Fund Loses Money But 1099-DIV Shows Large Capital Gain Distribution












1















My Goldman Sachs fund lost over $6,000.00 for 2018, but the Form 1099-DIV shows a total capital gain distribution of over $62,000.00. How can that happen?










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  • Do you mean the market value of your units declined $6,000 in 2018? Is this a mutual fund?

    – quid
    4 hours ago
















1















My Goldman Sachs fund lost over $6,000.00 for 2018, but the Form 1099-DIV shows a total capital gain distribution of over $62,000.00. How can that happen?










share|improve this question









New contributor




Tom Wade is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.





















  • Do you mean the market value of your units declined $6,000 in 2018? Is this a mutual fund?

    – quid
    4 hours ago














1












1








1


1






My Goldman Sachs fund lost over $6,000.00 for 2018, but the Form 1099-DIV shows a total capital gain distribution of over $62,000.00. How can that happen?










share|improve this question









New contributor




Tom Wade is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.












My Goldman Sachs fund lost over $6,000.00 for 2018, but the Form 1099-DIV shows a total capital gain distribution of over $62,000.00. How can that happen?







united-states capital-gains-tax






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Check out our Code of Conduct.











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edited 52 mins ago









Chris W. Rea

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asked 4 hours ago









Tom WadeTom Wade

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Tom Wade is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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New contributor





Tom Wade is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.






Tom Wade is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.













  • Do you mean the market value of your units declined $6,000 in 2018? Is this a mutual fund?

    – quid
    4 hours ago



















  • Do you mean the market value of your units declined $6,000 in 2018? Is this a mutual fund?

    – quid
    4 hours ago

















Do you mean the market value of your units declined $6,000 in 2018? Is this a mutual fund?

– quid
4 hours ago





Do you mean the market value of your units declined $6,000 in 2018? Is this a mutual fund?

– quid
4 hours ago










1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes


















6














The capital gain distribution reflects what positions were sold. The value of the fund represents the assets that the fund still holds. The two may be very different.



Imagine I have the world's simplest mutual fund. I start off the year with $1 million in cash and there are 10,000 shares so each share is worth $100. On Jan 1, I buy $800,000 worth of stock A and $200,000 worth of stock B. I then go into hibernation and wake up on Dec 31. At that point, I find that A has lost 50% of its value (so my stake is worth $400,000) while B has gained 50% of its value (so my stake is worth $300,000). I sell all my B shares so I now have $400,000 worth of A and $300,000 in cash.



Overall, my fund has $700,000 in assets so each share is worth $70. The fund is down 30% for the year. But the fund realized $100,000 in capital gains from selling all its B shares. So someone holding the fund lost $30/ share and owes taxes on $10/ share worth of capital gains.






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  • Nice simplification. You nailed it.

    – JoeTaxpayer
    4 hours ago











  • Out of curiosity, is this different to ETFs? I have mostly used ETFs in the past and only ever released gains or losses based on my own sales. Do mutual funds pass the gains and losses to holders immediately during re balancing?

    – Vality
    3 hours ago






  • 1





    @Vality - Both ETFs and mutual funds should distribute capital gains to shareholders annually (investor.vanguard.com/etf/faqs#/capgains). If you have an ETF based on an index or an index fund, those tend to be inherently relatively tax efficient so your capital gains distributions might be 0 or small enough that they're not memorable.

    – Justin Cave
    1 hour ago











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1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes








1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes









6














The capital gain distribution reflects what positions were sold. The value of the fund represents the assets that the fund still holds. The two may be very different.



Imagine I have the world's simplest mutual fund. I start off the year with $1 million in cash and there are 10,000 shares so each share is worth $100. On Jan 1, I buy $800,000 worth of stock A and $200,000 worth of stock B. I then go into hibernation and wake up on Dec 31. At that point, I find that A has lost 50% of its value (so my stake is worth $400,000) while B has gained 50% of its value (so my stake is worth $300,000). I sell all my B shares so I now have $400,000 worth of A and $300,000 in cash.



Overall, my fund has $700,000 in assets so each share is worth $70. The fund is down 30% for the year. But the fund realized $100,000 in capital gains from selling all its B shares. So someone holding the fund lost $30/ share and owes taxes on $10/ share worth of capital gains.






share|improve this answer
























  • Nice simplification. You nailed it.

    – JoeTaxpayer
    4 hours ago











  • Out of curiosity, is this different to ETFs? I have mostly used ETFs in the past and only ever released gains or losses based on my own sales. Do mutual funds pass the gains and losses to holders immediately during re balancing?

    – Vality
    3 hours ago






  • 1





    @Vality - Both ETFs and mutual funds should distribute capital gains to shareholders annually (investor.vanguard.com/etf/faqs#/capgains). If you have an ETF based on an index or an index fund, those tend to be inherently relatively tax efficient so your capital gains distributions might be 0 or small enough that they're not memorable.

    – Justin Cave
    1 hour ago
















6














The capital gain distribution reflects what positions were sold. The value of the fund represents the assets that the fund still holds. The two may be very different.



Imagine I have the world's simplest mutual fund. I start off the year with $1 million in cash and there are 10,000 shares so each share is worth $100. On Jan 1, I buy $800,000 worth of stock A and $200,000 worth of stock B. I then go into hibernation and wake up on Dec 31. At that point, I find that A has lost 50% of its value (so my stake is worth $400,000) while B has gained 50% of its value (so my stake is worth $300,000). I sell all my B shares so I now have $400,000 worth of A and $300,000 in cash.



