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Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST) became the most recent company to pay out a special dividend to help its investors keep more money if taxes go up at the start of next year. Many large public companies have done this, and more are expected to. The firm announced:

[I]ts Board of Directors has declared a special cash dividend on Costco common stock of $7.00 per share, payable December 18, 2012, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on December 10, 2012. The aggregate amount of payment to be made in connection with this special dividend will be approximately $3.0 billion.

The special dividend is in addition to the Company’s regular quarterly cash dividend of $.275 per share that was declared on October 30, 2012. The regular quarterly dividend will be paid November 30, 2012, to shareholders of record at the close of business on November 16, 2012.

In addition, Costco is doing well, based on today’s release of results. It had:

 [N]et sales of $8.15 billion for the month of November, the four weeks ended November 25, 2012, an increase of nine percent from $7.51 billion during the similar four-week period last year.

Same-store sales rose 6% for the same period.

Douglas A. McIntyre