how long to hold shares to get dividend payed, page-3

Thanks Hungster. Anyway, for the benefit of all here is what i've found on the topic:

http://www.intelligentinvestor.com.au/articles/196/Dazzled-by-dividend-dates--.cfm?articleID=10001698

Dividend stripping


With all this confusion, you won’t be surprised to hear that there’s a strategy that aims to exploit it. It’s known as ‘dividend stripping’ and it involves buying a share shortly before its ex date, collecting its dividend and associated franking credits, and then selling it soon after.


As long as the stock falls by less than the amount of the dividend, it’s easy profits. Unfortunately, though, the sharemarket isn’t in the habit of providing investors with a free lunch. As we mentioned earlier, when a share goes ex, all things being equal it will fall by the amount of its dividend.


To make matters worse, the Tax Office may not let you have your franking credits if you don’t hold your shares for long enough. Under what’s known as the ‘45-day rule’, if your total franking credits for a year exceed $5,000, you won’t get any credits in respect of any shares that you don’t hold for either 45 days before the relevant ex date or 45 days after it (apparently 44 days before and 44 days after won’t do—no-one ever said the tax system made any sense).


Dividend stripping simply won’t work consistently enough these days to be profitable—if it ever did. In addition to paying extra tax, you’ll just end up making your broker rich with all that buying and selling.


For more on the wonderful world of dividends, take a look at our associated website, www.incomeinvestor.com.au. Here you’ll find dividend dates for virtually all stocks quoted on the ASX, and you can even set up a portfolio of stocks so you can track your forthcoming dividend payments and think of ways to spend the money.