Research : Dividend Capture

As I state in the introduction to this essay:

Dividend Capture is an investment strategy that is based on the idea that market inefficiencies and differential taxation of capital gains and dividends can be exploited to produce excess returns by owning a security for a short period of time that includes the ex-Dividend date. One recommended strategy is to “Buy the stock the day before it goes X, capture the dividend, and sell it the next day. This is the most common Dividend Capture strategy, and the subject of the most academic research (Campbell and Beranck 1955, Durand and May 1960, etc). While the market is rising, this is the simplest, most efficient and least volatile way to capture dividends.”

I discuss various examples of Dividend Capture and examine the usefulness of the concept in the Canadian preferred share market.

This essay also continues the mathematical work embodied in the June 2010 Prefletter essay “Closed Form Yield Calculation”, using the Exponential Approximation as a simplifying tool.

Look for the research link!


Update 2023-3-28: I hadn’t been aware of the following wrinkle, brought to my attention by the 2023 Federal Budget : Tax Measures : Supplementary Information:

The Income Tax Act permits corporations to claim a deduction in respect of dividends received on shares of other corporations resident in Canada. These dividends are effectively excluded from income. The dividend received deduction is intended to limit the imposition of multiple levels of corporate taxation.

The mark-to-market rules in the Income Tax Act recognize the unique nature of certain property (“mark-to-market property”) held by financial institutions in the ordinary course of their business. Under these rules, gains on the disposition of mark-to-market property are included in ordinary income, not capital gains, and unrealized gains are included in computing income annually (in addition to when the property is disposed of). Shares are generally mark-to-market property when a financial institution has less than ten per cent of the votes or value of the corporation that issued the shares (“portfolio shares”).

The policy behind the dividend received deduction conflicts with the policy behind the mark-to-market rules. Although the mark-to-market rules essentially classify gains on portfolio shares as business income, dividends received on those shares remain eligible for the dividend received deduction and are excluded from income. The tax treatment of dividends received by financial institutions on portfolio shares held in the ordinary course of their business is inconsistent with the tax treatment of gains on those shares under the mark-to-market rules.

To align the treatment of dividends and gains on portfolio shares under the mark-to-market rules, Budget 2023 proposes to deny the dividend received deduction in respect of dividends received by financial institutions on shares that are mark-to-market property.

This measure would apply to dividends received after 2023.

It seems that Dividend Capture has been very profitable for trading desks! The revenue impact of this change is estimated at about $800-million per year.

One Response to “Research : Dividend Capture”

  1. […] It seems that Dividend Capture has been very profitable for trading desks! The revenue impact of this change is estimated at about $800-million per year. I have updated my post Research: Dividend Capture. […]

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