Jon,

Thanks for the info. I feel pretty well convinced by this point that, outside of IRAs or equivalent retirement accounts, there is no way to avoid the tax hit of dividends, and DRIPs serve some purposes well, but delaying the tax hit until later isn't one of them. The only case in which I saw the IRS wasn't in 'heads they win, tails you lose' mode, was years ago when Jester pointed out that if the underlying stock in an options trade was held long term, and finished in the money so that shares were sold, then the premium collected from the option was considered long term, regardless of the 'time period' in which the options were held. There was kind of a 'stunned silence' for a minute on the board - (figuratively), before people started asking 'really?