Canadian General's Year-End Dividend

Yesterday I mentioned that I was waiting to see what what the end-of-year special dividend would be for Canadian General Investments (Toronto: CGI).

Well, this morning the fund announced that it will pay a special cash capital gains dividend of $0.76 per common share, payable on December 24, 2010.

This brings up CGI's dividend this year to $1.00 per share, for a 5% yield. Considering that the stock has also moved up 30%, this makes for quite a profitable investment this year.

I've just moved most of my shares of CGI into my TFSA, so my year-end dividend will be sheltered from taxes. I did this because this "special cash capital gains dividend" is treated as regular income, instead of the preferencial tax treatment of a normal Canadian dividend.