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Frequently Asked Questions
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Questions below to get answers...
Answers to
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Question:
Answer:
Most of these
companies are Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), petroleum royalty
trusts, mortgage lending companies, closed end funds, and
manufacturing. TPD subscribers are
furnished two (2) separate listings in ".txt" format of all monthly
payment and the current month's quarterly payment dividend stocks: the
"Industry" of each company is included.
Answer:
In January of each
year, every company determines what portion of the cash dividends it
paid its shareholders the preceding year were “ordinary dividends” or
a “return of capital”; the company then furnishes this information to
your brokerage and the IRS; since May, 2003, "ordinary dividends" are
subject to a maximum tax rate of 15%; some companies
have stated that 100% of the cash dividends paid to their shareholders
in a calendar year were a “return of capital” with no income tax
liability; if you are investing in an IRA, all cash dividend income is
always tax-free; always remember that the “insiders” of a company
personally benefit from a declaration that the cash dividends were
a “return of capital".
Answer:
The primary
reasons are diversification, a limit to any possible loss, and
scheduling of dividend payments throughout any given month; there is
always another 10%+ cash dividend declaration tomorrow.
Answer:
Yes. TPD
subscribers are furnished two (2) separate listings in .txt format of
all monthly payment and the current month's quarterly payment dividend
stocks. These listings are updated every weekend. You may then
request from our office the TPD "Model Portfolio Calculator", an Excel
spreadsheet which calculates the number of shares to receive a fixed
dollar amount each dividend payment using the highest yielding stocks
from both the monthly and quarterly payment stock lists.
Answer:
I had one big
winner and dozens of losers which, when totaled, came to a slight
loss.
Answer:
Yes. In January
2003, a Texas company with a share price of $21.60 declared a cash
dividend of $8.35 per share payable in less than ten (10) days; this
is an $835 payment on a $2,200 investment. In December 2003, another
company with a share price of $19.00 declared a cash dividend of
$13.21 per share payable in January, 2004; this is an $1,321 payment
on a $1,900 investment. Both were reported to the IRS as a “return of
capital” so TPD subscribers received the money tax-free.
Answer:
This usually
occurs when a company decreases or eliminates its cash dividend; e.g.,
MCI declared a sixty (60) cent
per share dividend, then filed bankruptcy.
Answer:
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Declaration Date |
Ex-Dividend Date |
Record Date |
Payable Date |
|
08/04/03 |
09/24/03 |
09/26/03 |
10/01/03 |
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On August 4,
2003, Company XYZ declares a dividend payable on October 1, 2003,
to its shareholders. XYZ also announces that shareholders of
record on the company's books on or before September 26, 2003 are
entitled to the dividend. The stock would then go ex-dividend on
September 24, 2003, two business days before the record date.
In this
example, assume the record date falls on a Friday. Excluding
weekends and holidays, the ex-dividend is usually set two business
days before the record date or the opening of the market – in this
case on September 24, 2003. This means anyone who bought the stock
before the ex-dividend date of September 24, 2003 would receive
the dividend. At the same time, anyone who bought the stock on
September 24, 2003 or after would not get the dividend.
With a
significant dividend, the price of a stock may move up by the
dollar amount of the dividend as the ex-dividend date approaches
and then fall by that amount after the ex-dividend date.
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Answer:
There's a lot of
misinformation about cookies floating around the internet. Some of the
more ridiculous claims are that cookies allow people to view things
that are on your hard drive, or to get personal information from you
against your will. Neither could be further from the truth. In
reality, cookies are tools that help us help you.
Cookies are critical to us because the Web page you're reading right
now isn't on our server. It's in your browser. Although it seems as if
you are in the TPD website, you've actually called up a snapshot
of our site. Because the page essentially "died" when you called it
into your browser, we need some way to keep the interactive
conversation going. A cookie allows that to happen. Our cookies are
not used to gain any secret information from your browser (a myth and,
at this point in time, not even possible) and they do not hog your
disk space.
