Portfolio activity, July-August 2011

With the cash built up from the delayed contribution in October 2010 and April 2011, I have finally made the purchase in July and August. The delay was because (1) I have been trying to get Saxo to offer two global bond ETFs in London Stock Exchange since October 2010, which Saxo finally added them in May 2011, and (2) I was evaluating and setting up Standard Chartered bank online trading in July 2011.

Following my asset allocation plan, I have bought the funds below (through the broker stated in brackets):

1. iShares MSCI Europe ETF (Saxo)
2. Lyxor Asia Pacific Ex Japan ETF (SCB)
3. Lyxor Japan ETF (SCB)
4. iShares Citigroup Global Government Bond ETF (Saxo)

On the other hand, I have taken the opportunity in the recent rise of bond price to sell Legg Mason Global Bond Trust, an actively managed unit trust fund. Following the sale, I do not have any actively managed fund in my portfolio, except UOB GrowPath 2040 in CPF SA. I will allocate the sale proceed to US equity, again, according to asset allocation plan.

Portfolio activity for October 2010 is delayed

My regular half-yearly investment should have already happened in October but it was delayed, due to difficulty in finding a suitable platform to buy global bond ETF—Saxo refused to add the global bond ETFs I requested because it is multiple-currency while POEMS added the ETFs but their commission is high, read my post here. The portfolio asset allocation has been within the 5% threshold from the target 75/25 stock/bond ratio since October, but within the bond portion, global bond is under-allocated and requires top-up. That’s why I am looking for global bond ETF to add. I prefer not to add to the current global bond unit trust fund in my portfolio because of the fund’s active management.

Recently, a reader left a comment that a multiple-currency ETF was added to Saxo upon his request. I have sent a request to Saxo again to add the two global bond ETFs. Will update when I have their reply.

Global bond ETF in London Stock Exchange

Update 7-Aug-2011: IGLO and IGIL are now available for trading in Saxo since mid-May 2011. The commission is charged in USD, converted from GBP at Saxo prevailing rate.

I posted HERE that I may consider bond ETF in London Stock Exchange following the reduction of Saxo commission from GBP 15 to GBP 8.  But alas, when I asked Saxo to add the following two global bond ETFs, Saxo replied that they were not able to add because these ETFs are traded in multiple currencies (GBP and USD).

• iShares Citigroup Global Government Bond (IGLO), traded in USD.
• iShares Global Inflation-Linked Bond (IGIL), traded in USD.

When I probed further and informed Saxo that the two ETFs have different stock symbols for different currencies, Saxo replied they still could not add them because they share the same ISIN number on the same exchange.

Ok, let’s try POEMS. I emailed their tech support to add these two ETFs. And on the following day, it was added! So now you can buy the two ETFs in POEMS, just note that the ETFs are traded in GBP and their symbols are:

• iShares Citigroup Global Government Bond (SGLO), traded in GBP.
• iShares Global Inflation-Linked Bond (SGIL), traded in GBP.

However, there is a catch: POEMS charges a higher commission (GBP 25) compared to Saxo. Given this, I am undecided whether to use POEMS or not.

Portfolio activity, May 2010

The latest portfolio activity happened in May. It was scheduled in April but was postponed due to travelling in overseas.

According to my asset allocation plan, I needed to top up US asset class. But after allocating the required amount from my fresh fund to the US asset class, there was some, but not much, surplus left. I could allocate this surplus to the asset class that almost reached the bottom threshold of its allocation, which was Asia Pacific ex Japan.

In the end, I topped up only the US asset class with all the fresh fund to save time and commission, since the top up of Asia Pacific ex Japan by the relatively small surplus did not change much the allocation of all asset classes.

Lower commission for stocks traded in London Stock Exchange

I received this email from Saxo last week:

… the minimum commissions charged on stocks traded on the following exchanges will be lower from 1 May 2010:

