# Adjusted Cost Base for Your Investments



## Belguy (May 24, 2010)

This is an aside to my thread concerning the Adjusted Cost Base on equity investments in the taxation section of this forum.

I am wondering if all investors keep all of the necessary records, and maintain all of the necessary calculations, on each and every single one of their equity investments in order to determine the adjusted cost base for taxation purposes at the time of sale?

While recognizing that the CRA monitor websites such as this, it is difficult for me to imagine that all investors are meticulous in this regard.

I think especially of those with lengthy portfolios and who are active traders.

How do you deal with the adjusted cost base issue when selling your investments be they mutual funds, etf's or individual stocks?

How meticulous is your record keeping and tax reporting in this regard?


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## Sampson (Apr 3, 2009)

Belguy said:


> How meticulous is your record keeping and tax reporting in this regard?


Now everything is electronic this is easy - 100% meticulous. Even when I started in the late 90's all it takes is keeping the single page confirmation letter from the discount brokerage.

I still have to dig up paper records from time to time, but my wife has this all pretty well organized. Go Team!

Also, I highly doubt CRA 'monitors' sites like this.


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## AGHFX (Aug 31, 2012)

I have a spreadsheet set up in Microsoft Excel. It took a few minutes to set up initially but now that the formulas are in place, all I have to do is enter how many shares I bought or sold and the amount and the spreadsheet takes care of everything for me. It takes less than a minute to update several transactions.


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

I also monitor this very closely. Any time a transaction takes place in my taxable account I add it to the spreadsheet where I keep all this. At the end of the year I cross-reference this to the broker's records to make sure I didn't miss anything.


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## Belguy (May 24, 2010)

I am an old geezer who doesn't even grasp the concept of spread sheets.

The reason for my thread is to find out how many investors even grasp the concept of adjusted cost base when doing their taxes for a year in which they sold some of their equity investments.

Are there some out there who are not even aware of the need to keep such records on an ongoing basis?


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## fatcat (Nov 11, 2009)

like spudd i keep track of everything in a spreadsheet and then compare it to brokers records

i also doubt that cra is monitoring sites like this

belguy, the only way to comply with the tax law is to do it yourself and double check your work or pay someone else to do it for you

if you are seriously suggesting that there are people who are diy investors who don't understand how to calculate capital gains, then they should get an accountant to help them

as i remember, your portfolio is fairly large (like 500K plus so i assume you can afford an accountant to do it for you)


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## AGHFX (Aug 31, 2012)

Belguy said:


> The reason for my thread is to find out how many investors even grasp the concept of adjusted cost base when doing their taxes for a year in which they sold some of their equity investments.


If someone is doing their own investing they are likely (or at least, should be) keeping track of their cost per share. If money is added to a position then this changes the ACB, so it should be tracked. If not through a spreadsheet, google finance or your brokerage account can tell you this information. Selling shares, however, does not affect ACB.


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## bgc_fan (Apr 5, 2009)

Personally, I use GNUcash to track all my finances. It's fairly easy to use and it's free. It makes it easy for me to keep tabs on stock prices and how well things are going. It also provides an overview of my finances and expenses.


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

Belguy said:


> ... I am wondering if all investors keep all of the necessary records, and maintain all of the necessary calculations, on each and every single one of their equity investments in order to determine the adjusted cost base for taxation purposes at the time of sale?


I believe most either hire someone to do the investing, which includes the ACB tracking or like DIY investors here, do it themselves.

The incentive is that if someone else is doing it (or it is ignored), the investor could be paying taxes twice or if discovered on an audit, there's an unexpected tax bill (plus possibly penalties). CRA is quite clear that it's the tax payer, not who they hired who pays the bill.


It's somewhat like getting the car oil changed - one can hire someone or DIY. Ignoring it or not being aware of it is not a good idea.




Belguy said:


> ... While recognizing that the CRA monitor websites such as this, it is difficult for me to imagine that all investors are meticulous in this regard.


I doubt CRA has time to constantly monitor forums such as this. I suspect they put more effort into cross-checking algorithms for the annual trading summary, T5 and T3 forms the brokers are likely sending them electronically.




Belguy said:


> How do you deal with the adjusted cost base issue when selling your investments be they mutual funds, etf's or individual stocks?
> 
> How meticulous is your record keeping and tax reporting in this regard?


