Hon. Michael G. Oxley: “today I urge the House to pass H.R. 1089, the Mutual Fund Tax Awareness Act of 2000. In some form or another, 83 million…”

“today I urge the House to pass H.R. 1089, the Mutual Fund Tax Awareness Act of 2000. In some form or another, 83 million Americans, or one in every other household, are invested in mutual funds. While many are invested in tax deferred accounts, through pensions, IRA's, or other retirement vehicles, millions are invested in taxable mutual funds. That is, on a yearly basis, these shareholders must pay ordinary income and capital gains taxes on distributions they receive from their mutual funds. Yet when present or prospective shareholders review annual fund performance results in annual reports or prospectuses, the rates of return listed do not account for the impact of taxes. This should not be the case. Given that the average fund loses almost three percentage points from their listed rates of return due to taxes, investors should be presented with information about how much money they got to keep, not how much money they received before paying the tax man. Only then will investors better be able to invest in mutual funds which best suit their needs. To respond to this problem our colleague, Mr. Gillmor, drafted this legislation before the House today. Among other things, this bill would require the SEC to revise their regulations to require that mutual fund companies list performance figures on an after-tax basis.”