In the spirit of openness and honesty, let's go over how we are using
cookies on our site.
On the first visit to the TPD "Invision Power Board" page on our site
we try to write out a permanent cookie. The things we put into this
cookie the first time you login are your user name (email
address) and password . That's it, pretty simple. Once all this is
done, we don't touch the cookie anymore or try to send you anymore.
What good is all this? A number of things. It allows you to
automatically login to the TPD subscriber forums without entering your
username and password each time.
Some other notes: Our cookies can only be read by our site, no other
site can read them. We can put nothing in them that you have not
already told us about yourself, for example, your email address. Our
cookie is about 150 bytes long, making it smaller probably than any
graphic that your browser has downloaded, or about 1/10th the size of
this message.
We hope this information helps you understand cookies, and we hope
that you will turn cookies on in your browser so that our Web site can
be a better experience for you. You can always turn on cookie prompts
so that you can see exactly what is being written and when. Cookies
get a whole lot of bad press (often by companies that want to sell you
some kind of anti-cookie software), but in fact are quite benign.
We hope you enjoy TPD, and we hope that you'll agree that the benefits
of cookies outweigh the inconveniences. Please know that TPD will
never willfully disclose individually identifiable information about
its customers to any third party without first receiving that
customer's permission.
We hope our explanation makes some good sense to you. If you have
further concerns about this or any other privacy issues, please send
mail to TPD or feel free to read our privacy statement.
Answer:
Canceling your TPD
PayPal Subscription cancels all future scheduled payments for your TPD
Subscription
1. Login to
PayPal
2. Under the 'My Account' tab, click on the 'History' sub-tab
3. In the 'Show' drop-down menu highlight 'Subscriptions'
4. Check the 'Within' button and highlight 'The Past Year'
5. Click 'Search'
6. To view the details of a specific 'Subscription Creation', click
'Details' in the 'Details' column; when viewing your subscription
details, make sure you are clicking on the transaction that is titled
'Subscription Creation' and not a payment transaction
7. At the bottom of this page, click 'Cancel Subscription'
8. On the confirmation page, click 'Cancel Subscription' again
Please note:
The scheduled payment will need to be canceled at least one day
prior to the scheduled date of the next payment; canceling your
TPD Subscription on the day of a scheduled payment will not guarantee
the payment will not be sent.
If you have any further questions, please contact PayPal Customer
Service 888-221-1161
Answer:
The following
documentation in Word format is sent via email and USPS mail to
all new TPD subscribers:
"General
Information",
"Notify",
and "Forums".
Answer:
Dividend Service A
is a passive
website. There are no notification emails. Price is $30 a month
(as of July, 2004). It provides some dividend data for common
and preferred stocks, mutual funds, and trusts that pay dividends. It
does NOT provide information on dividend frequency, yield,
dividend amount/share price history
for the past twelve (12) months,
share price, or
yearly payment,
For free, you
"may search" AMEX listed stocks, stock splits, dividends increased
(only the last 7 days), dividends reduced (only the last 7 days), and
PRNewswire. A paid subscriber "may search" NYSE/NASDAQ listed stocks.
The operative words here are "may search". The user/subscriber
must search its data for upcoming dividend payments
365 days a year. The user/subscriber can search dividend data by
payment date, ex-date, record date, stock symbol, company name,
dividends increased/reduced, and stock splits.
Accurate, more detailed information is available free from the
Yahoo! Finance and MSN MoneyCentral Investor websites among others .
Dividend Service B
is a passive
website. There are no notification emails. Price is $5 for the
first month, $15 a month thereafter (as of July, 2004). It does NOT
provide information on dividend frequency, dividend amount/share
price history
for the past twelve (12) months,
ex-dividend date,
share price,
payment date,
frequency,
dividend amount,
or yearly payment,
For free, you
may access their lists of 800 stocks with: a) annual yields from 1.75%
to 20% and b) other non-disclosed criteria. They make available four
(4) lists of 200 stocks each and a separate "Top 50" list. The
only data supplied is stock symbol, estimated annual dividend amount,
and estimated annual dividend yield as of the first of each month.
