--- title: "TrueShares files to register a box spread ETF on the day IRS comments were due" url: "https://etf.net/news/trueshares-box-spread-etf-filed-2026-10-29" published_at: "2026-10-29T12:00:16.127Z" updated_at: "2026-10-29T12:00:16.127Z" byline: "ETF.net Research" --- # TrueShares files to register a box spread ETF on the day IRS comments were due The prospectus seeks returns similar to short-term debt and leaves the fee blank in a field led by a $14.5 billion fund, while a second filing would spend an income ETF's payout on stock calls. By ETF.net Research. Published Oct 29, 2026. Elevation Series Trust filed Wednesday, Oct. 28, to register a TrueShares box spread exchange-traded fund, the day written comments were due on a Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service notice about funds that seek a short-term interest return without current income. The same trust filed a second fund that would spend the monthly payout of its own income fund on stock-market call options. Both documents are marked subject to completion, say the information is not complete and may be changed, and ask to become effective 75 days after filing. Shares cannot be sold until a registration is effective. This is not a launch. The new funds would be series of Elevation, the trust behind the TrueShares lineup, and TrueMark Investments would advise them. ## Designed to look like short-term debt The [prospectus](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1936157/000199937126023706/boxspread-485abpos_102826.htm) for the TrueShares Box Spread ETF sets the objective as capital appreciation. It would get there with a box spread, which it calls a synthetic fixed-income instrument designed to generate returns similar to short-term debt securities. The spread between two strike prices sets a fixed payout, and the options that create it offset. The prospectus says the return generally does not depend on where the market goes after the trade is on. In the filing's example, the payout at expiration is $10 no matter where the market is. If the fund builds the trade for less than $10, the difference is the profit. The fund intends to pay dividends, if any, monthly. [Notice 2026-62](https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-26-62.pdf), issued Sept. 28, describes ETFs that use a box spread for that same short-term interest-rate return, then distribute the options that have gained before they expire, in a redemption meant to avoid recognizing the income. Shareholders, the notice says, generally include no income currently. They recognize a capital gain when they sell, in an amount that corresponds to the fund's income from the box spreads. The notice says guidance under consideration could apply to transactions that have already happened. It also says it does not address other box spread transactions. Written comments were due Wednesday. The prospectus puts the warning in its own risk section. "The federal income tax treatment of box spread strategies remains uncertain," it says. If the IRS or a court successfully challenges the fund's box spread strategies, or treats a redemption as taxable when the fund expected it not to be, the prospectus says the fund may have to recognize income or gain it had expected to defer or avoid. That could affect whether it qualifies as a regulated investment company, and it could increase taxable distributions. The risk language assumes the fund may have expected to defer that income. The strategy section never says the fund will distribute the options that have gained before they expire, the step the notice describes. What a holder can take from the document is the warning, not a promise that the interest-rate return will arrive as a capital gain. The management fee is left blank in the fee table, printed as 0.[ ]%. It is a unitary fee, meant to cover essentially all operating costs. [Alpha Architect](https://funds.alphaarchitect.com/boxetf/) listed **$14.5 billion** in assets for the Alpha Architect 1-3 Month Box ETF, BOXX, as of Wednesday, and a net expense ratio of 0.1949%. [Calamos](https://www.calamos.com/funds/etf/calamos-tax-aware-collateral-cbox) listed $1.8 billion the same day for the Calamos Tax-Aware Collateral ETF, CBOX, and a net expense ratio of 0.14% under an agreement that runs to Dec. 1, 2029. ## A second filing spends the payout on calls The other [prospectus](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1936157/000199937126023727/catapult-485apos_102826.htm) is for the TrueShares Autocallable Catapult ETF. It would try to match, before fees, an index whose name in the filing is still a placeholder. TrueMark would sponsor and create the index. Cboe Global Indices would calculate and publish it. The filing says the index reflects the TrueShares Autocallable High Income ETF, plus call options on large U.S. companies. It defines those companies as organized in the United States or listed on a U.S. exchange, with a market value above $10 billion. It gives the income fund no ticker, and it does not use the name "S&P." The description matches the firm's existing TrueShares S&P Autocallable High Income ETF, PAYH. In its [Dec. 23, 2025 prospectus](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1936157/000199937125021123/trushares-485bpos_122325.htm), PAYH gets its exposure from a synthetic portfolio of up to 26 autocallable notes linked to a volatility index on E-mini S&P 500 futures, with a 4% annual decrement. The new filing uses those same terms for the fund it would hold. An autocallable note, as that prospectus describes it, pays a coupon and returns principal so long as a reference index stays inside set levels. If the reference is below the coupon level on an observation date, that payment is skipped. If it is below a lower barrier at maturity, the holder takes the reference's loss. PAYH's objective is high monthly income. It holds $37.1 million in assets and charges a 0.74% expense ratio. It paid $0.35 a share, ex-date Oct. 1, and closed Wednesday at $24.94. Nothing in the new filing changes PAYH. Each month the proposed index would use the entire distribution to buy one-year, at-the-money calls. If the income fund pays nothing, the index buys no calls the next month. Cash from a call that expires with value goes back into the income fund. There is no fixed share of the portfolio for the stock exposure. A call can expire worthless, and the money spent on it is gone. A shareholder in the new fund would also take the income fund's risks, and would pay its 0.74% on top of a management fee this prospectus has not filled in. Source: etf.net, https://etf.net/news/trueshares-box-spread-etf-filed-2026-10-29. Please cite the page URL.