Vanguard mutual fund VEIEX --- Does it pay dividends?

[John_28]

Hi. I may be interested in buying some shares of the Vanguard emerging-markets mutual fund known as VEIEX.

I checked the Vanguard website, and the website says that this mutual fund has never paid a dividend.

Is that a misprint? Or does VEIEX, indeed, not pay any dividends?


Thanks for any information.

 

[MichaelB]

That fund most definitely does pay distributions, around 2% per year. The last distribution was on 3/21. Call Vanguard for more information, no doubt they can explain why the fund info page is inaccurate.

 

[photoguy]

The ETF version of the fund (VWO) has the last 4 distributions listed on vanguard's site.

 

[John_28]

That fund most definitely does pay distributions, around 2% per year. The last distribution was on 3/21. Call Vanguard for more information, no doubt they can explain why the fund info page is inaccurate.

After some more searching, I found a description of VEIEX on the website of Morningstar:

VEIEX Vanguard Emerging Mkts Stock Idx Fund VEIEX Quote Price News

This description does list VEIEX's most recent dividends, and the dividends paid out BEFORE 3/21/2013 seem to be pretty big. The dividend from 3/21/2013 seems to be pretty small.



I have a few more questions about VEIEX. VEIEX is a mutual fund of foreign-company stocks. So, do foreign governments tax the dividend? When the dividend shows up in my Vanguard account, have the foreign governments already removed some money from the dividend as taxes? For example, if the dividend that appears in my Vanguard account is $100, is it true that the original dividend was more than $100 and that the $100 is the dividend after the foreign taxes have been paid?

 

[MichaelB]

After some more searching, I found a description of VEIEX on the website of Morningstar:

VEIEX Vanguard Emerging Mkts Stock Idx Fund VEIEX Quote Price News

This description does list VEIEX's most recent dividends, and the dividends paid out BEFORE 3/21/2013 seem to be pretty big. The dividend from 3/21/2013 seems to be pretty small.



I have a few more questions about VEIEX. VEIEX is a mutual fund of foreign-company stocks. So, do foreign governments tax the dividend? When the dividend shows up in my Vanguard account, have the foreign governments already removed some money from the dividend as taxes? For example, if the dividend that appears in my Vanguard account is $100, is it true that the original dividend was more than $100 and that the $100 is the dividend after the foreign taxes have been paid?

I have the admiral version of this fund. It typically paid one yearly distribution, in December, but paid an additional distribution this past March and September. That probably has to do with changes in the index but I am not certain.

Distributions are subject to tax in many countries. You will get the net distribution after taxes, but Vanguard will show you the gross income, tax paid, and net income on your year end statement and IRS form, and you may be eligible to use part of the tax paid as a credit to Us taxes.

 

[John_28]

Distributions are subject to tax in many countries. You will get the net distribution after taxes, but Vanguard will show you the gross income, tax paid, and net income on your year end statement and IRS form, and you may be eligible to use part of the tax paid as a credit to Us taxes.

I have a Vanguard Traditional IRA, and I was thinking of buying VEIEX for that IRA. I know that, if I have an IRA, then I can *not* deduct foreign taxes from my US taxes. But I don't think the deduction would be very significant anyway.

 

[kramer]

The distribution schedule for this fund, and most of Vanguard's foreign index funds, has recently changed. Instead of targeting a single annual distribution they have all moved to a model of distributing dividends each quarter. This was announced some time around the last quarter of 2012 but I don't remember exactly when. It was thoroughly discussed at bogleheads.org.

I have fond memories of this fund. I piled into this fund in the years 2000 through 2003 as I learned about index investing and diversification and it was my biggest holding for a long time. It helped me to retire early. I since converted it to VWO, the ETF equivalent.

The Admiral version of the fund and the ETF have an incredibly low expense ratio of just 0.18%.

 

[kramer]

Yes, there are foreign taxes paid on the dividends. They are listed on your year-end statement and you can often recover these via the foreign tax credit on your US income taxes. I seem to recall that about 8% to 10% of the dividend is lost to foreign taxes . . . this would equate to about 0.2% of the fund value. These numbers are just approximate and off the top of my head, but hopefully give you an idea. The dividend numbers you see on the statement is the actual dividends paid out, after taxes paid.

 

[BUM]

I've held this fund for years - nice profit. Sold it yesterday.
I'll buy it back someday.

 

[Midpack]

I have owned VEMAX for many years too. Not sure where you're looking on vanguard.com...

 

[MichaelB]

I have owned VEMAX for many years too. Not sure where you're looking on vanguard.com...

I checked the V website the day the OP was made and it showed "no distributions". Apparently someone at V saw the error of their way and made the correction.