Save time - 3 Free sources to get your Australian dividend and tax information online

Recently, a close family member was finalising his taxes and one the challenges he encountered was getting his stock dividend information for the past financial year. For many of us who own dividend paying stocks, we generally get 2 dividend payments in the year. Normally you get an online or mailed notice when each of these payments are made (you can make this election when you initially buy the stock). But, like a lot of us, you normally read these notices and forget about them. Then when tax time comes around, you are desperately running around to find the dividend notices and more often than not you can't find one or more of them. Trying to calculate the dividend payments and associated taxes manually can be a frustrating, complex and time consuming exercise as every payment is different based on the number of stocks owned, franking credits, franking percentage and other information you need for your tax return. Fear not though, I have the answer to make this task simple.

A little known fact - most if not all your specific dividend and associated tax information is now available on line. Everyone (should) know that they can find their share holdings at their online broker websites. However, a number of the brokers don't have the specific shareholder dividend information as they do not manage dividend payments. Companies pay out the dividends and in most cases they outsource it to one of Australia's 2 main share registry companies. Smaller or newer companies manage the dividends payouts internally due to cost reasons, but this is normally the exception.

So to get your dividend and associated tax information, there are 3 main sources you can go to:

- Computershare : Almost 60% of Australian companies use this company.

- Link Market services (formerly Perpetual Trustees Australia Limited) : They are the second largest registry company and those not with Computershare, tend to use this company.

- Company websites : If you cannot find your dividend information from the above 2 sites, most likely the company manages its dividend payments in house. The best bet is to then go to the company website which should have an investor relations or share holder information section.

You do need to register with Computershare or Link Market services to get your information. Don’t worry – its free and very simple. Here is a walk through of the sign-up process with Computershare (thanks AJ), via their website:

1. Go to their home page at http://www.computershare.com.au/

2. Click on “Manage your shares online” link in the Securityholder section as highlighted in the screenshot below and this will take you to their secure login page.

3. If you don’t have an account, click on the blue “Register Now” button below the login box to go to the secure registration page.

4. You should then be presented with the screen shown below. To complete this you will need to have ANY one of your share holding notices that indicate the SRN or HIN number. This notice should say whether the stock is managed by Computershare or Link Market services in top right corner. Obviously if you are using the Computershare site, select a stock/company that uses them . Enter all the relevant information - I have provided examples on the screenshot.
You really need at least one share holding notice to get the SRN/HIN/Holder number required in the registration screen below. Call your brokerage company to get this information if needed.

5. Click on the Submit button. Once this is done and here’s the best part, it will magically pull up ALL your shareholding details (thanks to your SRN/HIN number) that are managed by Computershare. You will then be prompted to create a user name and password to setup your account.

6. All done. You can now manage your stock address details, TFN number, payment details and get your past year tax information online. Print this out for reference at your next accountant meeting.

If you have any problems both sites have an extensive help section or you can just leave a comment on this post and I will try and assist. While this won’t reduce the taxes you pay on your dividends, it will make getting organised for tax season much easier. Hope this post helped you.