Conservative Economic Commentary | Topic: Dividends

FNews: Bernie Sanders still going ... blah, blah, blah ... He thinks he's Jimmy Stewart. #tcot >>
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@StopBeck_ @FairTaxNancy Exactly which US riots has the US gov't fomented recently? I haven't heard of any. #tcot >>
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Subject: dividends

Dividends are payments made by a corporation to its shareholder members. It is the portion of corporate profits paid out to stockholders. When a corporation earns a profit or surplus, that money can be put to two uses: it can either be re-invested in the business (called retained earnings), or it can be paid to the shareholders as a dividend. Many corporations retain a portion of their earnings and pay the remainder as a dividend.
For a joint stock company, a dividend is allocated as a fixed amount per share. Therefore, a shareholder receives a dividend in proportion to their shareholding. For the joint stock company, paying dividends is not an expense; rather, it is the division of an asset among shareholders. Public companies usually pay dividends on a fixed schedule, but may declare a dividend at any time, sometimes called a special dividend to distinguish it from a regular one. (Wikipedia Jan 2010)

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