Does "cash in lieu of dividend" incur any tax consequences in an IRA?
My broker has a program that I can participate in which can lend out my fully-paid stocks for others to borrow (typically for shorting.) In exchange for my borrowed stock, they provide cash collateral and pay me interest, which they describe as a sharing of the fees they charge the borrower of the stock. In addition, should my lent stock receive a dividend, the broker deposits "cash in lieu" of the dividend to my account (presumably having collected it from the borrower.)
The broker's description of that payment action warns that "cash in lieu" has different tax treatment than a qualified dividend would get. Meaning it's taxed at personal income rates rather than qualified dividend rates. My question is how does that latter fact interact with the fact that my account is an IRA and therefore tax-deferred?
Would I have no tax consequences because the IRA's tax-deferring nature overrides the cash vs dividend change? Or does the treatment of "cash in lieu" break through the tax deferment of the IRA somehow (maybe like how an MLP distribution could?)
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In a (not Roth) IRA, withdrawals are generally already taxed as regular income. So there should be no tax disadvantage to earning payment in lieu of dividends.
It's possible that there is an exception for IRAs but I was unable to find one and I cannot see the reason for one since the dividend tax rate is usually lower than the income tax rate (which is why some company owners elect to receive part of the company profits via dividend rather than all through their salary).
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