I keep electronic copies of the RoC breakdowns as well as my monthly statement. As the monthly statement is reconciled, for the few items that need ACB updates from RoC or Drips, I do those while I'm in the groove.


As I discovered when I found out that trusts require more ACB calculations than a dividend paying stock, the options are to keep current in small batches, keep current in bigger batches - just make sure to have the required info plus a backup copy. In my case, over and above discovering RoC several years after buying, there has been several buyouts, several conversions to trusts and a basement flood that destroyed some of my only copies. At that point - it was a major headache.


Cheers


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## fatcat (Nov 11, 2009)

this is an incredibly handy little site that offers an easy method of tracking acb and also offers education and does it all for free

http://www.adjustedcostbase.ca/


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

Belguy said:


> I am an old geezer who doesn't even grasp the concept of spread sheets.


Do you balance your cheque book? 
If so, the ACB calculations can be dealt with in a similar way. More complicated investments change the calculations a bit but at the end of the day, the point is to make sure you are reporting the correct amount cost for the investment.




Belguy said:


> The reason for my thread is to find out how many investors even grasp the concept of adjusted cost base when doing their taxes for a year in which they sold some of their equity investments.
> 
> Are there some out there who are not even aware of the need to keep such records on an ongoing basis?


As far as I can tell, most DIY investors seem to learn the need for ACB calculations as part of basic investing. Those who hire an advisor/accountant might learn about it as a high level concept, as their tax return is being reviewed/explained.

The thing that does not seem to be widely known is that a dividend paying stock is a simple ACB calculation (i.e. buy price for each buy, commissions and that's about it). DRIPs add some transactions but are essentially the same as buying more stock, commission free. 

Investments that pay a mix of income types and/or re-invest payments add more bookkeeping transactions - but at the end of the day, it's all about knowing what the investment cost.




fatcat said:


> ... belguy, the only way to comply with the tax law is to do it yourself and double check your work or pay someone else to do it for you ....


Another way of thinking about it is that it is a cost doing business. 




AGHFX said:


> ... Selling shares, however, does not affect ACB.


That depends on how one uses the term "ACB". 

If ACB means total costs over all units and not all units were sold, then the ACB for the unsold shares will be reduced. As stated in this tax tips link, some use this style of calculation. 

http://www.taxtips.ca/personaltax/investing/taxtreatment/etfs.htm

For example, using 300 shares @ $10 + $10 commission, this method says the ACB is $3010. 
If 100 units were sold during the year and the ACB is updated, the ACB for the remaining 200 shares 
= ACB for all units - ACB shares sold 
= $3010 - (ACB total units x # sold / # units prior to sale) 
= $3010 - ($3010 x 100 / 300 ) 
= $3010 - $1003.33 = $2006.66


Personally, I find it easier to track the ACB per unit as I find it easier to follow. But at the end of the day, if done correctly - the numbers should calculate out the same (or close). 
Cheers


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## Jagas (Feb 11, 2013)

Very meticulous here. For those with managed funds I would still suggest that you track your own ACB's as brokers will often track ACB's incorrectly.


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## Belguy (May 24, 2010)

I guess that I am not entirely getting the answers that I expected. Since ACB is not widely talked about, I have to think that there are one heck of a lot of small investors out there who know nothing of it. Even after they sell any of their investments, they likely only report what is shown on their T3 slips received from their broker.

However, as they say, ignorance of the law is no excuse. You pays your fine or you goes to jail!!:upset::frown::frown-new::eek2:


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## doctrine (Sep 30, 2011)

I track all of my transactions. You only need ACB calculations when you sell, but you need to know what you buy and when. Also, I do not automatically DRIP in non-registered accounts, as this creates an ACB monster.


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## Belguy (May 24, 2010)

But how many small investors even put any thought into the entire ACB matter? I would just be interested in having an idea even though it doesn't change the fact that all investors are responsible for maintaining this information.

The folks on this forum are more sophisticated and informed investors than many small investors and I wonder how many here even have a clue about keeping track of the adjusted cost base on each and every one of their stocks!!


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## AGHFX (Aug 31, 2012)

Eclectic12 said:


> That depends on how one uses the term "ACB".


That's true. I am always referring to ACB/share when I say ACB. Regardless, if you have 10 shares with a total ACB of $100 then your ACB/share is $10/share. If you sell 5 shares then your total ACB is $50 but your ACB/share remains at $10/share. That's more of the point I was getting at. It isn't until you purchase 5 more shares at $9/share that your ACB/share changes to $9.50/share.


