Vanguard 500 Index Fund - Tax perspective?

Question

If I buy Vanguard 500 Index fund. Since, the 500 index does not change very often. So, the stocks in that index fund will not be sold. Right?

In this case, there will not be any capital gains. Am I right? So, the only gains I have are going to be dividend gains by those stocks.

If my understanding above is correct, then this fund is very good from tax perspective. I will only be paying taxes on dividends by companies and will almost very less capital gains.

Please help me understand if my theory above is correct.

I really appriciate all the help I am getting here.

Thanks for your quick replies guys. I understand there are better funds out there and I also understand that I will get 1099 at the end of the year regarding taxes.

What I am trying to understand is that since S&P500 index changes very less, so the turnover rate in this fund should be less and so very less capital gains. Am I right?

So based on this theory, this fund should be very good as far as taxes are concerned.. Right?

Thanks again friends. Please advice.

Answer 1

I feel compelled to answer when I read the "financial planner's" comments. While I agree with you that index funds are relatively tax efficient, there are exceptions - typically after long bull or bear markets. When you buy a mutual fund, either passive index fund like the Vanguard 500 or active fund like Fidelity Magellan, you will inherit a share of the gains or losses of that fund. For instance, in the late 90's the capital gains exposure on the Vanguard 500 was in excess of 35%. When the market cratered in 2000-2001, those gains had to be distributed so the fund could meet liquidations from investors fleeing to bonds. If you purchased the fund in 2000, your unrealized losses were compounded by having to pay taxes on capital gains from prior years. OUCH. On average turnover is low for index funds, but there are times when it can rise. The point is tax efficiency is all relative. BTW if this investment will be in your IRA or 401(k), taxes are irrelevant until you take a distribution later in life.

Check Morningstar to find out the cap gains exposure before you purchase. All else equal, I prefer an ETF where you establish your own cost basis. There are many versions. I prefer IShares from Barclays.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

You are correct. A fund based on the S&P 500 will be fairly tax efficient. But not completely so. Every now and then a company is thrown out of the S&P 500 and then must be sold by the fund.

One of your responders mentioned an exchange traded S&P 500 based fund. You may wish to consider that as an alternative. SPY for example. Or IVV. Both have low expense ratios but of course you will have to pay broker commission to purchase them.

There are other exchange traded index funds that track other indexes, many as a matter of fact. They should all be fairly tax efficient.

You can reduce your risk and hopefully increase your return by diversifying into several index funds based on different indexes.

For example SPY tracks the S&P 500 index.

EWJ tracks the MSCI Japan index.

GLD tracks the price of gold.

XLE does not track an index but holds a fixed number of energy stocks and is considered an index fund and should be tax efficient.

There are many others.

Answer 3

Looking at the Vanguard site, the fund has an annual turnover rate of 6.4%.

There will be some taxes to be paid on short-term and long-term gains based on the small amount of stocks sold. However, this amount should be minimal.

Like you said, you will have to pay taxes on dividends paid and short-term/long-term gains when you sell your shares.

Compared to many funds, this fund is pretty good from a tax perspective. Vanguard does have 5 tax managed funds, but I think you'd still be better off indexing.

Answer 4

I invest in the Windsor II. You will get all the tax information from Vanguard at the end of the year relating to capital gains and dividends. Sometimes they do sell some stocks and buy other ones when they fall out of the S&P via a merger for example. Sometimes the managers will change up their positions and sell stock which will have a capital gain. All you have to do is put those numbers on your 1040.

Answer 5

You are correct about the tax implications. But, why would you buy that fund? Look at most of the equity American Funds and you'll see that they routinely beat that index with LESS volatility.
Good luck!