RE:RE:RE:Special div Dec 31Yes, it is legal but is it moral?
Taxable earning are usually passed on to unitholders in the form of a special cash distribution at the year end so the REIT has no tax obligation. The practice of issueing phantom shares does not benefit unitholders at all but actually hurts them if they have the units in a taxable account. The winner of this is the REIT, who get to keep their surplus cash without paying any tax or cash distribution.