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## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

@Belguy,

Have you tried this?
http://www.adjustedcostbase.ca/

It's my favourite price to use it.


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## fatcat (Nov 11, 2009)

Belguy said:


> But how many small investors even put any thought into the entire ACB matter? I would just be interested in having an idea even though it doesn't change the fact that all investors are responsible for maintaining this information.
> 
> The folks on this forum are more sophisticated and informed investors than many small investors and I wonder how many here even have a clue about keeping track of the adjusted cost base on each and every one of their stocks!!


belguy, you *must* know how to calculate the acb (or have someone else do it for you) so that you can report capital gains and losses 

so, when you talk about _the entire ACB matter_ you are talking about the core of investing

it's like talking about making a sandwich and never mentioning bread ...

if "small investors" aren't putting any thought into their acb then they are essentially breaking the tax law ...

i will grant you that the world is awash in clueless investors including myself from time to time, but i think i have the importance of acb front and center

as advisor and i have mentioned adjustedcostbase.ca is a fairly simple solution to the problem


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## Belguy (May 24, 2010)

Most of my investments are in registered accounts but I do have one relatively small open account. I have two managed mutual funds and four small ETF holdings in my unregistered account. I have held onto the ETF's because I am a simple man and I find keeping track of the ACB to be too confusing. This causes me not to sell those ETF's but just to hold them 'forever' which is sort of my investment philosophy to begin with. When I pass on, I'll let someone else worry about it. As for me two managed funds, I didn't think that I needed to keep track of the ACB as I thought that the fund companies provided all of the information on their annual T3's that I needed to report to the tax folks. Is this not correct? Do I need to worry about the ACB when selling some or all of my units in those managed funds?

Sorry if I am making too big a deal out of all of this but some others may be interested as well.

Thanks!!


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## fatcat (Nov 11, 2009)

Belguy said:


> Most of my investments are in registered accounts but I do have one relatively small open account. I have two managed mutual funds and four small ETF holdings in my unregistered account. I have held onto the ETF's because *I am a simple man and I find keeping track of the ACB to be too confusing. This causes me not to sell those ETF's but just to hold them 'forever' which is sort of my investment philosophy to begin with.* When I pass on, I'll let someone else worry about it. As for me two managed funds, I didn't think that I needed to keep track of the ACB as I thought that the fund companies provided all of the information on their annual T3's that I needed to report to the tax folks. Is this not correct? Do I need to worry about the ACB when selling some or all of my units in those managed funds?
> 
> Sorry if I am making too big a deal out of all of this but some others may be interested as well.
> 
> Thanks!!


i have to laugh at this because i find that the older i get, the more inclined i am to invest based on how easy it is to understand the investments ... we could perhaps make more with more complex investing but don't want to face the learning curve ... i actually find dividend investing to be miles easier to understand than etf's and so have started to buy more equities directly and sell etf's ...each to his own, it has to fit your style and interests


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

Belguy said:


> I guess that I am not entirely getting the answers that I expected. Since ACB is not widely talked about, I have to think that there are one heck of a lot of small investors out there who know nothing of it ...


Only a survey knows for sure as I suspect CMF regulars aren't the novice investor ... :rolleyes2:


Why would you say ACB is not widely talked about? 

I haven't done a survey but I seem to recall most books on Canadian taxes I've looked at in the library has a section on investing/capital gains/calculating ACBs. 

It's not clear from the table of contents for Stock Investing for Canadians for Dummies whether chapter 21 "'Cause I'm the tax man" includes ACB calculations but since the fifteen pages includes "Capital Gains", I'd think it does. I seem to recall the first book I read on investing provided the simple dividend paying stock ACB calculation as part of the general overview (i.e. what's a stock, what's a bond, what are the taxes when a sale happens).

Then there's internet resources such as the sticky in the CMF taxation section "How Investment Taxes Work", 
various blogs that cover the simple cases such as: http://canadianfinanceblog.com/how-to-calculate-your-adjusted-cost-base-acb/,
newspaper articles http://www.globefund.com/servlet/ArticleNews/wise_story/WISE_INVESTOR/20030415/weekly,
general web sites http://www.canada.com/story.html?id=946ba2e9-3577-431c-8b8f-df4bdbe0c6ac
mutual fund company web sites www.agf.com/static/en/doc/PFSL188_01-10-E_TaxBooklet2319.pdf

Then there's nice sites that provide free tools to help:
http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/free-acb-capital-gains-tracker-in-excel/

So it would seem that there's lots of talk - it's whether anyone is paying attention and/or mistakes the simple case ACB applies to a MF, ETF or trust that different types of income.


