Investors in Vanguard’s funds, including exchange-traded funds (ETFs), may be wondering when the Vanguard tax statements for 2023 are going to be released.
A tax statement can be very useful because it provides Australian taxpayers in Vanguard ETFs with the tax information they need to fill in their tax return.
Every year, the ETF providers like Vanguard issue an annual tax statement that will have each piece of information needed to enter on a tax return. Each ETF (and managed fund) will issue one of these statements.
For example, if someone was invested in Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF (ASX: VAS), Vanguard US Total Market Shares Index ETF (ASX: VTS) and Vanguard MSCI Index International Shares ETF (ASX: VGS) then they’d receive three different statements.
Expected date for the 2023 Vanguard tax statement
Vanguard said in an important notice about when it expects to release the information.
The plan for most ETFs is that investors will receive the annual tax statement in August 2023.
The information should also be available for the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) pre-fill report function.
Accountants or tax agents can help people with their tax returns.
What information is on there?
There will be a number of different bits of information on the 2023 Vanguard annual tax statement.
Different forms of income are the main things that we need to know so that the numbers can be put into the respective sections on the tax return, including these four areas:
- Income distributed from the ETF
- Franking credits
- Capital gains distributed
- Foreign income
Capital gains can take more work calculating depending on how long they have been held (for longer or less than a year) and if there are previous capital losses to utilise. Capital gains on assets held for longer than 12 months can be halved (which is done on the tax return).
How tax on your ETF works
Tax on ETFs is a little different to direct share investing because an ETF is a legal trust, not a company. You can read our full guide on tax on shares and ETFs below.
ATO tax on shares explained (full guide for share investors & traders)
Tax takeaway
All the different parts of the income from the ETF are added to the other forms of taxable income (eg interest from bank accounts, wages, rental income and so on). Taxpayers may need to pay tax on the various forms of income from shares, including dividends from companies.
Tax professionals can assist Aussie taxpayers complete their tax returns if needed, so don’t be afraid to ask for help.