The subscriber must search its data each month.
TenPercentDividends.com (TPD)
is a
proactive subscription service. TPD continuously
monitors over 300 high cash dividend yield stocks. Almost daily
TPD subscribers are notified
by email whenever one of these stocks declares a
dividend. These emails
contain the ex-dividend date,
share price,
stock symbol,
payment date,
frequency,
dividend amount,
yearly payment, and dividend amount/share price
history for the past twelve (12) months.
Answer:
Click on the
"Subscription Information" link on the TPD home page; click on the
"Subscribe Now!" link; enter your TPD subscriber information; click on
either "annual" subscription payment choice; enter "converting to
annual subscription" in the "Comments/Other" text box. When you
receive confirmation that your annual subscription has been processed,
you must cancel your monthly TPD subscription following the
instructions in "How do I cancel my TPD PayPal subscription?".
Answer:
TPD uses PayPal for
credit card processing because to accept MasterCard, Visa, Discover,
American Express, etc. would require our staff to establish a separate
merchant account with each of the above. Setup fees up to $250, 4% of
each transaction, and .25 per transaction per merchant account would
be cost prohibitive. PayPal handles all credit card transactions for a
flat percentage of each payment.
Answer:
Click on the
"Subscription Information" link on the TPD home page; click on the
"Subscribe Now!" link; enter your updated TPD subscriber information;
click on "Update TPD Subscriber Information" option; click on
"Subscribe". You will receive an email when your subscriber
information has been updated.
Answer:
Multi-user group TPD
subscriptions are available in many different price ranges. Please
contact the TPD office for more information.
Answer:
A wash sale occurs
when, within 30 days of the realization of a loss, an investor
acquires securities "substantially identical" to the securities
that were sold at a loss. in the event of a wash sale , the loss is
not immediately recognized, but is added to the basis of the purchased
securities and recognized when those securities are sol, presumably
without being tainted with another wash sale.
The Internal Revenue
Service has steadfastly resisted efforts to get it to define
"substantially identical." You should check with a tax advisor to get
an appropriate comfort before making an additional stock purchase
within 30 days before or after realizing a loss on a sale of that
stock.
Answer:
Many Internet
Service Providers (ISP's) have instituted new SPAM filters and as a
result, many "TPD Notify" emails are not getting through to TPD
Subscribers. Unfortunately, these ISP's are NOT sending the e-mails
back to TPD; the ISP is simply deleting the message it THINKS is SPAM!
If you do not hear
from TPD for a period of time, you may have an ISP that is providing
you with automatic SPAM blocking, please understand that while we may
be receiving your emails, any correspondence that we send to you may
have been blocked by your ISP without your knowledge or consent. This
is a problem for all TPD subscribers, and there are many posts
regarding it on the TPD forums. You should also check the SPAM filters
that may have been provided to you for your modification. Make sure
they are not so restrictive that you are blocking emails that you
would want to receive.
WE ALWAYS ANSWER TPD SUBSCRIBER EMAILS WITHIN 24 HOURS.
If you do not hear from us, then please double check your spam filters
and download any pending emails. If there are none in your folder,
please contact your ISP and ask to have any emails referencing TPD be
sent through and not blocked.
If you have an
additional email address on another ISP, PLEASE send us an email with
this secondary (e.g. office) email address. We will use the secondary
email address if the primary fails.
Answer:
A PayPal payment for
a TPD subscription can fail for any number of reasons including, but
not limited to, a now invalid or expired credit card or insufficient
funds in your PayPal or bank account .
If a PayPal payment
for a TPD subscription fails, the payment will be reattempted two
more times. After the third failure, TPD will be notified that
the subscription has been canceled.