Cheers


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

doctrine said:


> ... You only need ACB calculations when you sell, but you need to know what you buy and when. Also, I do not automatically DRIP in non-registered accounts, as this creates an ACB monster.


Technically, if one has an investment that pays a high percentage of RoC that has been held a long time, one might need the ACB before the sale to determine when to start reporting the RoC payments as a capital gain on each year's tax return.

Practically speaking - this is likely a rare case.

Cheers


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

Belguy said:


> ... I would just be interested in having an idea even though it doesn't change the fact that all investors are responsible for maintaining this information.


You'd need to run a survey to find out. Or maybe talk a financial columnist into getting the survey done.




Belguy said:


> ...The folks on this forum are more sophisticated and informed investors than many small investors and I wonder how many here even have a clue about keeping track of the adjusted cost base on each and every one of their stocks!!


If they don't - they have focused on a small part of the basics of investing and need to learn all the basics (or hire a professional to do it for them).

To use an imperfect analogy - that's like someone buying car, fixing it up and then telling the cop that stops them for not having a license "Gee Officer - I thought the safety was all I needed".




AGHFX said:


> That's true. I am always referring to ACB/share when I say ACB.


As I say, I much prefer the "per share" method but some articles use the other method.


Cheers


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

Belguy said:


> ... I have held onto the ETF's because I am a simple man and I find keeping track of the ACB to be too confusing.


Now that you've seen the formula - why not bite the bullet, figure it out and either transfer to a registered account or sell?

If you stick to regular stock - you'll still have to calculate the ACB but if you buy now, sell in ten years, it's one calculation in ten years.




Belguy said:


> As for me two managed funds, I didn't think that I needed to keep track of the ACB as I thought that the fund companies provided all of the information on their annual T3's that I needed to report to the tax folks. Is this not correct?


I don't see how you could be correct. I don't see the components needed to calculate the ACB being reported on the T3 form.

Here's a CRA link to a sample T3 form:
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pbg/tf/t3/README.html

None of the boxes refer to "purchase price" or "commission" or "re-invested dividends" or "return of capital" - which are components of the ACB calculation. The boxes are all about the forms of income that are taxed *in this tax year*. 

So there's no way you can get the ACB from the T3 form alone. (Actually, I'm not sure anything on the T3 would be used for calculating an ACB at all.)




Belguy said:


> Do I need to worry about the ACB when selling some or all of my units in those managed funds?


Yes. 

If you sell in a non-registered account - there will be an ACB needed to figure out the capital gain (or loss). 

I'd checkout the investor section of the managed fund web site to get copies of the tax info asap. The longer you wait, the harder it will be to get the info. 

Or maybe the http://www.adjustedcostbase.ca/ web site suggested by others will help you out.


Or maybe it's time to invest some time in learning how to use the free spreadsheet tool I posted the link to. You comfortable enough with computers to post so maybe the tool will work for you.

Cheers


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

*you're saying you want to know how to keep ACB records?*
.











*sure i'll tell you how, it's easy as a liddle lambzeedivey.*
.











*what, now you're telling me that you've gone & lost all your records?*


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## Belguy (May 24, 2010)

Yesterday, I picked up a copy of CRA's Capital Gains guide for 2012. 

If all of this is so simple, why is the guide 47 pages long??!!:hopelessness::upset::cower::frown:

The tax folks must spend most of their time trying to figure out how to make everything as complicated as possible!!

In this day and age of computers, why can't your broker provide you with the ACB whenever you sell an investment? It seems like leaving it up to the small investor might lead to much incorrect reporting to the CRA but many fines and jail sentences to those who incorrectly report their gains.


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

Belguy said:


> Yesterday, I picked up a copy of CRA's Capital Gains guide for 2012.
> 
> If all of this is so simple, why is the guide 47 pages long??


This reminds me of someone who thought all mortgages were the same and asked "Why do mortgage brokers complicate things?"

