I have the exact same question. It is compounded by the fact that the vesting price and the sale price of the RSUs are usually slightly different - ie there appears to be a slight gain or loss on the sale to cover taxes after RSUs vest.
I think this issue comes down to two questions:
1) Did I really have ownership of the shares sold to cover taxes since they were not voluntarily sold by me and I had no control over them? Or did the company effectively give me cash for the portion submitted to cover income taxes and I never really took ownership of those shares, and hence they would not be part of my ACB. On my account statement, I do see that the shares sold to cover taxes enter my account and then are subsequently sold and I receive trade notifications of the sale to cover taxes.
2) If the answer to the above question is that I did have ownership of the shares sold to cover taxes, and hence I need to report the sale to cover taxes on my tax return, are these shares sold to cover taxes considered identical properties to shares owned prior to this RSU grant vesting, or do they fall under the exception that CRA lists in their 2018 Capital Gains guidelines that states the following (page 22):
Note Generally, the following properties are not considered identical properties:
■ securities acquired under an employee option agreement that are subject to the benefit deferral or are designated and disposed of within 30 days
■ certain employer shares received by an employee as part of a lump-sum payment upon withdrawal from a deferred profit sharing plan
As a result, the ACB averaging rule described above does not apply to these types of securities. Each of these securities will have its own ACB determined in the usual way.
I am uncertain whether an RSU grant, which involves shares and not options, is considered "an employee option agreement" or not. Clearly these definitions affect how ACB would be calculated on this sale.
Any help or guidance here would be appreciated.
Thanks