• Euronext Amsterdam (AMS) from EUR 20 to EUR 12
• Euronext Brussels (BRU) from EUR 20 to EUR 12
• Euronext Lisbon (LISB) from EUR 20 to EUR 12
• Euronext Paris (PAR) from EUR 20 to EUR 12
• Frankfurt/Xetra Stock Exchange (FSE) from EUR 20 to EUR 12
• London International Exchange (LSE_INT) from USD 40 to USD 20
• London Stock Exchange (LSE_SETS) from GBP 15 to GBP 8
• Milano Stock Exchange (MIL) from EUR 20 to EUR 12
• OMX Helsinki (HSE) from EUR 20 to EUR 12
• Sistema De Interconexion Bursatil Espanol (SIBE) from EUR 20 to EUR 12
• Swiss Virt-X (VX) from CHF 30 to CHF 18
• Swiss Exchange (SWX) from CHF 30 to CHF 18
• Wiener Börse – Vienna Stock Exchange (VIE) from EUR 20 to EUR 12

Saxo Capital Markets will raise the minimum commissions charged on stocks traded on the OMX Copenhagen Stock Exchange (CSE) from DKK 19 to DKK 29.

The reduction of commission for London stock exchange is almost half. Great! Now I only need half of the previous investment amount to achieve the same ‘sales charge’.

With this low commission, I may also consider bond ETF in London stock exchange when I need to add to my global bond asset class. Currently I use unit trust fund for global bond asset class. Below are the global bond ETFs in London stock exchange that I may use:

• iShares Citigroup Global Government Bond (IGLO)
• iShares Global Inflation-Linked Bond (IGIL)

Portfolio activity, October-November 2009

October is the time to do my semi-annual purchase of funds. My asset allocation plan shows that I need to top up two asset classes:

1. Europe equity
2. Japan equity

No top up for REITs as the current holdings in my portfolio is over the target allocation already, because I have accepted a number of rights issues offered by some of the REITs.

For Europe equity and Japan equity, the funds that I will use remain the same: iShares MSCI Europe ETF and Lyxor Japan (TOPIX) ETF respectively. There is an alternative to Europe equity: Lyxor MSCI Europe ETF that was listed in SGX a week ago.  The broker fee to buy this ETF is cheaper than iShares MSCI Europe ETF, which is listed in London Stock Exchange. But for now,  I will give Lyxor MSCI Europe ETF a miss because it is quite new and the asset under management is only slightly more than USD 6 million.

I have made the transaction for Lyxor Japan (TOPIX) ETF and will buy iShares MSCI Europe ETF next week, after its ex-date on 28-Oct-2009.

Sell VWO to cut future dividend withholding tax?

Right now, I still hold Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock ETF (VWO) and pay the dividend withholding tax every year. I wonder if it would be better to sell VWO to cut the future dividend withholding tax. Before I continue, here’s some background:

1. In a portfolio asset allocation update in 2007, I decided to use Lyxor ETF Asia Pacific Ex Japan listed at SGX (symbol: AEJ) to replace VWO for future purchase. But I still keep my VWO holding.
2. As a result, I am still paying every year 30% dividend withholding tax on the dividend I receive from VWO.
3. The dividend withholding tax is about USD10-15 every year.
4. In my previous post on claiming back US dividend withholding tax on non-US equity ETF, I decided not to pursue that avenue to claim back dividend withholding tax for VWO, because my broker’s Form 1042-S does not list the necessary information and the dividend tax amount is small to worth the effort.

To get an idea of how much dividend withholding tax I would be paying if I were to hold it for the next 30 years, I calculated the cumulative present values of the tax in this spreadsheet Present value of VWO dividend tax (Google Docs) with a discount rate of 2.5%. The rate 2.5% is the interest rate of CPF Ordinary Account.

As you can see, the cumulative present values of the tax paid for the next 30 years are between USD200-300. Compare this with the broker commission of USD15 if I sell VWO, it seems logical to me to sell VWO to save on the tax. The sales proceed would be used to buy VWO’s replacement – Lyxor ETF Asia Pacific Ex Japan.

Does this make sense to you? Is the maths correct? Let me know and leave your comment, please.

Claiming back US dividend withholding tax on non-US equity ETF

As I am not a US citizen, the dividend that I receive from US-listed ETF are subject to 30% withholding tax. It is OK for US equity ETF, such as Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) that I own, because the dividend originated from US companies. However, for non-US equity ETF, such as Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock ETF (VWO), the dividend is also subject to the withholding tax. Is there a way to claim back this withheld tax on non-US equity ETF from Uncle Sam?

How to claim?

Well, a Taiwanese investor/blogger by the name of greenhorn has successfully claimed back withheld tax for non-US equity ETF dividend. He detailed the steps in Filing for Tax Refund with Form 1040NR (sorry, it is written in Mandarin). To be able to do this, you need Form 1042-S that you broker (hopefully) send you every year, and the form must show that you have overpaid the tax, as shown in the figure below (from the above article by greenhorn).