Based on the list from what I believe is the online equivalent, it is because Capital Gains covers a lot of territory. Some of the table of contents ranges from stocks, trusts, selling a cottage, selling a rental property, qualified small business shares, qualified farming & fishing properties, foreclosures, flow-through entities, restricted farm loss, primary residence etc.




Belguy said:


> The tax folks must spend most of their time trying to figure out how to make everything as complicated as possible!!


No - it is complicated because the guide has to cover all possiblities - not just your one flavour.

Personally I'm wondering why you are creating unnecessary stress and complication for yourself. From the posts, it should be clear by now that the ACB formula for ETFs and MFs are similar so I'm not sure why you want to have to sort through CRA's complete guide.

If you have any doubts about the formulas posted - a quick check on the internet or borrowing a tax book from the library is likely a much faster way to sort it out.




Belguy said:


> ... Why can't your broker provide you with the ACB whenever you sell an investment?
> It seems like leaving it up to the small investor might lead to much incorrect reporting to the CRA but many fines and jail sentences to those who incorrectly report their gains.


So if CRA gives me jail sentence - am I going to say "Oh well, the broker messed up, c'est la vie"? 
I've seen too many errors by the broker, even where the investment was only held at *that* broker to want to go this route.

If it truely is a small investor - it won't be a lot of work, right? 

Then too, unless the small investor is thumbing his/her nose at CRA's followup, I doubt there's jail time involved. 


Bottom line is the just as one has to accept the maintenance involved when buying say a car or house, there's maintenance involved with buying investments in a non-registered brokerage account. If one does not like the maintenance work, one can always choose to not buy.

Cheers


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## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

Your worst-case scenario, they audit you. Do you best to justify the math and submit. CRA does not expect you to be perfect, they expect you to be as accurate as possible.


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## Cal (Jun 17, 2009)

I do track everything. As I like to know these things anyways, however if you don't, wouldn't it be pretty easy to access and print everything through your brokerages website...


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## Belguy (May 24, 2010)

Is there anyone else out there who has any problem determining the ACB every time that they sell an investment or am I the only one with the mental block??:stupid::frown::sour:


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## Toronto.gal (Jan 8, 2010)

Belguy said:


> doesn't even grasp the concept of spread sheets.


No problem! If you're intimidated by spreadsheets, you can create a simple manual form, especially as you mentioned that your non-registered investments are small. In fact, if you don't understand how the ACB is calculated [do you?], it's best to start manually; you can always switch to excel later on.

All you need is a piece of paper with rows & columns & then just record the required information, ie: date - type of action - # of shares/units - price per share/unit - ACB

For the mutual funds, could you not call the fund company directly, or broker can call on your behalf.


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## fatcat (Nov 11, 2009)

Belguy said:


> Is there anyone else out there who has any problem determining the ACB every time that they sell an investment or am I the only one with the mental block??:stupid::frown::sour:


belguy, don't you use an accountant ? ... you give your accountant your trade information from your broker and your t5 and 3 and your dividend information etc etc and they do the math for you ... are you saying that you do your own taxes but don't know how to figure adjusted cost base ?


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## Potato (Apr 3, 2009)

Can you figure out raw capital gains? Buy for $100, sell for $110, report $10? In that case, for the low low cost of realizing your gains and paying commission on ETFs, you can simplify the ACB calculation by not having to do the "A" part. Just buy whatever ETF/MF you want. Then, when it comes time to sell, sell all of it. Then buy back whatever you wanted to continue to hold, resetting your cost base (wait 30 days in case of a loss).


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## fatcat (Nov 11, 2009)

here you belguy, the globe and mail feels your pain ....
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/how-to-keep-more-of-your-etf-nest-egg/article10207129/
just pay these guys and your problem is solved


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## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

I suppose what would help (Belguy) going forward is knowing the book value of holdings at time of sale. Take book value, divide by units sold and you get cost per unit. The discount brokerage should always be able to tell you proceeds/sale at disposition. The math is straight-forward from there.

Good article by Rob C.


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

Potato said:


> Can you figure out raw capital gains? Buy for $100, sell for $110, report $10?
> 
> In that case, for the low low cost of realizing your gains and paying commission on ETFs, you can simplify the ACB calculation by not having to do the "A" part. Just buy whatever ETF/MF you want. Then, when it comes time to sell, sell all of it...


Since some ETFs & MFs distribute return of capital (RoC) as part of their payments, not to mention that others will roll a distribution into the fund without giving you more units - how is this method going to help?

