Q: Hi Peter, Ryan and Team,
Fully realizing that taxation is not your area, I have a general question that concerns where one would go to find out info on a U.S. company doing a spin-out, to determine what potential tax implications there could be, for Canadian holders.
Specifically, opening my T5 summary today, I got a nasty surprise from the HP I was holding before they split into two last November. Apparently they didn’t just do an even split, rather they held the original (and full) book cost of one side of the company, and spun out the other portion as a 100% dividend. So if the original cost was $45 for HP many years ago, after this spin-out my book-cost has been increased to $45 + $14.72 (for the spin-out), and the $14.72 is a fully taxable event for the 2015 taxation year.
One of the lessons, I guess, is never continue to hold the stock of a foreign company once they announce a split. This is a very costly lesson, and given that, I’d like to know how I can avoid it in the future, short of selling before the spin-out/split occurs. In speaking to my broker, this was supposed to be a non-taxable event for foreigners, it just never materialized though.
Would one look at U.S. SEC filings, or as a general rule, would you just suggest selling, and if one really wanted to continue to hold, buy back in after the event occurred?
Thanks for thoughts on this one.
Fully realizing that taxation is not your area, I have a general question that concerns where one would go to find out info on a U.S. company doing a spin-out, to determine what potential tax implications there could be, for Canadian holders.
Specifically, opening my T5 summary today, I got a nasty surprise from the HP I was holding before they split into two last November. Apparently they didn’t just do an even split, rather they held the original (and full) book cost of one side of the company, and spun out the other portion as a 100% dividend. So if the original cost was $45 for HP many years ago, after this spin-out my book-cost has been increased to $45 + $14.72 (for the spin-out), and the $14.72 is a fully taxable event for the 2015 taxation year.
One of the lessons, I guess, is never continue to hold the stock of a foreign company once they announce a split. This is a very costly lesson, and given that, I’d like to know how I can avoid it in the future, short of selling before the spin-out/split occurs. In speaking to my broker, this was supposed to be a non-taxable event for foreigners, it just never materialized though.
Would one look at U.S. SEC filings, or as a general rule, would you just suggest selling, and if one really wanted to continue to hold, buy back in after the event occurred?
Thanks for thoughts on this one.