Source: greenhornfinancefootnote.blogspot.com

To be specific, in item “Income Code 06”, Gross Inome (Box 2) should only include US-sourced dividend (e.g. VTI), such that Gross Income (Box 2) times 30% should be less than U.S. Federal tax withheld (Box 7), i.e.

B*30% < C

The difference (C – B*30%) is the overpaid tax that you can claim back. This is good news to me as I can now claim back the withheld tax of my VWO.

But …

However, my 2007 Form 1042-S from optionsXpress shows that A*30% = B, as shown below.

Form 1042-S from optionsXpress

This means optionsXpress does not differentiate between US- and non-US-sourced dividend. My VWO dividend was included in the Gross Income (Box 2) and therefore, I could not claim back my withheld tax from Form 1042-S. The form does not show that I have overpaid the tax, as A*30% equals B.

This is not unique to me, as others have reported that their brokers also include both US and non-US sourced dividend as Gross Income in their Form 1042-S. In Filing for Refund of Overpaid NRA Withheld Tax with Form 1040NR, readers of the article reported that Zecco and MBTrading are two of the brokers that do this, making the Form 1042-S not suitable to claim back withheld tax. Other readers and the blogger greenhorn himself reported that Form 1042-S from eTrade and FirstTrade do differentiate between US- and non-US-sourced dividend, hence effective for claiming back withheld tax.

So, for me, I gave up this avenue to claim back withholding tax on my VWO dividends.

Dividend withholding tax of LSE-listed ETF in Saxo

UPDATE (Oct 27, 2010): Since April 2010, Saxo has been crediting dividends from London Stock Exchange to my account in full, without the 20% withholding tax.

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After I consolidated my ETF holdings to Saxo in June, the first dividend from my ETF in London Stock Exchange was declared in my Saxo account in July. But wait, how come they were taxed at 20%? They were not taxed at all when I held the ETF in POEMS. After I have sent an email to Saxo, the withheld tax was refunded to me before the pay date in August.

 

Round Two

The second dividend was declared in October. Again, it was taxed at 20%! After a few emails to chase for the refund, it was credited into my Saxo account after the pay date.

Transfer Again?

The ETF pays dividend four times a year. It is going to be a pain if I need to email for tax refund for every dividend payout. And if Saxo decides not to refund withholding tax (e.g. change in custodian structure), it may be time to do another account transfer, sigh…

iShares MSCI Europe ETF trading characteristics

Last month, I wrote about iShares MSCI Europe ETF in LSE (ticker: IMEU) as the replacement for iShares DJ STOXX 50 ETF (EUN) in my portfolio. However, the volume and spread information of IMEU was unknown to me at that time. Following that, I have recorded the price, volume and NAV of IMEU over 19 days from September to October. 

The results are in this online spreadsheet, which contains two sheets: (1) Volume and Spread; (2) Premium/Discount Chart. Click the tab at the top of the spreadsheet to view them. Below are the summary over the observed period.

Bid/ask spread

• GBP 0.034 or 0.25% most of the time

Average volume

• about 22,511 shares

Premium/discount

• # of Days between -0.25% & +0.25% = 2
• % of Days between -0.25% & +0.25% = 11%

• # of Days between -0.5% & +0.5% = 4
• % of Days between -0.5% & +0.5% = 21%

Buy/Sell Volume

• Buy volume: 10,302 ~ 15,302 shares
• Sell volume: 10,302 ~ 15,302 shares

From the above trading characteristics, this ETF has narrow bid/ask spread. Most of the time it is traded at premium, with only 11% of days traded between -0.25% & +0.25%. The period also coincided with the financial crisis and market turmoil, so large premium/discount and spread was observed on some days.

Throughout the period, consistent buy and sell volume was observed in the queue, as you can see in the Buy Vol and Sell Vol column in the spreadsheet. The volume times the price are more than enough to meet my investment need. For example, on the first day, there are 10,302 shares selling at GBX 1,448.91, which is equal to GBX 14,926,670.82 or GBP 149,266.70.

The fund Size has also increased from EUR 82,674,000 as of my last post to EUR 166,616,000 as of 30 Oct 2008. With the above information, I have decided to replace EUN with IMEU as the Europe equity in my portfolio.