Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) pay dividends all the time; some quarterly, some bi-annually. But in July when I tweeted about receiving my db X-tracker dividends, my Twitter followers went crazy, telling me about the fees and taxes that had been deducted.

The issue was that the dividend announcement had also included a detailed breakdown of the taxes and costs that are subtracted from the dividend. It seems that some brokers had, for the first time, put all the details into the cash statement on client accounts.

For many, this was the first time they’d seen a breakdown of these subtractions.

I am one of the few dividends nerds who always reads the Sens, so I knew what was being paid in taxes and fees. But it seemed that many Twitter users had not noticed it before, with many making claims of fee gouging and massive fee increases.