Non‐Cash Distributions - tsiemens/acb GitHub Wiki

Non-cash distributions are distributions, typically from ETFs, which are not issued as a cash dividend. They will often alter your ACB, but can also incur automatic capital gains.

Generally speaking, you will find Return of Capital on your T3 Summary of Investment Income and Expense issued by your broker. This may also have other distributions (which are actually favourable to your ACB, and could cancel out the RoC), but might not, and you may need to refer to the distributions info sheet for that year from your ETF provider.

Supported Distribution Types

All distributions are currently specified by simply providing a total amount or amount/share (always positive values) in your CSV. Do not provide the number of shares here, as it is automatically grabbed.

Return of Capital

Return of Capital will decrease your ACB, which results in a higher capital gain when you sell. As a result, the CRA will be more interested in these. Conveniently, they usually end up on your T3, so you're less likely to miss them. However, they sometimes come coupled with other reinvested distributions which can partially or entirely cancel them out.

CSV action: RoC

Reinvested Capital Gains Distributions

These are non-cash distributions which both increases your ACB, and incurs a taxable capital gain (which generally should show up on your T-Slip).

CSV action: RiCGDist

Reinvested Dividends

These are non-cash distributions which only increase your ACB.

CSV action: RiDiv

Capital Gains Dividend

These are non-cash distributions which do not impact your ACB, but incur a capital gain, which should end up on your T-Slip. These are therefore not essential to track on your ACB spreadsheet, but you may for completeness (the capital gain will be added to your total tally).

CSV action: CGDiv