Mutual Fund Distribution Dates / Amounts?

[turbo89]

Has anyone had any luck identifying Mutual Fund Distributions / Distribution dates, prior to them being issued? I thought that this info would be pretty easy to find in the fund prospectus, or on the web... but I'm finding that it's not.

Has anyone been successful in determining these before the distribution? I'm specifically interested in Vanguard and Fidelity funds.

 

[dtbach]

Fidelity has a site which lists all distributions. Don't know about Vanguard. But then I don't care as what the heck are you going to do about it??

 

[turbo89]

I'd largely just like to know, as my FIDO returns haven't been great this year. I'm specifically comparing a few different mid-cap fund's year over year performance, to figure out if I want to redistribute my fund allocation this yr.

Is it possible to link the Fidelity sight, or do I have to access it through my account some how?

 

[scrabbler1]

Fidelity put this out about a month ago.


https://www.fidelity.com/taxes/fidelity-mutual-fund-tax-information/year-end


You don't need to be signed into your account to access it.

 

[BradC]

Vanguard schedule and estimates are here: https://personal.vanguard.com/us/insights/article/preliminary-capital-gains-112015

 

[audreyh1]

Has anyone had any luck identifying Mutual Fund Distributions / Distribution dates, prior to them being issued? I thought that this info would be pretty easy to find in the fund prospectus, or on the web... but I'm finding that it's not.

Has anyone been successful in determining these before the distribution? I'm specifically interested in Vanguard and Fidelity funds.

Yes, I found them all by about 11/15. Just kept searching for each fund company. Vanguard and Fidelity had both published by 11/12.

Vanguard https://personal.vanguard.com/us/insights/article/preliminary-capital-gains-112015

 

[bUU]

I use Morningstar figuring that this year's distribution dates will be similar to last year's.

I've also been using last year's distribution rates for some preliminary tax computations. That's obviously a lot more dodgy, but we really would like to avoid paying an under-withholding penalty, so effectively doing our taxes in November gives us enough time to at least avoid under-withholding attributable to the substantially larger fourth quarter distributions. Last year we made an estimated tax payment in December as a result of this preliminary work. We ended up not needing it but by less than $5!

 

[EastWest Gal]

Remember that the last estimated quarterly tax payment isn't due until 1/15/16.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

 

[scrabbler1]

Remember that the last estimated quarterly tax payment isn't due until 1/15/16.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

That's true, but I often want to make my 4th quarter state estimated tax payment by 12/31 so I can deduct it on that same year's federal return instead of having to wait another year before deducting it.

 

[Moneygrubber]

Ditto


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

 

[audreyh1]

Fidelity has a site which lists all distributions. Don't know about Vanguard. But then I don't care as what the heck are you going to do about it??

Well - there are sometimes actions you might want to take. Usually there isn't much to do, but occasionally there is some action that can be taken. It's kind of like tax loss harvesting - it's worth taking a look at for funds held in taxable accounts.

If a fund is paying out a particularly large distribution, you may want to see if the distribution is larger than the unrealized gain you have in the fund. You would take a smaller tax hit by selling the fund before the record date. Then you can decide whether to reinvest in that fund afterwards or do something else once the ex-div date arrives.

You might decide to donate some shares of a fund that is scheduled to pay out a large distribution. If you are going to donate anyway, this may impact your decision of which securities to donate for the year.

I track all the expected distributions at the end of the year because that is a large chunk of my annual income and I like to know the tax consequences. It will also impacts my start of year rebalancing - I like to have an idea of which funds I will be trimming or adding to ahead of time. If a fund has fallen behind and needs to be added to, I may choose to automatically reinvest the distribution. But only if I have determined I have more than enough expected distributions to cover my January withdrawal.

For example, this year I have determined that the distributions paid out should be just slightly below what was paid last year. With some rough calcs I've figured out I can probably get away with paying 90% of expected current year taxes by Jan 15, 2016 rather than the 110% of last years taxes, because it looks like our taxable income will be slightly less than in 2014. I'm certainly not going to pay more estimated taxes than what we paid last year in taxes (so knock off that extra 10% required by safe harbor rules).

My very, very rough estimate based on last years estimated distributions plus other projected income was within 0.26% of the taxes we actually ended up paying.

 

[marinauser]

If you have a pretty large set of capital gains distributions this year, paying the last state estimated tax payment in January rather than December may be better. The impact of AMT can be pretty significant and you could be losing the benefit of some of the deductibility of the state taxes this year. When I ran an estimate on ours, it was better to pay the estimated state tax in Jan. 2016 and gamble on lower income and capital gains distributions next year.

