# CHESS Holding Statements



## Ted (4 July 2007)

Hi all,

Can anyone tell me if CHESS Holding Statements should be retained as part of your record keeping or can they go straight to the recycling bin?

Ted


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## Uncle Festivus (4 July 2007)

Ted, I usually keep mine for the same period as tax records are required to be kept, after that just for your own interest I assume. I have kept all mine. Any one else have a good reason to keep them?


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## jammin (4 July 2007)

Ted, I haven't found a serious use for them yet. I use my broker generated contract notice as my main book keeping reference, using the Chess statements as a backup confirming I have contract notices to match all the changes on the chess statements.


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## Ted (4 July 2007)

Was not sure if keeping them was an unneccessary double up with contract notes. I guess they do show some additional information in relation to consolidations, name changes etc.


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## GreatPig (4 July 2007)

I've kept them so far but have never used them. Wondered myself whether I should just dump them.

Cheers,
GP


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## tech/a (4 July 2007)

Ive used them to verify (Prove) an error made by my broker about a year ago.
Was a complete stuff up and saved me quite a bit.
IE your balance doesnt add up to mine---where's blah blah trade??
Bought a new filing cabinate to celebrate.---Thats where they go!


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## Ted (4 July 2007)

Thanks guys,

Sounds like it may be no harm to hold on to them especially while you are still holding a related stock.


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## Smurf1976 (4 July 2007)

I keep them whilst I still hold the stock. Just in case something goes wrong with the computers - I've got paper proof that I bought the stock which just might come in handy someday.

Some of my recent ones seem to be taking a while to turn up however. Might have to investigate why.


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## MITCH027 (9 January 2010)

Does anyone know if there is any way to receive your CHESS statements via email?

I am getting about 50 a month or so. It is absolutely a waste of paper for my purposes


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## UBIQUITOUS (9 January 2010)

MITCH027 said:


> Does anyone know if there is any way to receive your CHESS statements via email?
> 
> I am getting about 50 a month or so. It is absolutely a waste of paper for my purposes




What you want is www.investorcentre.com

Go there, enter your HIN and change your options to email. 

This way you can buy shares to your heart's content without having to worry about your missus finding your chess statements in the mailbox.


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## MITCH027 (9 January 2010)

UBIQUITOUS said:


> What you want is www.investorcentre.com
> 
> Go there, enter your HIN and change your options to email.
> 
> This way you can buy shares to your heart's content without having to worry about your missus finding your chess statements in the mailbox.




Thanks for that, definitely on the right track now

But a lot of the shares I've bought/sold are clients of LINK, so I've registered with them

One question though - do I have to manually register each share I've bought/sold with these guys to avoid mail correspondence? Is there any way to automatically opt for email statements in the future?

Manually registering each buy/sell would take a lot of time


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## condog (9 January 2010)

Chuck them from post box to bin...

Print your broker confirmations once per month and you can have one or two pages instead of 50 or however many you trade...


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## statisticalg (28 February 2013)

Sorry to bump an old thread:

I just started day trading and overnight trading.

I noticed on my chess statement that although I purchased the stocks on 8th February and sold on the 11th February, my CHESS statement states that the movement occurs on the same day:

						                        Debit/Credit  	  Running Balance
13th February 2013 CHESS DAILY MOVEMENT DOWN      -3770			 0
13th February 2013 CHESS DAILY MOVEMENT UP          +3770			3770

_Are there any impacts associated with this?_

It seems kind of weird and slow. I would have thought it would show something like:

					                              	Debit/Credit  	  Running Balance
14th February 2013 CHESS DAILY MOVEMENT DOWN         -3770			 0
13th February 2013 CHESS DAILY MOVEMENT UP             +3770			3770

I did some reading and it doesn't affect the payment of dividends, but it does seem kind of strange.


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## tinhat (28 February 2013)

I can't answer your question statisticalg but just to chime into this old conversation, the auditor of our SMSF seems to want our chess statements each year which is a pain in the butt. This year at the EOFY I am just going to print off the holding statements from the registry websites and see if they accept those.


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## Ves (28 February 2013)

tinhat said:


> I can't answer your question statisticalg but just to chime into this old conversation, the auditor of our SMSF seems to want our chess statements each year which is a pain in the butt. This year at the EOFY I am just going to print off the holding statements from the registry websites and see if they accept those.



Do you hide the HIN / SRN on your divvy statements or something?  

Our firm just logs onto the registry using the HIN or SRN and prints off a holding balance report.   If you do the same I see no reason why it wouldn't be accepted - it's third party confimation.


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## Julia (28 February 2013)

Ves said:


> Do you hide the HIN / SRN on your divvy statements or something?
> 
> Our firm just logs onto the registry using the HIN or SRN and prints off a holding balance report.   If you do the same I see no reason why it wouldn't be accepted - it's third party confimation.



Ditto.  I've never been asked for CHESS statements.


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## tinhat (28 February 2013)

Ves said:


> Do you hide the HIN / SRN on your divvy statements or something?
> 
> Our firm just logs onto the registry using the HIN or SRN and prints off a holding balance report.   If you do the same I see no reason why it wouldn't be accepted - it's third party confimation.




Hi Ves, 

I don't hide anything, I am an honest man with nothing to hide :

Seriously, its just one of those things where I haven't up until now discussed with them what is the practical/easy thing to do. I'm sure we can just simplify it and still be all above board. Given that I haven't got around to last year's tax yet, I should get onto it and sort that out with the accountant. Thanks for confirming for me what I thought would be the more practical way to handle it.


