VHYL factsheet 2026: yield, TER, holdings and ISIN

By Kestutis Balciunas·Reviewed September 9, 2026

This VHYL ETF factsheet 2026 covers the Vanguard FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield UCITS ETF (Dist) — the go-to fund for European investors who want global dividend income in a single holding. VHYL is the income-focused counterpart to VWCE: same Vanguard quality, same global reach, but built for dividend yield and distributing the income to you quarterly. This guide covers its structure, yield, and how it fits an income strategy.

VHYL is the fund I point dividend-focused investors toward most often. It’s a clean, diversified, global high-dividend solution — and understanding its trade-offs versus a total-return approach is essential before building an income portfolio around it. I’ve held distributing funds alongside accumulating ones for most of my investing life, and the difference between them is more about behaviour and tax than headline performance.

The short answer, for the question most people arrive with: VHYL’s current distribution yield is 2.42%, its TER is 0.29% p.a., and it holds 2,349 stocks — all as recorded on the justETF profile for IE00B8GKDB10, with fund data as at 31 July 2026. That yield is a good deal lower than the 3–3.5% figure often quoted for this fund, which is why the income maths below is worth reading before you build a budget on it.

Correction (9 September 2026): an earlier version of this page printed IE00BK5BR733 as VHYL’s ISIN in the table below. That ISIN belongs to the Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets UCITS ETF (Acc) — a different fund with a different job. VHYL (Dist) is IE00B8GKDB10. If you bought from the old ISIN, check what is actually in your account.

VHYL at a glance

Fund figures were read from the justETF profile for IE00B8GKDB10 on 9 September 2026 and are as at 31 July 2026. The distribution yield moves with markets and payouts — re-check it and the TER on justETF or the official Vanguard VHYL factsheet before you buy.

What’s inside VHYL

VHYL tracks the FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield index — globally diversified, but filtered for above-average dividend yield:

• 2,349 stocks globally (justETF, 31 July 2026) — companies forecast to pay above-average dividends, across developed and emerging markets.
• Sector tilts — high-dividend screening tilts toward financials, consumer staples, energy, and healthcare, and away from low-yielding growth/tech.
• Lower US weight than VWCE — because US mega-cap tech (low yield) is underweighted, VHYL has more balanced geographic exposure.
• Quarterly distributions — the dividends are paid to you four times a year.

The yield comes from this deliberate tilt toward higher-paying companies. The trade-off is exposure to value/income sectors rather than the growth/tech names that drove recent total returns. The best dividend yield UCITS guide covers the alternatives.

How the high-dividend index methodology works

This is the part most investors skip, and it’s the part that matters most. A total-market fund like VWCE simply weights every company by its market value — you own the world in proportion to its size, full stop. VHYL applies an additional screen on top of that. FTSE starts with the same All-World universe, then ranks companies by forecast dividend yield and selects roughly the top half by yield within each market, excluding REITs. The result is a portfolio deliberately skewed toward companies that distribute a larger share of their profits.

The practical consequence is a structural value tilt. Fast-growing companies typically reinvest their earnings rather than pay them out, so they fail the yield screen and drop out of the index. That’s why VHYL holds far less Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia and the other mega-cap names than a total-market fund — and far more banks, oil majors, utilities, telecoms and pharmaceutical companies. You are not buying “the world minus a bit”; you are buying a recognisably different style portfolio that behaves differently in different market regimes. In growth-led years it tends to lag; in value-led or rising-rate years it can outperform. If you want the mechanics of how total-market weighting compares with screened indices, the accumulating vs distributing ETFs explainer is a useful companion piece.

The distributing nature and dividend-tax implications for EU investors

VHYL is a distributing fund — it does not roll dividends back into the fund. Four times a year, the income lands in your brokerage account as cash. That is the entire point of the product, and it’s also where the tax friction lives. As an EU investor you face two distinct layers:

• Fund-level withholding — when the underlying companies pay dividends into the Irish-domiciled fund, source countries withhold tax. On US dividends, Ireland’s treaty reduces this to ~15%, which the fund cannot reclaim on your behalf. This is invisible to you but real — it’s already netted out of the distribution you receive.
• Your home-country dividend tax — when the distribution hits your account, your own tax authority taxes it, typically at 15–30% depending on the country. Crucially, this is taxed every year, whether or not you spend the money.

That annual taxation is the structural disadvantage of distributing funds versus accumulating ones. With an accumulating fund, gains compound untaxed inside the wrapper until you sell; with VHYL, the taxman takes a slice of every distribution as it arrives. In some countries the gap is trivial; in others it materially drags long-run compounding. The ETF tax-efficiency guide walks through how this plays out country by country, and the EU dividend tax calculator shows your net yield by jurisdiction.

The yield and the income angle

VHYL’s distribution yield was 2.42% on the justETF profile as at 31 July 2026 — still above a total-market fund like VWCE, but well short of the 3–3.5% this fund is routinely credited with. Dividend yields drift with prices and payouts, so treat any single figure as a snapshot rather than a rate you are promised. What does not drift is the shape of the deduction: the net yield you actually receive is lower again after the two layers of tax described above. On a 2.42% gross yield, a 20% home-country dividend tax leaves roughly 1.9% net — and that net figure, not the headline, is the only number worth planning around.

This is the central number for anyone building a dividend-income or salary-replacement strategy — covered in detail in our replacing your salary with dividends guide. The dividend investing calculator projects the income stream, and you can line VHYL up against peer funds in the compare UCITS ETFs tool.

