| Regulated Investment Companies (RICs) commonly referred to as open and closed end funds and Real Estate
Investment Trusts (REITs) are pass through vehicles for tax reporting purposes.
As such, the tax character of distributions made by these investments is more likely to change at the
conclusion of the year than, for example, an equity that pays dividends from current or retained earnings.
Additionally, mutual funds must determine the amount of gross-ups for foreign withholding, tax-exempt payments subject to alternative minimum tax and
the portion of the distributions derived from US Treasury obligations.
Wall Street Concepts (WSC) maintains a database of all RICs and REITs and actively solicits the issuers to identify instances income
reallocations (post payment changes to the tax character) or to confirm that the
income character is unchanged. As part of this process WSC collects foreign tax withholding factors, alternative
minimum tax factors and the allocations percentage, by state, of tax-exempt income. WSC also screens equity
securities to identify situations where dividend payments are likely to be characterized as a return of capital and contacts the company for a
determination of the tax character of the distribution. The information collected is tested and
standardized so that it may be utilized and, in its original format, is viewable on the WSC web site.
The Income Reallocation service* is offered in three ways: a Data Browser via the World Wide Web, a
Database and a Transaction Processing service. Regardless of the service level subscribed to, you identify your holdings
at the outset of the process and daily reports are available on WSC's web site that document the progress of collecting the data that is relevant to your firm.
- Data Browser
For firms with limited holdings, the Data Browser is a valuable tool for obtaining income reclassification information on individual securities. The
reclassification information is displayed in both dollars per share and percentage basis. The information is provided per payment and in summary form.
Either the CUSIP number or ticker symbol can be used to retrieve the data. An image of the source document can be retrieved on line.
- Database
Each day you receive our complete REIT & RIC database via SIAC or the Internet. Timing is crucial, so the information we collect and verify each day
is updated on the same day and made available to your firm by the next morning. In addition, subscribers to our Database receive access to our Data Browser service.
- Reallocation Transaction Processing
The Transaction processing options saves processing time and programming efforts. By using a standard format summary of your firm's income transactions,
WSC computes and returns to you a file of adjusting transactions. You also have access to the Data Browser and Database.
- Audit - Client subscribing to transaction processing can receive auditing of all their
payments as an optional service. Audit exceptions are determined daily and identified on web based reports.
The web display provides the user the ability to force an exception to be included in the income reallocation process thereby
automatic the correction process.
|
