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Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.

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  • and disclosure related proposals Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate ... owns energy companies, a railway, insurance companies and other businesses that pump huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. As Mr. Buffett holds out, critics complain…
  • Interest on bonds is conceptually straightfoward, though not simple. Even though the detailed calculations can be a bit of a nightmare. When one buys a bond from an issuer, one is buying a fixed rate of interest for the life of the bond (until ma…
  • We need to be precise here. In considering "appreciation coming out of a credit event", ISTM your focus is on the change in market discount due to something other than accretion. Bond or bond fund, no difference, that's a cap gain (or loss) eith…
  • It is initially the Zeo employees, not the management firm (Zeo Capital Advisers) and not the funds that are moving to Osterweis Capital Management (OCM). According to the prospectus supplement, the funds have reached a short term (150 day) agre…
  • It is interesting that all market discount is treated as ordinary income (ignoring timing or deminimus amount). Gains in excess of imputed interest (typically using constant yield to maturity) are taxed as cap gains. For example, suppose a bond…
  • Tax treatment of market discount is as I described (net gain generally counted as taxable ordinary income upon sale), unless you make a 1278(b) election. If you do make that election, and only if you make that election, is the accrual reported …
  • Tax reporting on muni bonds has gotten a whole lot easier on bonds purchased since 2017. https://www.publicfinancetaxblog.com/2016/06/new-reporting-rules-subject-oid-on-tax-exempt-bonds-to-information-reporting/ OID interest is imputed annually and…
  • There has to be an escape clause for people putting too much money into HSAs. (Use it or lose it as with FSAs would have made HSAs toxic.) This was always a feature - and always one that came with taxes. Non-medical withdrawals were never trip…
  • The current bill is HR 7435, introduced on April 7. I don't expect this to go anywhere either. That said, IMHO it still has significant flaws. As I understand it, HSAs were part of a package added to the Medicare expansion act in 2003 (that creat…
  • Proxy statement (the SEC is [sometimes] your friend): https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/828803/000082880322000016/gim2022proxystatementfinal.htm If Saba takes over, it will be interesting to compare the portfolios and returns of GIM and TGBAX…
  • There aren't many places where the formula (add lines x, y, and z from form 1040) is stated, because generally it's SSA not the taxpayer who does this calculation. One place it is stated, linkably, is in the instructions for appealing an IRMAA dec…
  • The horses may be getting famished, but it looks like they've been stampeding into the barn. M*'s quote page for the fund shows the second largest amount of net inflows in the past decade - the first largest was last October.
  • - Re “I'm not clear about what you find special regarding pass throughs in IRAs. Mutual funds are pass throughs. REITs are pass throughs.” My (evolving) understanding is … with a traditional corporation the entity has already been subject to / p…
  • The $1,000 exception is on filing the Form 990-T (an annual income tax form), not on the amount taxed (if the form is filed). So: (A) yes, (B) no. Since the exception is on the filing and not the tax, I think that addresses your additional conc…
  • If you're planning to buy and then sell after 12 months, you can compare your choices: If you buy now, you'll get 3.56% (six months) + 4.81% (six months) - 1/2 x 4.81% (3 mo. penalty) ≈ 1.0356 x 1.024 ≈ 1.060 or 6% If inflation over the next six …
  • Neither Roth nor I-Bond is taxed at the federal level. There might, however, be some state tax on the I-Bond Other way around. Treasury (and related) securities are exempt from state taxes, but with some exceptions are federally taxable.
