Updated Australian ETF distributions now available for FY19

We have updated ETF distribution information available for the FY19 Australian tax year for all iShares (BlackRock), Russell Investments, ETF Securities and Vanguard ETFs from Sharesight partner Computershare. This means that for the majority of ETFs in Australia, users will not need to manually update their ETF distribution components from their AMMA statement using Sharesight’s pro-rata form to add this information to their portfolio.

We’re waiting on updated distribution information from Link Market (who cover BetaShares ETFs among others) and hope to have that distribution information available in Sharesight shortly after we receive it.

UPDATE Sept 26th - Updated ETF data from BetaShares

We have received updated distribution data from BetaShares directly for the following BetaShares ETFs:

• A200
• AAA
• HACK
• HBRD
• HVST
• NDQ
• QOZ
• QPON
• USD
• YMAX

We've had to calculate some of the values from the raw data, so please double check these values and let us know if you find any discrepancies.

What are ETF distribution components?

ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) are a type of unitised investment fund that can be bought and sold on stock exchanges. These funds pay distributions to shareholders throughout the financial year for any income earned by the fund. In Australia, ETFs are structured as Attribution Managed Investment Trusts, which impact how the income earned (dividends, realised capital gains, interest, etc) is split across different categories for tax reporting purposes.

Example AMMA tax statement components and their corresponding fields in Sharesight

Sharesight’s ETF distribution data

Sharesight receives estimates of the gross distribution values from the ASX when they are announced, however AMIT components are only finalised when the fund managers know the breakdown of income earned by the trusts, and then they make these values available to unit holders by issuing year-end AMMA tax statements.

This means that the distribution values Sharesight receives from the ASX do not contain AMIT tax component breakdowns. Sharesight has instead worked directly with the registries involved to collect raw data for these trusts, which we then use to calculate the component values for individual ETF holdings.

For ETFs where Sharesight has data from Computershare, users will be able to accept these values if they have not yet confirmed the distribution payment. Where users have already confirmed the payment or used the pro-rata form and want to return to the original values, clicking ‘reset this payout’ (per the screenshot below) when editing the distribution will revert the data to the updated values from Computershare.

Because each ETF fund manager uses slightly different calculations to determine unit holders’ AMMA tax statement values, we highly recommend double-checking the values in Sharesight against this statement, as while we expect these to be correct in most situations, it’s possible a particular ETF/manager uses a different calculation to Sharesight.

If you do find values that don’t line up with your AMMA statement - please reach out via our help chat widget so we can ensure these are correct.

NOTE: Distributions that do not yet have updated component values are marked with a warning icon per the screenshot below.

Sharesight helps Australians with the ETF tax nightmare

Sharesight makes tax time easy for Australian investors. With our new and improved handling of ETF distributions and taxation and more powerful Australian Taxable Income Report, it has never been easier Australian investors to get the information needed to complete their tax return.

To make completing your taxes easy, sign-up for FREE and add your investments to a Sharesight portfolio. Then watch as corporate actions such as dividends, distributions and stock splits are automatically recorded. We’re confident that you’ll agree Sharesight is the best share portfolio tracker available today.

FURTHER READING

• Help - How to handle AMIT tax components in Sharesight

• How Sharesight makes ETF tax admin easy

• Improved Taxable Income Report for Australian investors

• Managed Investment Trusts - Australian Taxation Office