I see. I don't quite understand when you say that you hold long term so any sale would be a 100% taxable gain. A gain is taxable whether its held for 5 minutes, or 5 years. Of, course that would be long term vs. short term rates. It's still 100% taxable. Apple doesn't dictate tax rates on capital gains, so to say they are "forcing" you to sell isn't quite the case.
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Dividends per Apple Share
- Thread starter dingdongbubble
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I see. I don't quite understand when you say that you hold long term so any sale would be a 100% taxable gain. A gain is taxable whether its held for 5 minutes, or 5 years. Of, course that would be long term vs. short term rates. It's still 100% taxable. Apple doesn't dictate tax rates on capital gains, so to say they are "forcing" you to sell isn't quite the case.
The increase in value (sale price minus cost basis) is taxed as a capital gain. I bought the shares long ago, so my cost basis is negligible, almost nothing, meaning that any sale is almost pure profit. Apple is "forcing" me to sell to realize any gain from holding the shares.
"Apple is "forcing" me to sell to realize any gain from holding the shares."
So is any other company. Keep in mind the very low long term capital gains tax (15%). If a democrat takes office, we can be sure they will want to tax LT gains as ordinary income. That would be boat loads of extra money (sounds like you have alot of shares), delivered to the goverment if you sell during those years. Best of luck with your investment, sounds like your sitting on a nice pile!
So is any other company. Keep in mind the very low long term capital gains tax (15%). If a democrat takes office, we can be sure they will want to tax LT gains as ordinary income. That would be boat loads of extra money (sounds like you have alot of shares), delivered to the goverment if you sell during those years. Best of luck with your investment, sounds like your sitting on a nice pile!
Just sayin' that I am happy with the amount of profit, I have made with this company. That makes me happy.
In fact, I bumped up my stops on Friday pretty tight. Going to take some off if the stop loss hits. These shares just turned LT.
No, not if they pay a dividend. As I said earlier, a dividend is a way for a company to reward investor patience. If the company is insecure about its future, doesn't have much cash on hand, or is carrying a debt load, then paying out a dividend doesn't make much sense -- but none of these things are true about Apple.
I do agree with your thoughts about dividends are rewards for investor patience. When Apple last paid a dividend in 1995, it was $.12 & the stock price was approx. 35.69. That's $.48/yr, which is a yield of 1.3%. Apple isnt much different than other companies in their industry here. Dell no div. 8b cash, Microsoft yield 1.4% 24b cash. According to Yahoo finance, the entire tech sector averages a yield of 2.1%. I would like a dividend too, as they can certainly afford one. I would be shocked if we saw one soon. I'm certainly not going to wait around for a 2% yield at the most.
I'll take a chart with some realized gains like this, than a 1.3% yield anyday. But that is what is great about investing, different thoughts. How would you feel paying ordinary tax rates on LT gains like the Dems have shown interest in? That's up tp 35% to the gov't.
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=...on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=off;source=undefined
I'll take a chart with some realized gains like this, than a 1.3% yield anyday. But that is what is great about investing, different thoughts. How would you feel paying ordinary tax rates on LT gains like the Dems have shown interest in? That's up tp 35% to the gov't.
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=...on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=off;source=undefined
Tech companies are notorious for not paying dividends to stockholders, if only because they are seen as growth investments. Still as these companies mature and their financial positions are secured, some of them do pay out. Declaring a 1% dividend would be so painless for Apple now, and it certainly would not hurt the share price. Ah well, I guess they are determined to build an ever-higher "hedge o' money." Against what, I could not say.
Not to turn this into a political discussion, but there is no easy answer to the question of how capital gains should be taxed. If a person is taxed at a far higher rate on their income for working than for investing, then I think the issue of what we reward is fairly raised. Nobody wants to pay higher taxes, but something has to be done to get us out of the fiscal debacle we are in, and we can't kid ourselves into believing that higher taxes aren't inevitable.
Not to turn this into a political discussion, but there is no easy answer to the question of how capital gains should be taxed. If a person is taxed at a far higher rate on their income for working than for investing, then I think the issue of what we reward is fairly raised. Nobody wants to pay higher taxes, but something has to be done to get us out of the fiscal debacle we are in, and we can't kid ourselves into believing that higher taxes aren't inevitable.
I'm reasonably optimistic with some caveats. I don't think I've ever seen a company firing on all cylinders quite as reliably Apple has for several years running now. That said, they are in the consumer electronics business, which is a fickle one, and they could easily hit big bumps in the future (see: Sony). Essentially they need to keep pulling a new rabbit out of their hat about every third year, which they've done brilliantly in recent years. How long can they keep this up? That's the million-dollar question! Overall, I'd predict that over the next five years that they will do well, if only because they are now so entrenched in the market, but that they unlikely to be able to keep up the astonishing growth rate of the last five years.