ETF - annual tax statements not even close to matching Sharesight entries

I don't use simple-invest but i'm guessing it is very similar to simple-fund. Simple-fund does it well.
If you want to be early with annual return or have a rare fund, email your tax statement to them and they will imput for you, once the system has enough data to learn it will calculate components based on your balances, just need to check and confirm, all mine have been accurate.

They do AMIT properly, adjustments are automatically calculated and pinned to each tax parcel.

Actually they do tax parcel tracking all round way better than sharesight, where its basically non-existent apart from some selections in how reports are produced, but he consistency from year to year if you do not always use the same report generation method would cause errors.

From my investigations of sharesight it left a fair bit to be desired, certainly couldn't use it for adequate tax preparation whereas simple fund you can and I'm guessing simple invest would be a similar standard. Difference between a portfolio tracker (sharesight) and proper accounting software (simplefund).

 

You can enter the components off the statements in full detail, there's no issue with that. But if you want the components to be prefilled/auto calculate correctly I've found very few will do that.

 

I admit I am an old fuddy-duddy and I'd prefer to work from documents which state "You must keep this document for your tax records" or "Please retain this statement for income tax purposes" rather than rely on some software to do it via some algorithm.

They would also be the source documents I'd retain just in case those nice people from the ATO started asking me questions.

 

My issue after receiving the statement is that Sharesight do not use the ATO labels eg 13U, 18A etc. They use different terminology on the entry field which makes it difficult to enter the components with any sort of confidence

 

This.

I use Simple Invest - and it's similar to Simple Fund. Emailed them AMIT statements and it's all taken care of. Works perfect.

Share Sight is too expensive for what they offer.

 

Good stuff @sillydad. Appreciate the feedback. I think I recall now you mentioning (or maybe it was trialing) Simple Invest in another thread some time back.

I noticed light-year docs have webinar in this Thursday

"Join Michael Jeffriess and special guest Warren Renden from BGL explore the wonderful world of SMSF administration and corporate compliance by using their products Simple Fund 360, Simple Invest and CAS 360. These tools can allow you to :

✔️ Get notified on ASX corporate actions taken place throughout the year
✔️ Streamline and simplify end year processes & identify potential SMSF breaches
✔️ Create financial reports for trust portfolios
✔️ Automate CGT, depreciation and GST recording, calculation and reporting
✔️ Automate annual reviews
✔️ Get notified on annual review dates, deadlines and company debt
✔️ Easily prepare all distribution, minutes and statements and reports

"

 

I might have to look into that next year...

 

Hi all, just wanted to clear up why the AMMA statement AMIT component values are likely to initially differ with Sharesight's figures when statements are sent out to investors.

During the year, Sharesight receives estimates of the gross distribution values from the ASX when they are announced to the market, however ETF fund managers only calculate the final AMIT component breakdown at the end of the financial year when they produce the AMMA statement for unit holders, with these figures likely to differ to Sharesight's until we are able to source updated AMIT component values from the registries and fund managers directly.

Last year Sharesight sourced and published updated ETF AMIT tax components for the FY19/20 tax year in September for the majority of ETFs in Australia. This year we're hopeful to have this data available sooner, and will notify users when it's available.

Once updated, the AMIT components in Sharesight should match the values in your AMMA statements for all ETFs we have this data for (if they don't get in touch with support and we can investigate).

 

I am sure I am missing quite a few brain cells and so don't see the need to wait until September for Sharesight to do its thing when an investor gets the necessary ETF information in early August. More than one ETF then use a calculator to add the numbers up. Maybe that skill has been lost. We has all gone weird.

 

Absolutely, if you're filing via etax you can just enter the AMIT components directly from the AMMA statement to the etax fields for each ETF.

It is important for anyone using Sharesight to ensure the (soon to be updated) AMIT component values are recorded correctly and line up with your AMMA statements - as this can impact your cost base (increase/decrease) which will affect any CGT calculations in the future.

 

Appreciate you taking the time to post that @David@Sharesight.

Useful information for those who use etax or Sharesight.

For myself I simply merge all the relevant documentation for the financial year into one PDF for both myself and the SMSF then submit both via the accountant's secure client portal. Then forget about it until next time. About 30 minutes of extremely arduous work and a cup of coffee.

 

Share sight merely TRIES to replicate data from each fund. It cant do it prior to that and it can only ever be inconsistent. Patience is the key issue. Sharesight cant predict. Prior to sharesight there were "wraps" and they were often appallling.

We see this a lot with SMSFs. If we wait we can do the work. If we try and do it too soon we must stop. ONCE the data is completed then check sharehight agrees to the tax stmts. This avoids errors in CGT calcs from AMIT adjustmnets and other issues., Sharesight is useless for smsf accounting anyway.

I have also seen people with sharesight and non-sharesight data. This can make a complete mess of things. Sharesight will try to efficiently deal with CGT and be completely wrong. Same with "CGT optimisation". I am a HUGE critic of doing this basis of CGT for your tax. It tends to limit CGT at the expense of all other issues. = it can leave you with a LONG wait until CGT discounts can be used when if you manually checked it may be a different outcome for a trivial change in tax. .

The ATO wont accept "sharesight made a mistake" to avoid penalties. I recently had a taxpayer who was asked about a undeclared gain and it seems sharesight considered the sale settlement date not the contract date so it was undeclared. Another had several sales the ATO wanted tro audit. They didnt even want sharesight and wanted actual; broker and contract data. That client wondered why they even bothered. ATO will always want primary records not retabulated data

 

Incorrect. All ETFs are a fund. A listed trust. Rarely a company is used in which case it is a listed investment company (LIC). So its a LIC or ETF or MIT (Managed Investmeent Trust) when its not a ETF. Trusts make beneficiaries entitled to income it derives in the year. Whether its paid before 30 June or after and why tax statements must be used as cash will not usually equal tax. Income may be exempt, deferred or franked or not. Return of "capital" is common which can affect CGT costbase issues. Its the "absolutely entitled" basis of taxation unlike a pure dividend which is assessable income when paid (received, DRP or not received). ETFs that pay foreign source income are no different however they will commonly comprise a greater (100% even) proportion of foreign income and often include witholding credits. .

 

Wow, I depend upon @sharesight like tax book .. not sure what I will do if there is an error in all my past tax reporting.... ! how much fine do they charge?

 

has anyone here used navexa.io ? is it any better then sharesight when it comes to reporting ETF? I am still waiting for sharesight to update vanguard AMIT distribution...

 

Why are VTS and VEU dividends treated differently to VGS distributions? Is it because they are foreign income?

 

The funds are 'foreign domiciled' so yes, their distributions are taxable on payment date rather.

Both of these (VEU & VTS) usually pay in July, the July 2021 payment is taxable in the year of receipt being the year ending 30 June 2022.

 

I don't know why Vanguard make it difficult to find the PDS on it's website but this snippet is from Section 4 for VEU (found under the advisers link). It's the same wording in the VTS PDS.

 

How much is in your bank account?

I recognise many like third-party products but my layperson's view is nothing, but nothing, tops keeping your own records. Use other products if you wish but never rely upon them should the ATO knock on your door and says Hello. Just my two cents.

 

@ASXGJ1 as is usual with me a thought later came to mind when thinking about your post:

What actual records e.g. Buy/Sell contracts, dividends advices (if any), AMIT Statements, etc, are you keeping and where do you retain them or are you just leaving it all up to sharesight?

Your problem of course but I do hope you realise when you submit your income tax return, electronically or not, you're effectively signing this declaration.