  • "*The Fund will not be available for purchase until the closing of the reorganization on or about July 18, 2022." For anyone still with questions about the Mairs and Power funds' reorganization (creating shell investment companies as series in an e…
  • My point was one of asset reallocation. If one is thinking of using savings bonds in lieu of other bonds (but not of equity), then one must have bonds in a taxable account to swap. Or in the alternative, rearrange taxable and tax-sheltered holdin…
  • Not to be too picky here, but the sole assumption in the hypothetical is that the dollar limit is removed. Left in place would be the requirement that savings bonds be purchased directly in a taxable account. If one would consider trading bond fu…
  • They provide different levels of human service. The two earlier packages, and likely this new one, are based on Vanguard's robo-advisor. The Digital Advisor is pure robo. It costs 20 basis pts/year, but that is reduced by the revenue Vanguard ge…
  • While technically correct, Fido shows monthly distributions for FIPDX at $0.000000001-0.000000002/shr and M* just calls it $0/shr (it tracks dividends to 4 decimal places only). There is a noticeable yearend distribution (from tiny coupon and inflat…
  • IMHO too much is made of the way mutual funds handle TIPS. (Though for some, it's these details that makes it interesting :-)) In a sense, TIPS funds are no different from other funds. A typical coupon bond fund, e.g. VBTLX, stays fully invested.…
  • Of course. I checked each fund's availability against that threshold. $1,000,000 will just get you in the door at CMFIX. You don't think I'd go posting funds with a $100M min?
  • The M* bank loan category lost money YTD. By category return, M* means "simply the average of the returns for all the funds in a given category. The standard category average calculation is based on constituents of the category at the end of the …
  • I wouldn't hold out high hopes that Vanguard will do anything. I sent secure email to Vanguard on March 29, informing them that a Flagship Select pricing figure on their website was wrong. Two days later I get a response back saying that I had wr…
  • For those taking RMD's, one could take $5K more at end of year & have all forwarded to IRS as tax payment. Then it is received back as a refund . You may mean for those over 59½, i.e. for those not subject to early withdrawal penalties. It d…
  • Don’t like selling at the bottom. ... Umm ... PRIHX is due for a nice bounce ISTM. All it needs to do is finish 2022 at “break even” (0% return) and I’d achieve a 6+% tax free gain between now and year’s end. Why is the fund due for a nice bounc…
  • Same investment adviser (Mairs & Power, Inc.), no "change to the ... investment objectives, strategies, or investment policies". What more are you looking for? To compare the prospectus of the current funds and of the new funds? Current: htt…
  • One generally has until Jan 15th to make estimated payments for the previous year. For example, one could make estimated payments for 2021 taxes through Jan 18, 2022. (It's the 18th because the 15th is a Saturday, and the following Monday, the …
  • Savings bonds don't have to be held for years. One can cash them out after a year if one wants. At current rates they'll still net 5%+, which is still "kind of like giving candy away". "Withdrawals, both the anticipated and the unexpected, come…
  • I wasn't paying enough attention to your link. My error. I just assumed (without reading the results) that this was the page selected for T. Rowe Price funds. But I don't think it is something other than a glitch, else one would expect the same…
  • Your link works fine for me, and I'm not logged into Vanguard when I try it.
  • Nothing sinister here. You'll find a slew of pages describing procedures for converting California corps into Delaware corps. One of the common techniques is to merge the Calif. corp. into a new (shell) Delaware corp. Restructuring mutual fund…
  • As I and others have written, index funds do not have the ability to take defensive positions; they must attempt to track their index. Case in point, ERUS. Current AUM is $1M ($945K in cash equivalents), current NAV is $0.07. Blackrock suspend…
  • A common way to change the legal structure of a company (including an investment company, i.e. mutual fund), is to create a shell company with the desired structure, and then do an M&A. The old company is "moved" into the new structure, and exi…
  • Yes, I bonds. One can eek out another $5K in savings bond purchases by overpaying on one's Jan 15th tax estimate. Add enough to create a $5K refund to buy the bonds. The paper bonds are in my name, and I'll send them right back to the Treasur…
  • You can only "Buy", "Redeem", or "Replace/Reissue" (if lost or stolen). Going off on a tangent: In addition to lost or stolen savings bonds, one may need to replace a savings bond because it was never received. Last week I received 11 out of 12 …
  • Yogi offered an excellent estimate of the upcoming I bond rate. I don't know how much of this was done seat of the pants and how much analysis was involved, but here's how the figure can be computed: 8.8% annual rate means 4.31% semi annually: (1…
  • I view savings bonds as most closely comparable to 1 year CDs, because the savings bonds are locked up for 12 months (actually as little as 11+ 1 day). After that, while it is true that like longer term CDs, savings bonds may be redeemed early w…