Overall, my fund has $700,000 in assets so each share is worth $70. The fund is down 30% for the year. But the fund realized $100,000 in capital gains from selling all its B shares. So someone holding the fund lost $30/ share and owes taxes on $10/ share worth of capital gains.






share|improve this answer
























  • Nice simplification. You nailed it.

    – JoeTaxpayer
    4 hours ago











  • Out of curiosity, is this different to ETFs? I have mostly used ETFs in the past and only ever released gains or losses based on my own sales. Do mutual funds pass the gains and losses to holders immediately during re balancing?

    – Vality
    3 hours ago






  • 1





    @Vality - Both ETFs and mutual funds should distribute capital gains to shareholders annually (investor.vanguard.com/etf/faqs#/capgains). If you have an ETF based on an index or an index fund, those tend to be inherently relatively tax efficient so your capital gains distributions might be 0 or small enough that they're not memorable.

    – Justin Cave
    1 hour ago














6












6








6







The capital gain distribution reflects what positions were sold. The value of the fund represents the assets that the fund still holds. The two may be very different.



Imagine I have the world's simplest mutual fund. I start off the year with $1 million in cash and there are 10,000 shares so each share is worth $100. On Jan 1, I buy $800,000 worth of stock A and $200,000 worth of stock B. I then go into hibernation and wake up on Dec 31. At that point, I find that A has lost 50% of its value (so my stake is worth $400,000) while B has gained 50% of its value (so my stake is worth $300,000). I sell all my B shares so I now have $400,000 worth of A and $300,000 in cash.



Overall, my fund has $700,000 in assets so each share is worth $70. The fund is down 30% for the year. But the fund realized $100,000 in capital gains from selling all its B shares. So someone holding the fund lost $30/ share and owes taxes on $10/ share worth of capital gains.






share|improve this answer













The capital gain distribution reflects what positions were sold. The value of the fund represents the assets that the fund still holds. The two may be very different.



Imagine I have the world's simplest mutual fund. I start off the year with $1 million in cash and there are 10,000 shares so each share is worth $100. On Jan 1, I buy $800,000 worth of stock A and $200,000 worth of stock B. I then go into hibernation and wake up on Dec 31. At that point, I find that A has lost 50% of its value (so my stake is worth $400,000) while B has gained 50% of its value (so my stake is worth $300,000). I sell all my B shares so I now have $400,000 worth of A and $300,000 in cash.



Overall, my fund has $700,000 in assets so each share is worth $70. The fund is down 30% for the year. But the fund realized $100,000 in capital gains from selling all its B shares. So someone holding the fund lost $30/ share and owes taxes on $10/ share worth of capital gains.







share|improve this answer












share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer










answered 4 hours ago









Justin CaveJustin Cave

63616




63616













  • Nice simplification. You nailed it.

    – JoeTaxpayer
    4 hours ago











  • Out of curiosity, is this different to ETFs? I have mostly used ETFs in the past and only ever released gains or losses based on my own sales. Do mutual funds pass the gains and losses to holders immediately during re balancing?

    – Vality
    3 hours ago






  • 1





    @Vality - Both ETFs and mutual funds should distribute capital gains to shareholders annually (investor.vanguard.com/etf/faqs#/capgains). If you have an ETF based on an index or an index fund, those tend to be inherently relatively tax efficient so your capital gains distributions might be 0 or small enough that they're not memorable.

    – Justin Cave
    1 hour ago



















  • Nice simplification. You nailed it.

    – JoeTaxpayer
    4 hours ago











  • Out of curiosity, is this different to ETFs? I have mostly used ETFs in the past and only ever released gains or losses based on my own sales. Do mutual funds pass the gains and losses to holders immediately during re balancing?

    – Vality
    3 hours ago






  • 1





    @Vality - Both ETFs and mutual funds should distribute capital gains to shareholders annually (investor.vanguard.com/etf/faqs#/capgains). If you have an ETF based on an index or an index fund, those tend to be inherently relatively tax efficient so your capital gains distributions might be 0 or small enough that they're not memorable.

    – Justin Cave
    1 hour ago

















Nice simplification. You nailed it.

– JoeTaxpayer
4 hours ago





Nice simplification. You nailed it.

– JoeTaxpayer
4 hours ago













Out of curiosity, is this different to ETFs? I have mostly used ETFs in the past and only ever released gains or losses based on my own sales. Do mutual funds pass the gains and losses to holders immediately during re balancing?

– Vality
3 hours ago





Out of curiosity, is this different to ETFs? I have mostly used ETFs in the past and only ever released gains or losses based on my own sales. Do mutual funds pass the gains and losses to holders immediately during re balancing?

– Vality
3 hours ago




1




1





@Vality - Both ETFs and mutual funds should distribute capital gains to shareholders annually (investor.vanguard.com/etf/faqs#/capgains). If you have an ETF based on an index or an index fund, those tend to be inherently relatively tax efficient so your capital gains distributions might be 0 or small enough that they're not memorable.

– Justin Cave
1 hour ago





@Vality - Both ETFs and mutual funds should distribute capital gains to shareholders annually (investor.vanguard.com/etf/faqs#/capgains). If you have an ETF based on an index or an index fund, those tend to be inherently relatively tax efficient so your capital gains distributions might be 0 or small enough that they're not memorable.

– Justin Cave
1 hour ago










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