I originally posted 15 Questions to Ask Discount Brokers and followed that up with Comments: 15 Questions to Ask Discount Brokers. In the latter post, I complained about Etrade re-issuing my tax forms and costing my accountant time (and me money). One commenter had the same problem with another company:
I get the same runaround from Sharebuilder. They claim it has to do with provisions in the tax law dealing with foreign dividends. Their explanation is that when ETFs/Mutual Funds distribute dividends, they have to calculate foreign taxes paid on those dividends to pass along to you. For some reason those numbers are recalculated sometime in February (for Foreign Tax Credit purposes for the entity's tax return, maybe?) resulting in a change to foreign dividends, foreign tax paid, and "qualified" dividends for the lower 15% tax rate.
At least that's their explanation mixed with some of my tax training.
Well, at least I know why they do it. Doesn't make me feel any better though.
Another commenter sympathized with me:
I heard nothing but horror stories about E-Trade. I feel for you. I tried Scottrade because of the low cost. But, you get what you pay for, so I closed my account.
I've had a Vanguard Brokerage account for years and I'm glad I never closed it. Of course, the trading costs are a little higher, but I haven't had any major troubles and the customer service has always been superior. I also get a great return of my Prime Money market account. This is the only brokerage that I use and would recommend it to anyone.
I am a big fan of Vanguard for mutual funds -- maybe I need to check out their brokerage services as well.
Finally, here's a comment from someone with a couple good recommendations:
I have preferred the service FIRSTRADE & Fidelity over Ewait..trade for a couple of months now and I find them both to be fast, friendly, easy, and affordable.
Anyone else have any helpful information/opinions?
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