: Hello,
Over the years, I've accumulated a significant amount of BIP.UN in an RRSP account, with the intention of holding it for the income generated over the long term. Since the Mar 31 split, shares of BIPC are up around 50% while BIP.UN is up around 28%.

Does it make sense to cash in this gain, sell the BIPC and use the proceeds to buy BIP.UN, thus adding some "extra" income generating units? Would also make tracking a little simpler.

Any other factors to consider?

Thanks for your time,
Roman

Q: Retired, dividend income investor. Currently own AQN, FTS and TRP. If I wanted to add a 4th name (with a focus on renewables), what would you recommend? It would be mostly in a taxable account, with possibly some in a TFSA account. Or if AQN and FTS are enough names, should I just add funds to them? If AQN-FTS are not enough names, would you consider BEPC or BIPC? I like utilizing the dividend tax credit.
Thanks for your help...Steve

Q: The Brookfield suite over the years has been a comfortable place to grow but it has a way of taking over ( combined 4 holdings has grown to 17% ) .

BIP.UN is my 3rd biggest holding , BEP.UN is my 13th biggest holding .
BIPC is my 23rd and BEPC is my 30th weight position . I own 50 stocks .
My RIF begins next year so I will have to cull somewhere and draw income.

1. You seem to prefer BIP over BEP :
2: You prefer the “C” stocks in non-registered accounts (To benefit from CDN dividend )
3. You prefer “.UN” stocks in the registered accounts to avoid US withholding taxes.

To restructure things involves declaring substantial capital gains ... Does it make sense to switch things around ?

I thank you for causing me wealth management problems like this.

Q: In your opinion which one would offer the best return over the next 5 years?

Q: Hello 5i Team
Publish as needed or as a start to a blog entry.
I performed a simplified after tax analysis of BEP.UN vs BEPC and BIP.UN vs BIPC.
Basis of Calculation
I used the 2019 distribution and related tax information from Brookfield website for BEP.UN and BIP.UN in Canadian dollars. I used the highest marginal tax bracket for Alberta for taxation rates.
BEP.UN / BIP.UN receive T-5013 tax form
BEPC / BIPC receive T-5 tax form
Results
BEP.UN you will receive 71.4% of income after tax if you assume ROC taxed each year (taxation of ROC is deferred until you sell the units and results in capital gains tax).
BIP.UN you will receive 82.1 % of income after tax if you defer ROC tax each year.
BEPC you will receive 68.3 % of income after tax.
BIP.UN you will receive 60.2 % of income after tax if you assume ROC taxed each year (taxation of ROC is deferred until you sell the units and results in capital gains tax).
BIP.UN you will receive 67.7 % of income after tax if you defer ROC tax each year.
BIPC you will receive 68.3 % of income after tax.
Going forward, BEP.UN will probably receive more foreign income (as a result of the Terraform merger) and will pay a higher overall tax rate.
BEP.UN and BIP.UN allow deferral of income tax due to Return of Capital, however this complicates an individual’s tax return when held in a taxable account.
It is difficult to truly estimate the taxes payable on BEP.UN / BIP.UN as the allocation to various tax components is not known until March of the following year. If ROC drops significantly (from 30 – 40 % of total income), the overall tax paid will increase. With BEPC/BIPC the tax percentage is known as BEPC/BIPC issue “eligible dividends” and no ROC is assumed.
All things being equal, I think it is best to hold BEP.UN / BIP.UN in a RRSP / TFSA where the slightly higher distribution yield, if re-invested in units, will result in a higher total return. In a taxable account it is probably best to hold BEPC / BIPC to avoid the headaches of tracking Return of Capital and the inclusion of a T-5013 form in an individual’s income tax form.
Each person’s results will vary as a result of province residence and marginal tax rates (13 province/territories x 5 tax brackets = 65 potential different tax rates).
Thanks

Q: Hello Peter, I am intrigued after reading that a Canadian can earn about $50,000 per year of dividend income without paying any income tax. I know about your income portfolio of course, but with a view to maximizing just Canadian eligible dividend income, what would you think of the following portfolio of 14 stocks. Equal weighted, the stocks would yield 5.3%. (Disregard lack of market diversification; this can be achieved in one’s registered accounts.) Also, if one wanted to pare down the list to 10, which 4 would you delete?
BCE, CM, ENB, FTS, CNQ, AQN, CPD, FSZ, MG, KBL, POW, ALA, BIPC and NTR. Thanks!

