Some local companies are paying their fourth quarter dividends early to avoid shareholders paying potentially higher tax rates after the end of the year.

The parent company of The National Bank and Trust Co. of Wilmington said Monday it will pay its fourth quarter dividend on Dec. 28. The Clinton County bank, with 23 area branches, declared a dividend of 30 cents per share to be paid Dec. 28 to shareholders who own stock as of Dec. 20.

Normally, the fourth quarter dividend would be paid in January, said Craig Fortin, chief financial officer of National Bank and Trust.

One of the automatic increases that will happen at the end of the year without an agreement by national lawmakers on the “fiscal cliff” regards taxes on dividend income. The fiscal cliff is roughly $600 billion of tax increases and budget cuts set to take effect at the end of this year and early next year.

This has prompted Oracle, Costco and Walmart to make similar announcements to push dividends payments ahead.

If nothing changes, taxes on dividends will revert to ordinary income instead of staying at the current 15 percent capital gains tax rate. At ordinary income, dividend gains will be taxed at an individual’s income tax rate bracket, which is likely higher, Fortin said.

“Our shareholders will pay more taxes on it if nothing changes,” Fortin said.

Frisch’s Restaurants Inc. of Cincinnati also declared its quarterly dividend early. A dividend of 16 cents per share will be paid Dec. 21. Typically, Frisch’s would pay it around Jan. 10, said Mark Lanning, chief financial officer of the restaurant chain.

“Because of the uncertainty with the tax rates and most likely there will be some increase in tax rates, our board opted to accelerate that dividend by about 20 days,” Lanning said. “I think the expectation is for a number of folks it would increase the rate on capital gains and the rate on dividends.”

Other local companies LCNB Corp. of Lebanon and First Financial Bank of Cincinnati have already declared dividends for the last quarter of the year, normal timing for those companies, and so were not impacted by tax rate issues. First Financial has a dividend to be paid Jan. 2 and said it has not made any announcements to change the date.

Park National Corp., the parent company of Security National Bank of Springfield, typically announces a dividend in January after the quarter ends to be paid in March. Park has no intentions of speeding the dividend payout up, said Brady Burt, chief accounting officer. Marathon Petroleum Corp. of Enon also usually waits until the quarter ends to announce dividends, and has no plans to change this year.

Steven Johnston, president and CEO of Cincinnati Financial Corp., a Butler County property casualty insurer, said at an investors conference last week that the company is keeping an eye on tax reform. But he reaffirmed the company has no plans to change their dividend payment schedule. Cincinnati Financial has a dividend payable Jan. 15.

“We have paid dividends through a variety of different cycles of tax regimes. And we feel that it’s worked well in all tax regimes,” Johnston said.