Income treatment means that if the amount returned is greater than the shareholder's original investment then any excess will be subject to income tax.
Costs must be disclosed in an understandable format and include all advice, platform, product and investment costs that affect the amount returned to investors.
Throw in the most recent year's $365 billion in dividends, and the total amount returned to shareholders reaches $885 billion, more than the companies' combined net income of $847 billion.