AMIT and AMMA statements explained for Australian investors

If you hold Australian ETFs, you receive an AMMA statement each financial year. These statements look more complex than a simple dividend statement, but they are essential for accurate tax reporting. This guide explains what AMIT trusts are, what each field on the statement means, and how the data flows into your tax return.

Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified tax professional for guidance specific to your situation.

What is an AMIT?

AMIT stands for Attribution Managed Investment Trust, a tax regime introduced by the Australian government in 2016. It replaced the older system that most managed funds operated under and brought significant improvements to how fund income is taxed.

Before AMIT, most managed funds operated under Division 6 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936, which used a "present entitlement" model. This older system had several problems. Fund managers could not easily carry forward under or over distributions from year to year. The tax character of income could also be "washed" as it passed through trust structures, meaning investors sometimes lost the benefit of franking credits, capital gains discounts, or foreign income tax offsets.

The AMIT regime solved these issues by allowing funds to attribute specific types of income directly to investors on a fair and reasonable basis. Under AMIT, each component of income (dividends, capital gains, foreign income, and so on) retains its tax character all the way through to the end investor. This means you receive the correct franking credits, capital gains discounts, and foreign income tax offsets rather than having them stripped away.

Most major Australian ETF providers elected into the AMIT regime between 2017 and 2019. Today, almost every listed ETF you can buy on the ASX is an AMIT. This includes funds from Vanguard, Betashares, iShares (BlackRock), VanEck, and Global X. When a fund is an AMIT, it issues an AMMA (AMIT Member Annual) statement instead of a traditional distribution statement.

Who receives an AMMA statement

Anyone who held units in an AMIT trust at any point during the financial year (1 July to 30 June) receives an AMMA statement for that holding. This covers most listed Australian ETFs on the ASX.

Listed Investment Companies (LICs) like AFIC (AFI), Argo (ARG), and Milton (MLT) are companies, not trusts, so they issue ordinary dividend statements rather than AMMA statements. If you hold a mix of ETFs and LICs, you will deal with both types of documents at tax time.

AMMA statements are typically available between July and October. You will receive them from the fund provider or the share registry (Computershare, Link Market Services). If you sold all your units during the year, you still receive a statement for the period you held them. Do not assume that selling means you can skip the AMMA statement for that fund.

AMMA statement vs dividend statement

During the year, your broker shows cash distributions. These are the actual payments deposited into your bank account or reinvested. They give you a simple picture: you received a certain dollar amount on a certain date.

At the end of the financial year, the AMMA statement re-attributes that same cash into specific tax components. These include franked dividends, unfranked dividends, foreign income, capital gains, and more. The total of the income components on the AMMA statement should reconcile with the cash distributions you received during the year (though small rounding differences can occur).

The AMMA statement is the authoritative document for your tax return. If the numbers differ from what your broker showed during the year, always follow the AMMA statement. Brokers sometimes estimate the income split based on interim distribution data, and these estimates can change once the fund completes its annual tax calculations.

Think of it this way: the dividend statement tells you how much cash you received. The AMMA statement tells you how that cash should be taxed.

Understanding each component

AMMA statements contain several sections. Here is what each one means and how it affects your tax return.

Income components

Franked dividends are income from Australian companies that have already paid company tax. These come with franking credits (also called imputation credits) that reduce your personal tax. For more on how these work, see our guide to franking credits explained.

Unfranked dividends are income from Australian sources where company tax was not paid, or was only partially paid. You include these in your assessable income without any attached tax offset.

Foreign income is income earned by the fund from international investments. If you hold a global ETF like VGS or VDHG, a meaningful portion of your distribution will be classified as foreign income. This amount is taxed at your marginal rate, but you may also receive a foreign income tax offset to account for tax already paid overseas.

Interest income appears when the fund earns income from cash holdings or fixed-income investments. Some equity-focused ETFs may attribute a small amount of interest income alongside their dividend and capital gains components.

Other income is a catch-all category for income that does not fit the above classifications. This is usually a small amount, if it appears at all.

Tax offsets

Franking credits represent the tax already paid by Australian companies on your behalf. You claim these as a tax offset on your return, and they reduce your tax payable dollar for dollar. If your franking credits exceed your total tax liability, you may receive the excess as a refund (for individuals and complying superannuation funds).

Foreign income tax offset (FITO) represents tax already paid in foreign jurisdictions on the fund's international income. This offset prevents you from being taxed twice on the same income. The FITO is generally limited to the amount of Australian tax that would otherwise be payable on the foreign income.

Capital gains

Discounted capital gains are gains from assets the fund held for more than 12 months. As an individual Australian tax resident, you include only 50% of these gains in your assessable income thanks to the CGT discount.

Other capital gains (non-discounted) are gains from assets held for less than 12 months, or gains that do not qualify for the discount. These are included in your assessable income in full.

CGT concession amount is the discounted portion of the capital gain. It is not assessable income itself. It appears on the AMMA statement for information purposes and flows to specific labels on your tax return to reconcile the discount calculation. For more on how capital gains work, see our guide on how to calculate capital gains on shares in Australia.

Cost base adjustments

This is the component that confuses most investors. Cost base adjustments are not income and are not a tax event in the current year.

A cost base decrease reduces the cost base of your units. This means when you eventually sell, your capital gain will be larger (or your capital loss smaller) than it would have been without the adjustment. Cost base decreases typically arise from tax-deferred distributions, which are amounts the fund distributed to you as cash but that are not assessable income in the current year. Instead, they reduce your cost base.

A cost base increase raises your cost base, reducing your future capital gain when you sell. These are less common but can occur when the fund attributes income to you that exceeds the cash you actually received.