 

[turbo89]

Great Responses, thanks everyone.

 

[Options]

Yes, I found them all by about 11/15. Just kept searching for each fund company. Vanguard and Fidelity had both published by 11/12.

Vanguard https://personal.vanguard.com/us/insights/article/preliminary-capital-gains-112015

Careful, final amounts aren't in yet for VG:

These estimates are subject to change as we finalize our calculations for each fund. In early December, we plan to provide final estimates, including estimated income through December 31, for all funds

Emphasis added

I have a fourth quarter distribution in December for one of my funds that I'm waiting on.

 

[audreyh1]

Yes - I know Vanguard updates their estimates in December. I always check back.

And the changes tend to be minor.

 

[Willers]

If a fund is paying out a particularly large distribution, you may want to see if the distribution is larger than the unrealized gain you have in the fund. You would take a smaller tax hit by selling the fund before the record date. Then you can decide whether to reinvest in that fund afterwards or do something else once the ex-div date arrives.

This is exactly what happened to me this year. I have a fund that is planning a 30%+ distribution. I sold the position since the cap gains on the sale is 1/2 that amount. I can always rebuy it later.

Here's a useful link to a site I use that keeps track of the info status at each fund company:
CapGainsValet.com | Search

 

[audreyh1]

This is exactly what happened to me this year. I have a fund that is planning a 30%+ distribution. I sold the position since the cap gains on the sale is 1/2 that amount. I can always rebuy it later.

Here's a useful link to a site I use that keeps track of the info status at each fund company:
CapGainsValet.com | Search

Would that be ACRNX by any chance?

I had a fund that I'd been letting reduce by not reinvesting distributions. This year I found that the distribution, even though only 13% of NAV (not 30%+!), would still be about 50% higher than my unrealized gain, so I sold it.

That capgainsvalent link is a very useful one. And I see they are keeping it updated as fund family revise the estimates. I'm glad it offers a search function - critical.

 

[Willers]

Would that be ACRNX by any chance?

It is FAIRX. I've owned it for a while and unfortunately in a taxable account. It's been an "entertaining" fund to own.

I wish he could have waited until next year to sell the farm and take the gain since I'll be in a much lower bracket, but that's how it goes.

A lesson to those younger; if you want to invest with a crazy non-conformist fund manager, do it in a tax-free or tax-deferred account.

 

[MBAustin]

Interesting thread. I have ACRNX in a taxable account and last week saw the enormous projected distribution - guess they did some major portfolio changes this year. Had not considered that selling and taking the cap gains might be better - will need to look at that.

 

[kaneohe]

Anyone understand why a few fund companies have no trouble projecting dividends along w/ CGs but most don't do dividends? Seems like dividends might be as easy to project based on prior history .

 

[Willers]

Anyone understand why a few fund companies have no trouble projecting dividends along w/ CGs but most don't do dividends? Seems like dividends might be as easy to project based on prior history .

That may be exactly why they don't bother. They probably feel that anyone that cares enough to look will be able to closely estimate it from the history. Cap gains, on the other hand, can be a all over the place...

 

[pb4uski]

....Had not considered that selling and taking the cap gains might be better - will need to look at that.

I don't see where it is any better (talking about LTCG distributions).. taxed the same and NAV goes down by the distribution so I don't understand where the advantage is.

 

[LOL!]

The Vanguard link previously given is very clear that it does NOT have dividend estimates now and will have them later on December 11. Cap gains estimates are out though.

As I read through this thread it looks like some folks made not have made the distinction in the distributions which include cap gains and dividends. Many Vanguard funds will not pay cap gains distributions. Many Vanguard funds will pay dividend distributions.

https://personal.vanguard.com/us/insights/article/year-end-distribution-schedule-102015

 

[LOL!]

I don't see where it is any better (talking about LTCG distributions).. taxed the same and NAV goes down by the distribution so I don't understand where the advantage is.

Dividends will contribute to AGI, but cap gains can be offset by losses. So if one has previous carryover losses and wants to keep AGI lower (maybe to get some tax credits that are phased out if AGI is too high or to do a bigger Roth conversion at low tax rate), then selling before the dividend to realize the cap gain that will be offset can make some tax sense.

 

[pb4uski]

Ok, I see an advantage if one has capital loss carryforwards... but if not, I don't see any advantage.