Distributions
Overview
Distributions are events corresponding to the payment of an income based on the ownership of an asset. There are different types of distributions: dividend payment, property income distributions (for REITs), interests, etc. The type of each distribution is important and different types of incomes are treated differently for tax purposes. For example dividends, interests, and property income distributions can be taxed differently, hence it is important that the program is able to determine the total incomes for each of these categories.
Taxes can sometimes be collected at source on some investments held in taxable accounts. The program takes this into account so the report contains the total amount of gross and net income produced by each type of income, as well as the amount of tax that has been collected as source on the behalf of the government. You may need to know these figures so you can provide accurate values on your tax return, as there may be further tax to pay at the end of the tax year, and the tax left to pay may be reduced based on the tax that has already been deducted at source.
Examples
Here is an example of distributions from an ETF which paid income on a quarterly basis in USD and from a REIT:
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| Date | Type | Origin | Account | Asset | Currency | Units | Gross | Deducted | NetPaid | Comments |
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| 2024-03-28 | Dividend | Other | GSIPP | VWRD | USD | 97 | 37.34 | 0 | 37.34 | Dividend of $0.3849 per unit paid in USD |
| 2024-06-28 | Dividend | Other | GSIPP | VWRD | USD | 189 | 149.10 | 0 | 149.10 | Dividend of $0.7889 per unit paid in USD |
| 2024-09-28 | Dividend | Other | GSIPP | VWRD | USD | 279 | 135.32 | 0 | 135.32 | Dividend of $0.4850 per unit paid in USD |
| 2024-12-28 | Dividend | Other | GSIPP | VWRD | USD | 362 | 161.67 | 0 | 161.67 | Dividend of $0.4466 per unit paid in USD |
| 2024-05-10 | PID | UK | SIGIA | PRSR | GBP | 32768 | 327.68 | 65.54 | 262.14 | Property Income Distribution paid in GBP |
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Date
The Date column contains the data at which the income was paid. Just a with transactions,
distribution events must have a date, and the time is optional. The date must be either in the
YYYY-MM-DD format, or with a time in the YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss format.
Type
The Type column contains the type of income that has been distributed. This is free form text, and
it is meant to be used with values such as dividend, interest or rent for example. But the program
is not going to check that these values are valid. There can be many different types of incomes in different
countries that are not very common. For example incomes from rents paid by REITs in the United Kingdom are
paid as “Property Income Distributions” (PID) and these are different from regular dividends and these incomes
are taxed differently. Hence there is no restriction on what values you can use in this column. The user of the
program is responsible for making sure the values provided are meaningful and consistent across the data files.
The reports contains the total amount of income paid per type of income per tax year as different types of incomes
may be taxes differently.
Origin
The Origin column contains the origin of the income. Some countries require that taxes from different origins are
declared in different categories in the tax return. For example incomes from the country of residence and offshore
income may be treated differently. The report will contain the total amount of taxable income received per tax year and
per origin. The origin of the incomes may be irrelevant to you, in which case you just need to provide the same value
for all distributions, it could be something such as Global to indicate that the income is coming from anywhere in
the world.
Account
The Account column contain the identifier of the account from which the income is originating. This is important as
you may own the same asset in mutliple accounts.
Asset
The Asset column contain the identifier of the asset from which the income has been distributed.
Currency
The Currency column contain the name of the currency in which the income has been received. Some funds pay dividends
in currencies other than the trading currency, and investment platforms may or may not automatically convert income
paid in foreign currencies to your home currency. You should use the currency as shown on your cash statement.
Units
The Units column contains the number of units of the assets that originated in the payment of the income. This
may be different from the number of units you own at the time of the payment because of the “ex dividend” dates.
You should be able to determine the correct number from the receipt of your payment.
Gross
The Gross column contains the total amount that was paid before any tax was deducted by the investment platform.
Deducted
The Deducted column contains the total amount that was deducted by your investment platform to collect tax at source.
For example investment platforms in the United Kingdom collect tax at a rate of 20% on property income distribution
from REITs held in taxable accounts.
NetPaid
The NetPaid column contains the total amount that was paid after the tax was deducted at source (if applicable).
This number should be equal to the gross amount minus the deducted amount. If no tax was deducted at source, this
amount will be equal to the gross amount.