You're correct in regard to my ambiguous terminology. I did, in fact, mean to refer to cash dividends that would be reinvested to purchase additional shares of company stock. You're also correct in that all of the shares are currently held in a company 401-K plan. I have not been employed by this company in 12 years, but I choose to leave the shares in the company's administered 401-K plan when I severed service, as opposed to moving the shares to an IRA account.

As for the NUA that you mentioned, I must admit that I know very little about that. I have seen references to it in the past, but it seems as though I remember reading that this only helps if you anticipate being in a high federal income tax bracket once you retire. Is this correct? My tax bracket after I retire (and during and after the time period in which I plan to begin the SEPP plan) My cost basis is relatively low in that I started purchasing the stock in 1985 and stopped in 1998. It pays a very healthy dividend so I would like to continue to hold the shares.

Correct. The 401-K assets/investments that are not NUA employer stock, or are high cost employer stock, would be sold and/or transferred to an IRA. Only the low cost NUA employer stock would be DISTRIBUTED IN KIND (i.e. the shares themselves are distributed, not sold in the 401-k). After the DISTRIBUTION OF NUA SHARES to a non-retirement regular brokerage account, the shares can be sold the next day, or whenever you need money, and they are taxed as long-term capital gains. You can even arrange for your regular brokerage account to be a margin account and borrow against it without incurring the capital gains tax by not selling the shares until later.