Q: Hi Peter and 5i team,

I currently have BIPC and BEPC shares in my TFSA account, and I expect to hold them for the long term. Is it worth paying a transfer fee to move those shares to my CAD non-registered account in order to be able to recover any US taxes paid on dividends.

Many thanks for your opinion on this matter.

Q: Exchanging the BIPC shares for the BIP.UN shares - there was an article by John Heinzl in the Globe stating that the BIPC shares are worth a few dollars more so if you exchanged them you would be losing a few dollars a shares because the BIP.UN shares are worth less. There are many questions out there concerning this and so I tried the search column at 5i that hopefully someone else wrote in about it - could you clarify John Heinzl's position on this? Thank you,
Dennis

Q: Hi 5i Team:

I have owned 1300 shares of BEP.un for a number of years and having a good gain. I also, own 300 BIPC for a short while with a small loss. Is there any advantage to buy more BIPC now. I don't really need the monthly income. Thank you.

L

Q: They's issues shares and the funds are not going to the company. Who's the seller?

John

Q: I have 3.0 % in BIP.UN.CA and .73 % of BIPC.T. Wondering if I should have a position in both. Both are held in a Registered fund. No tax issues. Your comments.

Q: Continuing our discussion on these two companies BIPC trades at a much lower PE 12.4 versus 170.8, had lower P/B 1.4 versus 2.5 and also has higher momentum short term- doesn’t this make for a compelling buy for BIPC versus BIP.UN. Very confusing situation created by Brookfield.

Q: Further to my previous question on this topic I’m Attaching report claiming these two stocks do indeed own different assets

I’m wary of holding BIPC because the new corporation only owns a small subset of the partnership’s global infrastructure assets. Is this a concern?
It’s true that BIPC directly owns only natural gas transmission assets in Brazil and regulated utility operations in the United Kingdom. However, the fact that BIPC shares are exchangeable into BIP.UN units and both will pay the same dividend/distribution means BIPC investors are getting access, albeit indirectly, to the complete global portfolio of infrastructure assets including railways, ports, toll roads, pipelines, communications towers and data centres. It also means that BIP.UN units and BIPC shares should track each other closely in price, which has been the case so far. (My note: NOT TRUE)
“In order to effectuate the stock split, we were required to transfer assets to BIPC since it’s a separate reporting issuer/listed entity,” Ms. Low said.
“The assets we chose to transfer (being the gas transmission system in Brazil and regulated distribution operations in the U.K.) were selected as they were relatively easy to transfer considering regulatory, legal, financial and tax implications,” she said.
“So while BIP LP and BIPC do hold different assets, investors should be indifferent as BIP LP and BIPC should be considered one entity, which collectively share the same assets, returns and management.”
Full disclosure: The author owns BIP.UN and BIPC personally and in his model Yield Hog Dividend Growth Portfolio

Q: The gap between these two tickers seems to continue to widen.

BIP.UN yields over 4.5% and BIPC 3.9%. Even with the dividend tax credit, the aftertax dividend cash flow is much high from BIP.UN. Am I going crazy? I have been wanting to step in here for a long time (definitely miss the "boat to a certain extent) but why wouldn't I invest in BIP.UN?

Q: I was under the impression both shares held the same assets and differed only in structure- Corp versus trust. Now I heard BIPC only owns Nat gas transmission in Brazil and regulated utility in UK. Can you please confirm if this is correct. If it is what is NAV of both shares.
Thanks for your service.
Steve

Q: Hi All, on May 1st I sold 1/2 a position in BIP.UN and put the proceeds into BIPC, since then BIP.UN up 6% while BIPC is up close to 14%, perhaps I should sell the remaining shares in BIP.UN and buy BIPC, these shares are in
an non registered account, if its a 8% difference in 5 weeks what will it be in one year. Thanks as always Anthony

Q: Just read Peter"s latest article in the Financial Post "Five blockbuster deals that would inject some excitement into markets during quarantine". So with a limited amount of cash on hand which of these possible deals is the most likely? A list of 1 to 5 woiuld be great. And should I be buying the predator or the prey?
thank you

Q: Is BIP.UN looking attractive at current prices?
If held in a non-reg account, does it still get the dividend tax credit?
Is it best held in a reg or non-reg account and why?
TIA!