Distinguish among: cash dividends, property dividends, liquidating dividends, and stock dividends.

The cash dividend is by far the most popular sort of payout. The board of directors resolves on the date of the declaration to pay a certain dividend amount in cash to those investors who hold the company's stock on a specific date.

Rather than paying cash or stock to investors, a corporation may pay a non-monetary dividend.

This distribution should be recorded at the fair market value of the assets that were dispersed. Because the fair market value of the assets is likely to differ from the book value, the corporation will most likely record the difference as a gain or loss.

A liquidation dividend occurs when the board of directors wishes to return the capital given initially by shareholdersas a dividend. It may be a forerunner to the business being shut down.

A stock dividend is the unrestricted distribution of a company's common stock to its common shareholders. Treat the transaction as a stock dividend if the corporation issues less than 25% of the total number of previously existing shares.

A cash dividend is a monetary payment, whereas a property dividend is a distribution of non-cash assets. A liquidating dividend is not based on retained earnings. A stock dividend is anissue of additional sharesof a corporation's stock to existing owners in a nonreciprocal exchange with no change in the par or stated value.