IB Tax Forms: What would you like?

[Steve-IB]

I'd like to ask what can we do for you in regards to making your end of year tax forms easier for you - in regards to your trading activity with IB. As some of you may know we provide extensive and detail tax forms for our US and Candian clients, and now that we are offering Australian products we would like to service our Australian clients in a similar way. I've received lots of e-mails saying "please can IB provide", but have no specifics.

So this is your chance to tell me what you want; be it format, specific information, specific layout, or even colour! The more specifiic you are then the better chance we can meet your requirements. If you can provide examples, then that will also make things easier (you can PM to me).

The most requested item seems to be a franking credit report....so perhaps we can kick off with this.

 

[juw177]

I don't know what it is right now but all the tax office needs is:

-net realised capital gain
-deductible expenses from those realised gains (brokerage, interest on margin loans)
-dividends paid
-dividends franked

At the moment, how can I check my net gain? The problem for when I view activity statements is I cannot find a way to separate my cash deposits / withdrawals from my trading.

 

[RichKid]

Thanks Steve, this is a great initiative.

Firstly, a simple issue- if formatting and color in the layout and template is kept simple it helps with making them printer friendly and easy to read.

Secondly, most large Australian co's send out tax summaries of their payments to sh's, maybe someone has a copy they can share? I will see if I can find one to attach here. Stocks like Westfield (WDC), which have foreign tax components, can be difficult to deal with so it does take a bit of tinkering to get it done properly.

For most stocks, we basically need a summary of entry date, exit date, number of shares, buy/sell prices, gross dividend amount per share/total, franked percentage (eg 100%) and total franking credit for our tax returns. A summary of total brokerage for the financial year would help too, I assume this is available on IB somewhere.

FYI, CommSec allows us to sort and search transaction contract notes (ie buy/sell invoices) by invoice (transaction) number, date, stock code, buy first/sell first, etc etc. They also provide a total for brokerage which can be sorted by date range.

For those of us who transferred stock from other brokers to IB last year we will need to adjust our buy prices as IB didn't know the price we bought stock at when we transferred- this is probably possible already.

The various file formats you have for your statements atm is great (eg Excel, word, html).

 

[Steve-IB]

For most stocks, we basically need a summary of entry date, exit date, number of shares, buy/sell prices, gross dividend amount per share/total, franked percentage (eg 100%) and total franking credit for our tax returns. A summary of total brokerage for the financial year would help too, I assume this is available on IB somewhere.

The various file formats you have for your statements atm is great (eg Excel, word, html).

Ok so with the IB annual statements, you are getting all of this with the exception of the franked percentage and total franking credit. So if we added this to the section where the dividend is disclosed this would satisfy the requirement for tracking for franking?

 

[elbee]

Of course for Australia the tax statement needs to be on a July to June basis, not calendar year as are the current IB annual statements.

 

[Trembling Hand]

Of course for Australia the tax statement needs to be on a July to June basis, not calendar year as are the current IB annual statements.

Yes this is important.

Also it seems that we don't pay any GST on ASX data & Brokerage??

First is this true and how is that possible that as an Australian individual or company can purchase a Service from another Australian company and not be charged GST? If this isn't true we need it reported. This is very important for companies and people trading as a Business.

 

[elbee]

My understanding is that IB is not an Australian company and your transactions with them occur via their servers in Hong Kong, USA or Europe. Thus all transactions with them are effectively offshore and not subject to GST.

 

[Trembling Hand]

My understanding is that IB is not an Australian company and your transactions with them occur via their servers in Hong Kong, USA or Europe. Thus all transactions with them are effectively offshore and not subject to GST.

Yes I always thought the same. But would just like some confirmation.