Most ETFs produce a net cost base decrease each year, which means your cost base gradually goes down over time. This is normal and expected for AMIT trusts.

Worked example: reading an AMMA statement

Sarah holds 500 units of an Australian diversified ETF. During the financial year, she received $800 in cash distributions across quarterly payments. Her AMMA statement arrives in August and shows the following attribution:

Here is where each item goes on Sarah's tax return:

Item 11 (Dividends): $320 franked + $85 unfranked = $405 in dividend income, plus $137.14 in franking credits. The franking credits are both added to assessable income (grossing up the dividend) and claimed as a tax offset.

Item 20 (Foreign source income): $180 in foreign income, with $27 claimed as a foreign income tax offset.

Item 18 (Capital gains): $90 in other (non-discounted) gains plus $125 in discounted gains. The discounted gains receive the 50% CGT discount, so Sarah includes $90 + $62.50 = $152.50 in her net capital gain. The CGT concession amount ($125) is used in the capital gains schedule to reconcile the discount.

Cost base adjustment: Sarah's cost base per unit decreases by $0.09 ($45 / 500 units). If she originally paid $50.00 per unit, her adjusted cost base is now $49.91 per unit.

For a detailed guide on filling in each section, see how to lodge share income on your Australian tax return.

How cost base adjustments affect capital gains when you sell

Cost base adjustments accumulate over every year you hold the investment. They do not trigger a tax event at the time, but they change the outcome when you eventually sell.

Continuing the example above, if Sarah holds her ETF for five years and receives an average cost base decrease of $0.09 per unit each year, her adjusted cost base drops from $50.00 to $49.55 per unit over that period.

When she sells all 500 units at $60.00 per unit, her capital gain is calculated on the adjusted cost base:

• Without adjustments: ($60.00 - $50.00) x 500 = $5,000 gain
• With adjustments: ($60.00 - $49.55) x 500 = $5,225 gain
• The $225 difference is the cumulative cost base decrease flowing through as additional capital gain at the time of sale.

If Sarah sells only a portion of her units, the cost base adjustment applies proportionally. Each unit carries its own adjusted cost base.

This is why it is important to track AMMA statements every year, even if you have no plans to sell. The adjustments build up over time and directly affect your final capital gain calculation. If you ignore cost base adjustments for several years and then sell, you may understate your capital gain and face an ATO adjustment or amended assessment.

Common mistakes with AMMA statements

Using cash distribution amounts instead of AMMA components for your tax return. The cash you received during the year is not necessarily what you declare. The AMMA statement breaks the same cash into different tax categories, and each category goes to a different part of your return.

Forgetting to apply cost base adjustments when you sell. This is probably the most common error. Investors who held ETFs for years without tracking cost base changes can significantly understate their capital gain, which may attract ATO attention.

Not collecting AMMA statements for all ETF holdings. Every AMIT holding needs its statement entered on your tax return, including small positions. If you hold six different ETFs, you need six AMMA statements.

Confusing the CGT concession amount with a tax deduction. The CGT concession is a component used in the capital gains schedule to calculate the 50% CGT discount. It is not something you subtract separately from your income.

Entering total distributions as unfranked dividends. Some investors lump everything into one field on their tax return instead of splitting it into the correct components. This means you miss out on franking credits, foreign income tax offsets, and the CGT discount.

How TrackMyShares handles AMIT data

TrackMyShares lets you enter AMMA statement data for each ETF holding, for each financial year. You enter the components once, and the system stores them alongside your transaction history.

When you generate a tax report, TrackMyShares uses the AMMA data to split your income into the correct categories: franked dividends, unfranked dividends, foreign income, capital gains, and tax offsets. Each category maps to the corresponding item on your tax return.

Cost base adjustments are applied automatically. When you eventually sell your units, the capital gain calculation uses the adjusted cost base, so you do not need to track the adjustments manually in a spreadsheet. This is especially helpful if you hold multiple ETFs over several years, where manual tracking becomes error-prone.

For step-by-step instructions on entering AMMA data, see our AMIT statements guide.

Frequently asked questions

What if I didn't receive an AMMA statement?

Contact the fund's share registry (Computershare or Link Market Services) or check the fund provider's website. Most providers make statements available for download in their investor portal. If you held units at any point during the financial year, you should have a statement. Some registries also allow you to access historical statements for previous years.

Do I need an AMMA statement for international ETFs on the ASX?

If the ETF is domiciled in Australia (which most ASX-listed ETFs are, even those investing internationally), yes. For example, VGS (Vanguard MSCI Index International Shares ETF) is an Australian trust that invests in global markets. Because it is structured as an Australian AMIT, you will receive an AMMA statement for it. The same applies to other internationally focused ETFs like IVV (iShares S&P 500), NDQ (Betashares Nasdaq 100), and BGBL (Betashares Global Shares).

What about ETFs I sold during the year?

You still receive an AMMA statement covering the period you held the units. Any income attributed to you for that period must be declared on your tax return, regardless of whether you still own the units at 30 June. You will also need to calculate a capital gain or loss on the sale itself, using the adjusted cost base from all prior AMMA statements.

Wrapping up

AMMA statements add a layer of complexity to tax time, but they also give you a more accurate picture of how your ETF income is taxed. Each component is attributed with its correct tax character, ensuring you receive the right franking credits, CGT discounts, and foreign income tax offsets. Taking the time to enter the data correctly each year avoids surprises when you eventually sell.

Sign up for TrackMyShares to track your AMIT cost base adjustments automatically and generate tax reports with the right income splits.