Answered from ETFIQ data as of .
What is return of capital in an ETF distribution?
Return of capital is the part of a distribution that is not income or realised gains, so it comes back out of the fund's own assets and is not taxed as income in the year it is paid. It lowers the cost basis instead.
Issuers estimate the split on a Rule 19a-1 notice with each distribution, and the estimate is not final until the tax year closes. ETFIQ shows the issuer's own figure and never a computed one.
A high return of capital figure is not automatically a warning. A fund that writes options can generate cash that is characterised as return of capital even while the total return is healthy. What matters is whether the fund earned what it paid, which the price change beside the cash tells you.
That is why ETFIQ always shows return of capital next to the price change over the same period rather than on its own.
On the desk today
| Ticker | Fund | Cash paid 1Y | Price 1Y | Total return 1Y | Return of capital, latest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMDY | YieldMax(R) AMD Option Income Strategy ETF | 89.8% | +8.9% | +139.4% | not published |
| MRNY | YieldMax(R) MRNA Option Income Strategy ETF | 89.7% | +89.1% | +348.2% | not published |
| WNTR | YieldMax(R) MSTR Short Option Income Strategy ETF | 85.1% | −47.5% | +29.5% | not published |
| TSYY | GraniteShares YieldBOOST TSLA ETF | 65.8% | −69.7% | −15.5% | not published |
| FIAT | YieldMax(R) Short COIN Option Income Strategy ETF | 64.0% | −48.7% | +15.6% | not published |
| NVYY | GraniteShares YieldBOOST Natural Gas ETF | 57.5% | −53.3% | +5.7% | not published |
| TSLY | YieldMax(R) TSLA Option Income Strategy ETF | 55.9% | −41.6% | +7.7% | not published |
| TSII | REX TSLA Growth & Income ETF | 54.7% | −44.5% | +0.4% | not published |
Where to next
ETFIQ is an independent publisher of exchange-traded fund data and makes no recommendations. Every figure is stated arithmetic on published data. Standards and sources
Cite this page. ETFIQ, What is return of capital in an ETF distribution?, data as of Sep 4, 2026. https://etfiq.com/questions/what-is-return-of-capital.html Free to use with attribution; the underlying files are at Open data.