May was my biggest month to date thanks to two large dividends from the only Belgian companies in my portfolio. Unlike US stocks, most Belgian companies pay out dividends on a yearly basis and spring is the dividend season so that skews this month’s results quite a bit.
- YUM Brands: 3.61EUR
- Van de Velde: 35.47EUR
- Kinder Morgan: 17.44EUR
- Colgate-Palmolive: 3.61EUR
- Warehouses De Pauw: 1 new share (issued at 66.30EUR) plus 17.85EUR cash
In total that’s 144.28EUR in dividend income for May 2015! That represents around 18 percent of my estimated yearly forward dividend income so this month was more than twice as big in terms of dividend income than the average month.
All dividend figures are after taxes, as I live in Belgium I have to pay 25% tax on most dividends and most foreign dividends are also taxed at the source (15% for the US). So the total tax rate for US shares totals 36.25%.
I also received South32 (S32) spin-off shares from BHP Billiton. The spin-off has no impact on the dividend of BHP Billiton and South32 intends to distribute a minimum of 40 percent of its underlying earnings as dividends starting next year.
Dividends are Coming 
I guess flowers and dividends bloom in the springtime. Congrats on having such a great month. I see we share couple of names for the month of May. Keep that snowball growing. Thanks for sharing your recent passive income update.
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Thanks! You’re making good progress too I see.
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