The new financial year in Australia is starting on the 1st July at the time that some ETFs are paying dividends.
If the Ex dividend date of these ETFs is the 1st July, why are they appearing in the taxable income report when selecting the previous financial year that ended on June 30th?
If these dividends are paid in the new financial year, can they be reported to the ATO when doing the taxes for this new financial year (next year) instead of reporting them while doing the taxes of the previous financial year that just ended?
My view always was " that we earned that money in previous fin year " just because actual payment came in July ( or next fin year) does not change the fact that tax must be sorted out for the year that money was earned in. Hope it helps.
Juan , in that case no . If XD is in the new Fin Year there is something wrong with the system so you can change it manually . Only XD in previous year is taxable in that year.
In the taxable income report, I’m selecting 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021, yet I’m seeing some with ex date 1 July 2021. Is this happening because I’ve not confirmed the transactions yet?
What I do is run the up coming income report (in reports) to see those shares. Then go into each dividend record and change the ex date to July 1 putting it into the new financial year. It is strictly correct the way Sharesight does it but if like me you want to account on a cash basis my workaround works.
My issue is that the ex date is already in the 1st of July but they are showing in the previous financial year. Even doing accounting in accrual basis, I don’t understand why Sharesight is reporting it that way.
Are you certain? That definitely does not happen for me. The dividend shows in the financial year of the ex date. I would suggest you go into the detail screen of the stock and check the dividend is not entered twice and also re check the dates eg 1/7/21 not 1/7/20. If still have problem I would guess you have to contact Sharesight support. Also check you have set the program up with the tax dates as the Australian Financial Year not calendar year.
Thanks for your suggestions.
I’ve checked and everything is configured fine as far as I can tell.
I just noticed that in the report, on each dividend row, there is an “i” icon. After pressing it, the following message displays:
“This disbursement is included in this period because the tax year for ETF’s is based on when fund income is earned, and not when it was disbursed to unit holders.”
This is still strange to me, but maybe that is how it should be. I though that this is what the ex dividend date is used for. It is strange that you are not seeing the same thing.
It is strange to me too. Mine are for shares not ETFs but it should work the same way. Are you pressing the orange Save Payment button in the bottom left after making the change?
If that does not work try entering a whole new dividend for the same amount with an ex and pay date of July 1. If it accepts that and they show in the 21/22 year then delete the other entry. If that does not work I guess you will take up with Sharesight support.
They do distributions, i.e. as a unitised fund, it distributes its income and tax liabilities for the reporting period to its unitholders. The common ETFs often do that quarterly.
An ETF going ex on 1 July means unitholders as at 30 June are the ones receiving this quarterly distributions.
Then over the coming days / weeks, you should receive from the ETF a tax statement that summarises what you need to enter into various sections of the FY 2021 tax return.
Hi Sabi
I contacted support, researched a bit more and below is what I understand now:
ETFs are different to shares. ETFs are trusts. They don’t pay dividends but distributions.
The tax on an ETF must be paid in the year that the dividend is earned by the trust, not in the year it is paid to unit holders.
So, a dividend with an ex date for a trust on the 1st July, is most likely to have been earned by the trust in the previous financial year.
Sharesight calculates this correctly.
It is possible to change the way this is calculated in Sharesight by editing the payment, changing the income type from trust to non-trust, but I don’t think that is the right thing to do. I’m unsure.
Maybe someone else from the community can clarify, but that is what I understand.
For example I received a payment for an ETF called TECH yesterday. The ex date was 30/6/21 and payment date 15/7/21. Today I received a payment today for another ETF called VAP - the ex date is 1/7/21 and payment date today. Are they both considered income for last financial year (20/21) and therefore put in last FY’s tax return?
Exactly that was the premise of my original question in this thread.
Yes @drd that is exactly what I’m understanding that we need to do.
I’ll like for someone with more knowledge to clarify it.
its depends on whether it is a company or trusts, In case of companies dividends are taxed the day we get into our account and incase of trust its on Ex dividend date, bcoz of different tax structure of companies and trusts.
Hi @And ETFs and Managed funds are 2 different investment types. Both are considered as trust income. Your distribution statement should confirm this. Please get in touch with our support if you need any additional help.