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Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: Hi gang, any suggestions on this two company’s . Is one better than the other. Or any other suggestions? Or Maybe couple of ETFS . Thanks. Alnoor
Read Answer Asked by Alnoor on October 06, 2020
Q: Hi,
I own both BEP.UN and BEPC in my RRSP. I decided to keep both about a month ago following a response to a question. But now it seems as time goes by that the capital appreciation of BEPC outweighs by far the higher dividend of BEP.UN (at least in my case). Would you still recommend holding both today in a RRSP or to sell BEP.UN and hold only BEPC?
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Marco on October 05, 2020
Q: Hello 5i,
I held BEPC in a non registered US account as dividends supposedly were in US dollars. I sold BEPC and added to my BEP in that US non registered account. I also have BEP.UN in a non-registered Canadian account. Should I keep both BEP and BEP.UN or would it be advantageous to sell one of them and add to the other? If so, which one? I have increases in each but am within the portfolio percentage of where I want to be.
Read Answer Asked by STANLEY on October 01, 2020
Q: Hello
I have an 18% gain in BEP.UN in a non registered account. I received the spin out shares in BEPC. Is there any tax advantage in selling the BEP.UN shares and buying the equivalent BEPC shares? Meaning, despite the cap tax gain hit, will the future taxation in BEPC be more advantageous over BEP.UN?

Also I recently bought GOOG C shares maybe by mistake. Is there any advantage to sell them and buy the A shares instead?

Thanks
2 deductions if you see fit.
Read Answer Asked by JEFF on September 29, 2020
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
Read Answer Asked by Roman on September 29, 2020
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
Read Answer Asked by Stephen on September 29, 2020
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.
Read Answer Asked by Thomas on September 25, 2020
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
Read Answer Asked by Stephen on August 27, 2020
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.
Read Answer Asked by Michel L on August 25, 2020
Q: Good morning, Portfolio Analytics suggests we (as elderly seniors) lower our Utility holdings by 6.32%. Currently, we have:
AQN 3.9 %, BEPC 3.5%, BIP.UN 4.6%, H 2.2%, SPB 1.8%. Firstly is there a holding I could eliminate? If not should I just lower the larger percentages? All are in RRIFs.
Second suggestion from Analytics is to lower telecom by 3.54%. Currently have BCE 4.2%, T 3.5% and GOOG 4.2%. T and BCE are in RRIFs. GOOG is in an unregistered account. I have always looked at GOOG as technology sector. Any comments. Thanks for your expertise.
Ted
Read Answer Asked by Ted on August 21, 2020
Q: Would you please mention other renewable energy corp. in US and Canada. Thanks for your incredible service. Jim
Read Answer Asked by jim on August 21, 2020
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