Prompted by the desire to avoid higher fees on dividends as part of President Obama’s desired taxes hikes on investment income in 2013, a record variety of U.S. 4,002 U.S. in Dec 2012 companies made announcements regarding their dividend policies, a new record. 483 of the companies announced they would pay a supplementary, or special, dividend prior to the end of 2012, a new record also. The prior record of 233 extra dividends paid in one month was set in December 2007, just as the U.S.
124 companies announced they might increase their regular dividends in the years ahead. And for the kicker now. In December 2012, 93 U.S. The prior record of 81 companies announcing dividend slashes within a month was occur March 2009, as the U.S. A lot of this activity was prompted by the desire of important investors to avoid higher taxes on dividends, which in the lack of a deal between your U.S.
Congress and President Obama, could have meant a top tax rate on dividends of 43.6% in 2013, as opposed to a maximum tax rate of 15% on dividends in 2012. The fiscal cliff deal exercised in the U.S. The all-time record quantity of dividend cuts announced in December 2012 represent the results of two main pushes at work throughout the market. First, a big variety of U.S.
Both factors will put downward pressure on stock prices in 2013, for small and mid-cap companies especially. Large cap companies like those that constitute the S&P 500 will probably fare better, although these businesses weren’t immune from the game of “beat the clock” that was happening in December 2012 for avoiding higher dividend taxes. It will require a substantial effort on the part of the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing programs to offset the result of the negative acceleration of dividends upon stock prices in 2013. We don’t believe they’ll be completely successful. If not for the tax avoidance behavior associated with the fiscal cliff situation, we would call that result an obvious sign of the dead-on recession in any other case.
I won’t go so far as to call them all crooks, nevertheless, you have to realize they are in business to produce a living, and most make a living by offering things on fee. The other thing that was a little troubling is that he type of pooh-poohed by own purchases.
I have a small account of dividend-paying shares. We lately inherited an IRA and we needed to move it over into Mark’s account as an IRA to avoid taxes. So, this has to be handled just so, to avoid paying an enormous chunk in taxes. You know, the type of thing you want your investment adviser to help you with. The Fidelity agent who managed the deceased’s IRA told use to set up a new account and to go online to get this done. I was a little worried as I didn’t want yet another account separate from the initial accounts. Mark needed our “adviser” in Florida to take care of it.
No came back call, no e-mail, nothing. Actually, it is hard to speak to people there, straight. E-mails go through a central clearing house, and phone calls require a five-digit extension that is routed to voice mail. THEREFORE I called and still left a message. I e-mailed and left a message.
I gave account numbers, the telephone number of the person handling the deceased’s accounts. Nothing. No come back calls, no assistance, no coordination. So what’s the point? I finally called the man in Maine handling the deceased’s accounts and after a couple weeks, he back called. We could actually set up the account, which so has an equilibrium of zero much.
We’ll find out if the proceeds transfer or not. The next thing was that people had sold a residence in Florida and today acquired a six-figure total invest in Fidelity. I wanted to ask our “adviser” where we have to invest this money. Again, calls, e-mails, no response. But in the mean time, the junk mail continues to flow in, peppered with credit-card offers now.