It is ignoring sources of income that will affect the ACB ...


Now this will work for a stock that either does not pay dividends or pays only dividends.


Cheers


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

My Own Advisor said:


> I suppose what would help (Belguy) going forward is knowing the book value of holdings at time of sale...


This only works to the extent that Belguy wants (or any other investor for that matter) for investments that don't pay distributions that affect the ACB such as a stock that either does not pay dividends or only pays dividends (i.e. no RoC and no "rolled back into the investment" payments). [ At least my broker never updates the RoC etc. on the listed book values. In at least three cases, they forgot what the book value was - even when I bought investment with them.]

If it's straight "buy price" and "sell price" with no transactions that affect ACB, I believe most people are okay with it.

The problem usually comes (and hit me hard) when they buy something that pays mixed payments such as RoC or similar. Years later when the investment is sold and the info isn't easily available - it's pain to figure out.


Cheers


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## Xoron (Jun 22, 2010)

@Belguy,

The canadian couch potato website has a recent posting on calculating the ACB of ETFs. 

http://canadiancouchpotato.com/2013...calculating-your-adjusted-cost-base-with-etfs

Near the bottom of the aritlce, there is a link to a PDF with more details:

https://www.pwlcapital.com/pwl/medi...Bender_As-Easy-as-ACB_2013-April.pdf?ext=.pdf

It's as easy as "ACB" 

Maybe give that a read over and see if it sheds any light on how to calculate the ACB of your investments.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

Eclectic12 said:


> This only works to the extent that Belguy wants for investments that don't pay distributions that affect the ACB such as a stock that either does not pay dividends or only pays dividends (i.e. no RoC and no "rolled back into the investment" payments). [ At least my broker never updates the RoC etc. on the listed book values. In at least three cases, they forgot what the book value was - even when I bought investment with them.]
> 
> If it's straight "buy price" and "sell price" with no transactions that affect ACB, I believe most people are okay with it.
> 
> The problem usually comes (and hit me hard) when they buy something that pays mixed payments such as RoC or similar. Years later when the investment is sold and the info isn't easily available - it's pain to figure out.


Eclectic is right. It's not easy at all. ETFs can have extremely tricky & complicated distributions over the years which affect cost bases hugely. It's challenging to try to reconstitute this history. I wouldn't trust any data base that purports to give an easy answer.

plus i don't believe investors understand - yet - that their brokers, when it comes to tracking the cost base or book value of non-registered accounts, are all making shocking mistakes. I don't believe that investors understand - yet - that they really must maintain their own cost base records. It's part of the responsibility of being an investor.

more than anyone else in this forum, Eclectic has always tried to teach good methodologies for maintaining cost base records. Thanks so much, Eclectic, & i hope everyone will listen up with great respect.


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

humble_pie said:


> Eclectic is right. It's not easy at all...


Or another way to put it ... investors with the simple version of an ACB calculation aren't complaining. :biggrin: 




humble_pie said:


> ... ETFs can have extremely tricky & complicated distributions over the years which affect cost bases hugely. It's challenging to try to reconstitute this history...


In my case, it was trusts. Several were bought out, where web site with the past history was taken down, making it difficult to figure out from thin air. With computers and "print to PDF" utilities - now it's take a PDF snapshot and it's available whenever I need it (bearing in mind that I back that data up).




humble_pie said:


> ... plus i don't believe investors understand - yet - that their brokers, when it comes to tracking the cost base or book value of non-registered accounts, are all making shocking mistakes. I don't believe that investors understand - yet - that they really must maintain their own cost base records. It's part of the responsibility of being an investor...


All it took for me to notice was checking the monthly statement. If the previous statements have the correct book value, then there's a stream of letters spelling out that for a buyout, there will be 0.75 new shares per old share- how is it that after the swap, the book value is unknown? Or worse, under-reported?


Bottom line is that just like reconciling a chequing account or credit card statement - it is a small amount of work per month that in my case avoided paying an extra $1K in taxes _for one mistake found_.


As the saying goes


> Caveat emptor


 or the more recent version,


> Nobody takes care for your money like you do!





humble_pie said:


> ... more than anyone else in this forum, Eclectic has always tried to teach good methodologies for maintaining cost base records. Thanks so much, Eclectic, & i hope everyone will listen up with great respect.


As the saying goes, if one person learns before it's a difficult task to catch up - it's all worth it.


Cheers


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