Your AMMA statement, explained

The cash hit your account months ago. Then the tax statement arrives, and the taxable figure on it is bigger than the cash you actually got.

That's the AMMA statement, and for a lot of Australian ETF investors this year it's come as a surprise. Here's what it is, what each line means, and the one figure most people skip that changes the tax on every future sale.

What is an AMMA statement?

It's the annual tax statement from an Attribution Managed Investment Trust, or AMIT. Most Australian ETFs and many managed funds are AMITs, so if you hold ETFs you'll most likely get one each year.

It shows how much of the fund's taxable income has been attributed to you, split into the parts your tax return asks for. That amount doesn't have to match the cash you were paid. A fund can pay you $10 in cash and attribute $40 of taxable income.

When does it arrive?

Funds have until 30 September to issue statements for FY2025-26. Most big ETF issuers publish between late July and mid September, usually through the share registry (Computershare, Link or Automic) rather than your broker.

Lodge before it arrives and you're lodging on incomplete information. The ATO's pre-fill can lag weeks behind the statement, and it never includes the cost base adjustment.

What each line means

Most statements print the tax return label next to each figure.

On the statement	What it is	Label on most statements
Australian income: interest, unfranked dividends, other income	Ordinary income the fund earned and attributed to you	13U
Franked distributions	Dividends from Australian companies with franking credits attached	13C
Franking credits	Your share of company tax already paid, claimable as an offset	13Q
TFN amounts withheld	Tax withheld because the fund didn't have your TFN	13R
Capital gains	Gains the fund made selling assets, passed through to you	18H and 18A
Foreign income and foreign income tax offset	Income from overseas holdings, plus foreign tax paid	20E and 20M, offset at 20O
Tax-deferred and non-assessable amounts	Cash paid out that wasn't taxable income this year	Not income. Feeds the cost base adjustment
AMIT cost base net amount	The adjustment to the cost base of your units	Not a return label. Goes in your own records

Two things trip people up. The capital gains figure is before your own losses and any CGT discount. And franking credits show up twice, once as income and once as an offset.

The line that changes your future tax

The AMIT cost base net amount is the gap between the cash you received and the taxable income attributed to you. It adjusts the cost base of your units:

• Excess. You got more cash than taxable income, so your cost base goes down and your gain on sale is bigger.
• Shortfall. You were attributed more income than you got in cash, so your cost base goes up. That's what stops the same income being taxed twice when you sell.

It doesn't change this year's income, which is why it's easy to miss. It shows up years later, when you sell.

Here's how it plays out. You buy 500 units of an ETF for $25,000, and this year's statement shows a $2,630 shortfall, so your cost base becomes $27,630. Sell next year for $30,000 and your gain is $2,370, not $5,000. Leave the adjustment out and you're taxed on that $2,630 twice.

Why this year's statements look bigger

Index reshuffles and heavy trading inside some funds during FY2025-26 meant more gains were passed through to unit holders, without more cash to match. If your adjustment is usually a few dollars and this year it's hundreds or thousands, that's probably why.

Why DRPs make it harder

Every reinvested distribution and every regular top-up is a new parcel, and the adjustment has to be spread across all of them. Buy an ETF monthly for four years and you've got close to fifty parcels, each carrying a different running adjustment. A spreadsheet can handle it, but very few people keep one up.

How Summ handles your AMMA statement

You can add your AMMA statement to Summ in a few steps:

1. Go to the ETF's asset details page by clicking the settings icon in the top right corner of the assets detail page, and select Add AMMA statement.
2. This opens the Ask Summ AI chat. Upload your AMMA statement PDF there. You can add up to five at a time if you hold more than one ETF.
3. Summ reads the cost base adjustment for that financial year's distributions and shows it to you to confirm.
4. Once you confirm, Summ updates your distribution parcel cost base.

Your distributions, franking credits and foreign income sit in the same report as your crypto.

Add your stocks to Summ

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Frequently asked questions

Is an AMMA statement the same as an annual tax statement? For an AMIT fund, yes. Funds outside the AMIT regime send a standard annual tax statement instead.

Does it matter if I didn't sell anything? Yes. The income still goes in this year's return, and the cost base adjustment changes your gain whenever you do sell.

What if I've already lodged? Returns can be amended. Whether yours needs to be is a question for your tax agent.

Do US ETFs send AMMA statements? No. They only come from Australian AMITs.

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This article is general information about how AMMA statements work under Australia's AMIT rules. It is not tax, financial or legal advice, does not take your circumstances into account, and should not be relied on to work out your own tax position. Speak to a registered tax agent about your own return.