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## DocK (2 March 2013)

tinhat said:


> Hi Ves,
> 
> I don't hide anything, I am an honest man with nothing to hide :
> 
> Seriously, its just one of those things where I haven't up until now discussed with them what is the practical/easy thing to do. I'm sure we can just simplify it and still be all above board. Given that I haven't got around to last year's tax yet, I should get onto it and sort that out with the accountant. Thanks for confirming for me what I thought would be the more practical way to handle it.




My smsf holdings are with Commsec - I just download the monthly holding statements and email them through to our accountants/auditor, along with an excel spreadsheet of all divs.  As the divs are paid into the Commsec inv acc they show on the statement along with the stock holdings.  This seems to satisfy them as I've not had to produce any actual paper records.  So much easier (and environmentally friendly) being able to do everything electronically.


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## McLovin (2 March 2013)

tinhat said:


> Hi Ves,
> 
> I don't hide anything, I am an honest man with nothing to hide :
> 
> Seriously, its just one of those things where I haven't up until now discussed with them what is the practical/easy thing to do. I'm sure we can just simplify it and still be all above board. Given that I haven't got around to last year's tax yet, I should get onto it and sort that out with the accountant. Thanks for confirming for me what I thought would be the more practical way to handle it.




Hmm...maybe I'm missing something but a CHESS statement is only issued in months where there's a change in the holding balance and they're not numbered. It would be very easy to fool an auditor if he only used CHESS statements. For example, I buy shares in May then sell them in June. If I hand the auditor my May statement then he will be none the wiser that I offloaded in June.


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## DocK (2 March 2013)

The standard handout I receive in the mail each year from our accountant detailing the items required for tax return and audit always lists Chess statements, as well as all dividend paperwork, copies of buy and sell broker trade confirmations etc.  I never provide any of these - just the electronic statements and my own spreadsheets etc - so I assume the "items required" list is a catch-all guide, rather than set in stone.  If it is possible to track all buys, sells, divs, interest etc via emailed statements on all accounts - why would the paper versions be required?


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## Smurf1976 (11 May 2021)

Reviving a very old thread but is there any legal requirement to keep CHESS statements?

Referring specifically to circumstances where the shares have since been sold. If the ATO decided to audit my taxes then would they want to see them? Or are broker records etc sufficient?

I've never known the answer to the question so I've kept them but I'd rather get rid of them and put something else in the drawer if there's no actual requirement.


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## qldfrog (11 May 2021)

Smurf1976 said:


> Reviving a very old thread but is there any legal requirement to keep CHESS statements?
> 
> Referring specifically to circumstances where the shares have since been sold. If the ATO decided to audit my taxes then would they want to see them? Or are broker records etc sufficient?
> 
> I've never known the answer to the question so I've kept them but I'd rather get rid of them and put something else in the drawer if there's no actual requirement.



As a daily system trader,this is a nightmare, i receive 3 full a4 envelopes a month for mine, the lady and join account which i keep for 5y
Have a dozen of full suitcases of theses and printed transactions.. to show brojerage in case of tax audit
Thanks god i am switching to paper straws to save the environment. And that's after receiving 1 envelope per trade full of welcome to the company before i even have a chance ro register to email, update tfn and bank account  on boardrooms, linked services or computershare..
What an archaic and wasteful system for resources and time.


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## Belli (11 May 2021)

Smurf1976 said:


> Reviving a very old thread but is there any legal requirement to keep CHESS statements?
> 
> Referring specifically to circumstances where the shares have since been sold. If the ATO decided to audit my taxes then would they want to see them? Or are broker records etc sufficient?
> 
> I've never known the answer to the question so I've kept them but I'd rather get rid of them and put something else in the drawer if there's no actual requirement.




Buy and Sell Contracts and any other company actions such as DRP, SPPs, Rights Issues in which you have been involved is all that is necessary for the ATO.  CHESS is basically a platform to enable brokers to trade.

Give paper away and scan or download as PDF.  Data storage is cheap as chips; 1 TB external hard disk is about $60.  Best if it is backed up in at least three places and preferably not rely on third parties to keep it.  Keeping data on an external hard disk is also good if your house is about to burn down and you need to bug out.


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## Belli (11 May 2021)

Belli said:


> CHESS is basically a platform to enable brokers to trade.




As an aside, I understand it is a regulatory requirement to issue CHESS notices.  Plus the holdings only appear in a share registries, which are linked to CHESS, after the trade has been settled.  I've read somewhere it is proposed to issues the notices electronically so I guess that'll be another email investors can delete if they chose to do so.


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## IrishDigger (14 May 2021)

I have often wondered why in this day and age why CHESS doesn't go paperless and send the Statements via email; I asked them once and the only reply I got was, "We don't do that".


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## qldfrog (15 May 2021)

IrishDigger said:


> I have often wondered why in this day and age why CHESS doesn't go paperless and send the Statements via email; I asked them once and the only reply I got was, "We don't do that".



Sadly, i believe it is a $ problem.
the more paper they mail, the more justification they have to charge listed companies
The actual cost of a trading line is ridiculously small..as per nearly free trading fees in the US.
For the emailing of balance change same things..
They are basically useless or very low added value similar to the registry providers..so they hang on their paper processes and some archaic rulings/ATO to justify their existence.
So many companies like this nowadays


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## Belli (15 May 2021)

Cost $'s to do this so I don't see it as a core issue.









						CHESS Replacement
					

A secure & contemporary replacement system using global standards. Offering a better way to deliver market efficiencies and innovation opportunities.




					www2.asx.com.au


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