You own a mutual fund and receive no distributions cash but the mutual fund has sold assets and has recorded gains These gains are passed through to you as the owner and are taxed Is it a Phantom inco?

Mutual funds buy and sell stock on your behalf, as if it is done by you. Therefore, if gains were realized, you will be taxed on the gain. The money will get reinvested into something else and stay in the fund, and you will receive no distribution. It is just like keeping the interest on a savings account to accumulate instead of cashing it - in either case you will end up paying tax.

The average fraction of funds holdings that is sold per year is called turnover ratio. For example, a turnover ratio of 50% means that the fund on average sells half of its holdings one a year. As explained here: if you bought into fund before it sold its holdings, you might get taxed on gains you did not participate in. They further explain that buying funds with smaller turnover ratiOS or ETFs reduces the exposure to this tax.