Dividend in arrears

Dividend in arrears

Accumulated dividends on cumulative preferred stock that are deemed payable to the current holder.

Dividends in Arrears

Dividends on preferred stock that are past due. Because preferred stock has guaranteed dividends, a company is legally required to pay the dividends before it makes any dividend payments at all on common stock. Dividends in arrears go to the current owners of preferred stock when they are paid; the person who owned it when the dividends originally should have been paid receives nothing. They are also called accumulated dividends.