Differentiated dividend tax effective today

The differentiated capital gain tax rate comes into effect Friday. Investors will pay different tax amounts for dividends and yields from their holdings of publicly offered shares and stocks purchased in the OTC market.

Investors will pay a 5 percent tax for capital gains from holdings of longer than 12 months, a 10 percent tax for holdings between one month to 12 months, and a 20 percent tax for shares purchased within a month.

Analysts say this will help foster long-term value investors. Meanwhile, investors will bear lower transactions cost for some previous metal trading.