Here's another way to figure it. Let's suppose you bought AC at $26 and held it for two years. You paid $2,600 for 100 shares which represents money out of pocket. We will assume that AC does not increase or decrease the dividend for the two year period, and you receive $472 in dividends from Alliance Capital. Would it not be reasonable to reduce your cost basis to $2,128 for your purchase of AC? Or we could buy a $20,000 car which is offering a $3,000 rebate. Wouldn't we say that we spent $17,000 for the car? Bernie