Interactive Brokers: reports for tax declaration

Taxes
1

After completing my 2018 tax return I was asked to send evidence of my VT share purchases. I purchased these shares through Interactive Brokers and reside in the canton of Vaud.

On IB the only tax reports I see are the below:

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I sent the FX Income Worksheet pdf to the Office d’impôt which details all my FX trades and VT trades. I also sent them the Dividend Report html which they seem to have accepted for my DA-1 WHT. However, I have recently received a letter again requesting evidence of the share purchases.

The exact request is for : Bordereaux d’achat de vos parts de fonds de placement numéro de valeur 4354003 - purchase slips of your VT shares.

Does anyone know what kind of document they are looking for here and how I can source it from IB?

Thanks!

1 Like
2

I’m guessing they want one document per date on which you bought shares?

They want to see when and at what price you bought your shares.

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This is quite strange to me (never been asked such documents). Anyway if you submit them the dividends report they see exactly for how many shares you got the dividend for every quarter.

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Just as with any foreign broker I know, I regard the „tax“ documents provided as mostly pointless - if not even dangerous. These documents are simply not made or intendend for Swiss tax purposes, and might be misleading, or, in worst case, let you make wrong statements to tax authorities.

FX Income worksheet looks like a gigantic mess.
Firstly is not meant to act as proof or „detail“ of your VT trades, but is intended as a summary of your FX transactions for US tax purposes, as explained by IBKR on their website:

„The Forex Income Worksheet is an annual worksheet that provides income and loss information from your completed currency transactions for the year“

Secondly, in it‘s second to last column, it explicitly states and sums so-called „Income“ from currency transactions. In the best case, the tax authorities will ignore it - in the worst case, somebody might be prompted to ask questions as to whether that „income“ was declared and where. Even though, to the best of my knowledge, the occasional exchange of currency for non-speculation/professional trading purposes would not be subject to Swiss tax, but simply disregard.

Thirdly, in my case, it would not even list my VT fund transactions, as these would be in USD - which I have chosen as the base currency for my account. And he FX Income sheet is, as I understand it, not intended to list them - but rather only transactions in non-default currency:

„The Worksheet lists income and loss from nonfunctional currency transactions, including forex trades, trades in securities denominated in a nonfunctional currency, debit and credit interest and other nonfunctional currency transactions.“

I would generate and download a „Trade Confirmation“ statement in client portal: Menu → Reports → Statements

Then choose:
Statement type: Default Statements
Default Statement Type: Trade Confirmation
Period: Custom Date Range
Adjust for you desired period (up to a 365 days), select „Format“ (PDF that you can print out?) and optionally language (possibly French instead of English for you?)

Looks really clean and to the point. If you wish to experiment further, you can even create your own custom statement format - pretty nifty stuff they‘re providing there, I have to say. :astonished:

8 Likes
5

Thank you for the detailed answer; this is very helpful.

You are right that the FX income wasn’t ideal, at the time it was the only “tax report” on IB that showed my VT purchases. :stuck_out_tongue: A shame these are not customised to your domicile.

Unfortunately it seems you can only run a Trade Confirmation report as far back as 365 days ago. So as of today I can only run a report starting as far back as May 2018. Luckily this should suit my purposes as I had no VT purchases before May of last year.

I’ll send a copy of this in and hope I don’t get any questions about pre-May transactions.

Thanks again!

6

Should work, if you adjust the „To“ date. 365 days seems to be the maximum timeframe, but not a limit of time that you can go back. E.g., I have just tried this for Jan-Dec 2017, and it listed my transactions from back then.

EDIT: …or even back to 2015 works for me. Think that must be when I opened my account with them.

Only small thing I would want to see: I cannot select a whole calendar year, i.e. first and last days of the year (Jan 1, Dec 31) if they fall on a non-trading saturday or sunday.

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7

Oh, I assume it was because I only opened my IB account in May 2018 then :relaxed:

Seems like the goto solution then!

8

Did you not read the instructions? 1042-S is what the tax office wants.

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Maybe I missed some instructions but all I read in the letter from the tax office were one sentence requests for information. Something like “please send us proof of WHT on dividends”.

I opted to send the Dividend Report as it showed line by line breakdowns rather than the aggregate in the 1042-S.

They seem to have accepted it but noted for the future. Confusing doing all this in a second language!

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10

Dear mustachians, I searched through the forum but couldn’t find which reports I need to fill out the taxes @ interactive brokers,

could anybody help me?
Thank you in advance

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11

I’ve probably written about before on the forum - but can’t find it at the moment. What I’m not doing is trying to use documents for U.S. tax purposes for my Swiss tax return.

I am using a custom statement, generated via client portal (Menu → Reports /Tax Docs → Statements)

Statement Type Activity

Sections
Account Information
Bond Interest
Broker Interest
Dividends
Financial Instrument Information
Net Asset Value
Open Positions
Withholding Tax

Section Configurations
Profit and Loss None
Breakout Positions into Long and Short? No
Combine by Underlying (MTD/YTD only)? No
Display Canceled Trades? No
Group Buys and Sells per Symbol in Trades Section? No
Hide Details for Positions, Trades and Client Fees Sections? No
Replace Account ID with Account Alias? Yes

43 Likes
12

thank you so much! that is really helpful

13

I’d like to revive this topic. Did you change anything about your approach?

For 2019 I just included the Activity statement in my tax declaration and no further questions were asked. So is there a need for a custom statement?

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No reports are need whatsoever.

Except for your DA-1 you should attach something showing your dividends and withholding taxes that you’re claiming a refund for - custom report with just these sections will do

Never been asked for anything else by them

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15

How do you mean no reports are needed? How do you declare wealth and income?

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16

You just, you know, go ahead and declare. No proofs are needed to be attached regarding your wealth and dividends.

If numbers don’t make sense to them (for example, large unexpained delta from your last year’s tax declaration, or discrepancy vs the numbers they get on you via AEOI reports) they may ask you to explain yourself and send in the papers later. But nothing is needed to be sent upfront for the initial filing.

Just the DA-1 folks want some papers to double check your figures before paying you out, but not the tax commissars.

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17

Total withholding tax in 2020 was 41.81 CHF. So no need for DA-1 this year, right?

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You are not eligible for DA-1 refund for such laughable amounts, don’t bother sending them the form and put everything into WV instead. It says so right on the DA-1 form in case you didn’t read it. Come back next year when you have at least 50 CHF to claim.

No DA-1, no proofs for your divs needed. They’ll take your word for it, oh and double tax of course (because no refund for US tax)

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19

How does the DA-1 refund work? Do you get a credit for the text tax declaration?

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In Zurich you get cash refund to your bank account. Use search, it’s been discussed ad nauseam