Here's what Investor Relations said. I'm posting the whole thing (deleting only headers and non-OAC email addresses).
From: "Hurwitz, R.A." <RHurwitz@ocwen.com>
To: [email address deleted]
Subject: RE: OAC -- 1998 Dividend
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 17:32:28 -0500
Dear Toby:
Thank you for your note. The answers are as follows:
1. There is no date at which OAC must declare its dividend, but if it does not do so by September 15, 1999, then 1998 income for that period would become taxable.
2. The Board deferred paying a dividend. Further details about the deferred dividend will be forthcoming gin mid-April.
3. REITs are not mutual funds, and tax regulations are different.
4. As above.
5. In December 1998, the Board proposed changing OAC's tax status from a REIT to a C-Corporation. Further detail on this proposal will forthcoming in mid-April.
Best regards,
Richard Hurwitz
VP, Corporate Communications
561-682-8575
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Toby Zidle
> Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 1999 11:33 PM
> To: investorrelations@ocwen.com
> Subject: OAC -- 1998 Dividend
>
> When is the latest date that OAC could declare its final 1998 dividend?
> Will OAC be paying an 80 cent 1998 dividend in the first half of 1999?
>
> I was told that the following statement applies to the timing of OAC's
> 1998 dividend:
>
> "A mutual fund can declare a dividend relating to the prior year up to
> the earliest of its regularly scheduled next dividend or when it files
> its (1998) tax return. Internal Revenue Code Section 855(a). It is
> treated as received in the year of payment by the shareholders (1999).
> Section 855(b)."
>
> Does this apply to a REIT as well as to a mutual fund?
>
> I know that at the December meeting the Board of Directors of OAC gave
> up OAC's REIT classification and suspended the dividend. Was the
> effective date immediately after the Board meeting, on January 1, 1999,
> or on some other date?
>
> Thank you for your attention to these questions.
>
> Toby Zidle |