Answer:
On IRS Form 1040 is
a line to report capital losses. Each person is allowed to deduct up
to $3,000 in capital gains losses per tax year. There are always
dividend paying stocks which decrease in value during a calendar year.
You may sell these stocks and use the loss to offset your dividend
income. Consult your tax advisor for details.
Answer:
TPD monitors over
300 stocks which, at one time, paid a cash dividend of at least
8.5%. We continue to monitor these stocks because, when the share
price increases, the dividend yield decreases. If you invested in this
stock when it first paid the high dividend, you are still
receiving over 8.5% on your original investment and the value of your
investment has increased.
Answer:
Yes. Each December
the TPD office will mail previous and existing TPD subscribers a
statement of fees paid to TPD during that calendar year. A taxpayer
would then enter this amount as an "Investment Expense" on Schedule A,
line 22, Form 1040. All previous and existing TPD subscribers should
notify TPD if there is a change to their mailing address prior to
December 1st using the "Update TPD subscriber information" option
on the "New/Existing Subscriber Information" form.
Definitions
Notice: This section may contain outside
links to a 3rd party glossary. All links to 3rd party
websites will appear in a new window.
Note:
Definitions
have terms embedded that are defined by clicking
that particular word.
Closed-end fund
An investment company that sells
shares
like any other corporation and usually does not redeem its
shares.
A publicly
traded
fund sold on
stock
exchanges or
over the
counter that may
trade
above or below its
net asset value.
Declaration date
The date on which a firm's directors meet and
announce the date and amount of the next
dividend.
Dividend
A portion of a company's
profit
paid to
common and
preferred shareholders. A
stock
selling for $20 a share with an annual dividend of $2 a share
yields
the
investor 10%.
Current Dividend is a company's most recently declared ordinary
dividend expressed as an annual amount.
Dividends per share
Dividend
paid for the past 12 months divided by the number of
common
shares outstanding.
Dividend
Yield
Indicated
yield represents annual current
dividends divided by
last closing stock
price which is a
company's closing price from the previous trading day.
Ex-dividend date
The first day of
trading
when the seller, rather than the buyer, of a
stock
will be entitled to the most recently announced
dividend
payment. The date set by the
NYSE
(and generally followed on other U.S. exchanges) is currently two
business days before the
record
date.
If you purchase a stock on its ex-dividend date or after, you
will not receive the next dividend payment. Instead, the seller gets
the dividend. If you purchase before the ex-dividend date, you get the
dividend.
Insiders
These are
directors and senior officers of a corporation-in effect, those who
have access to
inside
information about a company.
An
insider
also is someone who owns more than 10% of the voting
shares
of a company.
Payment date
The date on which
shareholders of record will be sent a check for the declared
dividend.
Real Estate Investment
Trust (REIT)
REITs invest in
real estate or
loans
secured by real estate and
issue
shares
in such investments. A REIT is similar to a
closed-end mutual fund.
Record date
(1) Date by which
a
shareholder must officially own
shares
in order to be entitled to a
dividend.
For example, a firm might declare a dividend on Nov. 1, payable Dec. 1
to holders of record Nov. 15. Once a
trade
is
executed, an
investor
becomes the "owner of record" on
settlement, which currently takes two business days for
securities. Stocks trade
ex-dividend the second day before the record date, since the
seller will still be the owner of record and is thus entitled to the
dividend. Companies also use this date to determine who is sent proxy
statements, financial reports, and other information.
Return of capital
A cash
distribution resulting from the sale of a
capital
asset, or
securities, or tax breaks from
depreciation which is normally tax-free.
Traditional view (of
dividend policy)
An argument that,
"within reason,"
investors prefer higher
dividends to lower dividends because the dividend is sure but
future
capital gains are uncertain.
Trust
A fiduciary
relationship calling for a trustee to hold the title to
assets
for the benefit of the beneficiary.
The person creating the
trust,
who may or may not also be the beneficiary, is called the
grantor.
For more information:
Yahoo! Financial
Glossary http://biz.yahoo.com/f/g/
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