the fund pays no taxes but rather all the investors in taxable accounts do. Mutual fund share prices are typically valued each day the stock or bond markets are open and typically the value of a share is the net asset value of the fund shares investors own. Total returns Mutual funds report total returns assuming reinvestment of dividend and capital gain distributions. That is, the dollar amounts distributed are used to purchase additional shares of the funds as of the reinvestment/ex-dividend date. Reinvestment rates or factors are based on total distributions (dividends plus capital gains) during each period. Average annual total return (geometric) US mutual funds are to compute average annual total return as prescribed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in instructions to form N-1A (the fund prospectus) as the average annual compounded rates of return for 1-year, 5-year, and 10-year periods (or inception of the fund if shorter) as the "average annual total return" for each fund. The following formula is used: Where: P = a hypothetical initial payment of $1,000 T = average annual total return n = number of years ERV = ending redeemable value of a hypothetical $1,000 payment made at the beginning of the 1-, 5-, or 10-year periods at the end of the 1-, 5-, or 10-year periods (or fractional portion) Solving for T gives Mutual fund capital gain distributions Mutual funds include capital gains as well as dividends in their return calculations. Since the market price of a mutual fund share is based on net asset value, a capital gain distribution is offset by an equal decrease in mutual fund share value/price. From the shareholder's perspective, a capital gain distribution is not a net gain in assets, but it is a realized capital gain (coupled with an equivalent decrease in unrealized capital gain). Example After five years, an investor who reinvested all distributions would own 91.314 shares valued at $19.90 per share. The return over the five-year period is $19.90 × 91.314 / $1,000 − 1 = 81.71% Geometric average annual total return with reinvestment = ($19.90 × 91.314 / $1,000) ^ (1 / 5) − 1 = 12.69% An investor who did not reinvest would have received total distributions (cash payments) of $5.78 per share. The return over the five-year period for such an investor would be ($19.90 + $5.78) / $14.21 − 1 = 80.72%, and the