Tax
The Tax page and its results - every setting of the tax estimate, what each card of the results shows, and the Excel export.
The Tax page estimates the tax on your trading and dividends for a year or a quarter. You fill in one form, click Calculate Tax Estimate, and the results open on a second page.
The result is an estimate for planning, not tax advice. The rules it follows are explained in How the tax report calculates.
The form: Tax Report Parameters
Tax Year and Period
- Tax Year: this year or any of the nine before it.
- Period: Full Year, or one quarter: Q1 (Jan-Mar), Q2 (Apr-Jun), Q3 (Jul-Sep), Q4 (Oct-Dec). A quarter counts only the sales and dividends in those three months.
Country
United States or Canada: the country you file in. It sets the report currency (USD or CAD), the brackets and the loss rule (wash sale or superficial loss). Changing it also switches the accounting method: FIFO for the United States, ACB for Canada.
Accounting Method
- FIFO (First In, First Out): the oldest shares are sold first.
- ACB (Average Cost Basis): each sale uses the average cost of all the shares you hold.
You can override the default. The difference is explained, with an example, in How the tax report calculates.
Expected Base Income (before investment income)
Your salary, wages or other non-investment income for the year. The app puts it in the brackets first, then adds your dividends and gains on top. No deductions are taken off, so enter the amount you expect to be taxed on.
Accounts
Click the box ("3 accounts selected") to pick which accounts the report covers.
- Select All / Deselect All at the top of the list.
- Accounts that are tax-exempt in the report's country (TFSA, RRSP and the like for Canada; IRA, 401(k) and the like for the US) are marked (tax-exempt) and are not selected at first. You can add them. Changing the country updates the marks and the default selection until you edit the list.
- The line under the box counts what you picked, for example "2 taxable, 0 tax-exempt selected".
- You need at least one account.
The type of each account (taxable or not) comes from Accounts & Data.
Capital Gains Inclusion Rate (Canada only)
A switch between 50% and 100%: the share of your net capital gain that is taxed. At 50%, a $2,000 gain adds $1,000 to your taxable income.
Broker Tax Documents (optional)
Drop your broker's tax files (PDF or CSV) on Upload Broker Files to Cross Reference with myTraderDash, or click it to pick files.
- Each file is recognized automatically. A green badge shows the broker and document type (for example a T5008 slip, a gains and losses report or a 1099-B). Unsupported means the app can't read that file yet: we're notified and keep its text, with SIN / SSN removed, for 30 days so support can be added.
- Under each recognized file, Account shows the account(s) it covers, with the account number printed in the file. The app picks the account whose name holds that number, or the only selected account of that broker; otherwise it says Pick its account… and Calculate Tax Estimate stays off until you tick one. A file can cover several accounts (a DISNAT T5008 covers every account of the client): tick them all.
- Each file is compared with its own accounts only, not with every account in the report.
- Remove a file with its x.
- The comparison appears in the Excel export as a Broker Comparison sheet: each asset with the broker's gain or loss, the app's, the difference and a likely reason for it (rounding, commissions, how an assignment was treated, a missing cost basis, ...).
This is optional. The estimate itself never uses these files.
Calculate Tax Estimate
Runs the report and opens the results. Your choices are kept in the page address, so going back to Tax (or bookmarking it) brings the same settings back.
The results page (Tax Results)
The results open at /tax/results?reportId=…. The arrow at the top left goes back to the form.
The report is kept for 24 hours. Until then you can reload the results page or open its link in a new tab. After that it says "This report has expired"; click Go to Tax Reports and calculate again.
Tax Estimate Summary
The year, period and country, plus badges for the currency, your base income, how many accounts were included and (Canada) the inclusion rate. The Export button is here (see below).
Investment Breakdown
Two donut charts: Investment Income (dividends and gains) and Tax by Category (the tax on each). Hidden when there's no investment income.
Income Breakdown
| Row | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Base Income | What you entered |
| Dividends | Every dividend paid in the period |
| Capital Gains (Canada) / Short-term and Long-term Capital Gains (US) | Gains from sales, before losses |
| Capital Losses | Losses you can deduct |
| Superficial Loss Disallowed / Wash Sale Disallowed | Losses that can't be claimed now because you bought the shares back (they move to the new shares' cost) |
| Net Capital Gains / Net Short-term and Net Long-term Gains | Gains after losses |
In the US, short-term means held 365 days or less; long-term, more than 365 days.
Tax Breakdown
Tax on base income, on dividends and on gains, then Total Estimated Tax and Effective Tax Rate (total tax divided by your income; for Canada, by your taxable income after the inclusion rate and the dividend gross-up). In a Canadian report with dividends from Canadian companies, Dividend Tax Credit (eligible) lowers the total (see Dividends). When your broker reported tax withheld on dividends, Foreign Tax Credit lowers it too, with what was withheld and any part above 15% underneath (see Foreign tax credit). The Investment Tax Summary box shows the part due to your investments: the tax on dividends and gains only, after that credit.
Tax Brackets Applied
The federal brackets your income reached, with their rates.
Positions left out
Shown only when the report skipped something. One row per position it couldn't price (unknown cost basis): ticker, account, open and close dates, quantity, book value (a dash when the cost is unknown), why it was left out and what to do. Fix the data, then generate the report again. The same rows are in the export's Unresolvable Groups sheet.
How This Was Calculated
Short explanations you can open one by one: how gains were classified, superficial losses or wash sales (when there were any), how losses offset gains, which rates were used, and the simplifying assumptions. When some positions were left out, a note here says how many and their total value.
Disclaimer
A reminder that the result is an estimate and what it leaves out: it's federal only (no provincial or state tax), how dividends are taxed (Canadian companies' as eligible dividends; the rest as ordinary income; in a US report, qualified rates only when the broker labels them), the foreign tax credit comes only from the withholding your broker reports, and deductions, other credits and loss carryforwards aren't included. The export's Notes sheet has the same list.
Export
Export on the Tax Estimate Summary card downloads the full report as an Excel file: every lot, every dividend, superficial losses or wash sales, transfers, positions left out, flags for your accountant, commissions and the broker comparison. The sheets are described in What's in the Excel export.
Export works for 24 hours after you calculate. After that it says "Report expired"; click Calculate Tax Estimate again.
Common questions
A position I closed isn't in the report. Check that its account is selected, that the sale is in the period, and that the position has a known cost basis (it may be listed under Unresolvable Groups in the export). See Data issues.
My number differs from my broker's slip. Upload the slip under Broker Tax Documents and look at the Broker Comparison sheet. Common reasons: exchange rates, assignments (the app moves the premium into the shares), and superficial losses or wash sales that the broker doesn't adjust for.
For a step-by-step guide, see Run a tax report.