Yield versus total return: the core trade-off

It is tempting to read a 3.5% yield as “VHYL pays me 3.5% and VWCE pays me 2%, so VHYL is better for income.” That framing is a trap. A dividend is not free money — when a company pays a dividend, its share price drops by roughly the same amount on the ex-dividend date. The dividend is a transfer of value you already owned from the share price into your cash account, not an addition to it.

What actually matters is total return: capital growth plus income, after costs and tax. Historically, the high-dividend value tilt has lagged the broad market during the growth-led decade behind us, so VHYL’s total return has generally trailed VWCE’s even though its income was higher. The yield is real and useful, but it comes at the cost of style exposure that may help or hurt depending on the regime. Treat VHYL as a deliberate income-and-value bet, not as a higher-returning version of a world tracker.

VHYL vs VWCE: income vs total return

The key decision for many investors:

• VHYL (high dividend, distributing): higher income, dividends paid to you, but a value/income sector tilt that may lag in growth-led markets, and the dividends are taxed annually.
• VWCE (all-world, accumulating): lower yield but broader exposure (including growth/tech), accumulating structure defers tax, and you generate income by selling shares when needed.

For pure total return, VWCE has generally been the stronger choice, and selling shares is more tax-efficient than collecting dividends in most EU countries (covered in our dividends-vs-selling guide). VHYL wins on the psychological and behavioural side — a real dividend that lands in your account feels like income and enforces discipline. Many investors hold VWCE during accumulation and tilt toward VHYL in the income phase. The VWCE factsheet covers the total-return alternative.

How VHYL compares to other dividend UCITS ETFs

VHYL is not the only global or developed-market dividend fund available to European investors. Two names come up repeatedly alongside it, and each makes a different methodological bet. The figures below are illustrative — always confirm the live TER, yield and AUM on each provider’s factsheet or justETF before deciding.

VHYL’s distinguishing feature is breadth — it’s the only one of these holding both developed and emerging markets across 2,349 names. TDIV is far more concentrated and chases a higher headline yield through the largest payers; FUSD is a single-country, quality-screened play; and VWCE sits in the table only as the total-return benchmark you should always weigh income against. Run any shortlist through the compare UCITS ETFs tool and sanity-check the cost difference with the ETF fee calculator before committing.

A worked income example

Numbers make the trade-off concrete. Suppose you hold €200,000 in VHYL at the 2.42% distribution yield justETF recorded at 31 July 2026. That’s about €4,840 of gross distributions a year, paid in four quarterly instalments of roughly €1,210 — not the €7,000 a 3.5% assumption would have promised you.

• Gross income: about €4,840 per year.
• After ~15% fund-level withholding drag (already netted in the distribution): the cash you actually receive reflects this leakage on the underlying dividends.
• After your home-country dividend tax — say 20% — you keep around €3,870 of the cash distribution.

So the effective net yield on your €200,000 is closer to 1.9% than to any 3.5% headline. That is the figure to build a budget on. Someone who planned on €7,000 a year from this position would be short by more than €3,000 — a serious error in a retirement plan, and the reason this page now leads with the measured yield rather than a remembered one. These figures are illustrative; your exact result depends on your country’s rate and the fund’s live yield, both of which the dividend investing calculator can model for you.

Who VHYL suits

• Income-focused investors who want a real dividend stream paid quarterly.
• Retirees and near-retirees building a dividend-replacement income, who value the psychological clarity of living on dividends.
• Investors wanting a value/income tilt away from concentrated US mega-cap tech.

It’s less suitable for pure-accumulation investors focused on maximum total return (VWCE is usually better) or those in high-dividend-tax countries where the annual dividend tax erodes the benefit (selling accumulating shares may be more efficient). If you’re still in the wealth-building phase with no need for cash flow, an accumulating world tracker will almost always serve you better — the distributing-versus-accumulating breakdown spells out why.

Common mistakes

• Yield-chasing. A higher headline yield is not a higher return. Funds with the biggest distributions often carry the heaviest value tilt and the weakest long-run total return. Don’t pick a dividend fund purely on the largest percentage — judge it on total return after tax and on whether you actually want that style exposure.
• Ignoring the tax drag of distributions. Holding VHYL in a taxable account in a high-dividend-tax country means handing over a slice of income every single year, whether you spend it or reinvest it. For accumulators, that drag compounds against you versus an accumulating fund. Always check the after-tax picture, not the brochure yield, with the tax-efficiency guide.
• Treating VHYL as “VWCE with bigger dividends.” It is a different portfolio with a different risk-and-return profile, not a higher-paying clone. Owning both does not give you the world twice over — it concentrates your value exposure.
• Forgetting cost. VHYL’s ~0.29% TER is reasonable but higher than a plain world tracker. Over decades, fee differences compound; run the numbers in the ETF fee calculator and read the guide to ETF fees and expenses.

Key takeaways

• VHYL is a globally diversified, distributing high-dividend fund — 2,349 stocks across developed and emerging markets, Irish-domiciled, 0.29% TER (justETF, 31 July 2026).
• Its high-yield screen creates a deliberate value tilt that underweights growth/tech, so it behaves differently from a total-market fund and has generally lagged VWCE on total return.
• Distributions are taxed annually at both fund and personal level, so plan on the net yield (often ~2.4–2.9%), never the ~3–3.5% gross headline.
• It suits income seekers and retirees who value a real, scheduled cash flow; it suits accumulators poorly, where VWCE plus selling shares is usually more tax-efficient.
• Avoid yield-chasing and the tax drag of distributions — judge any dividend fund on after-tax total return, not the biggest percentage.

FAQ

Q: What yield does VHYL pay?
A: 2.42% as recorded on justETF at 31 July 2026 — higher than a total-market fund like VWCE, but below the 3-3.5% often quoted for it. The net yield after your home-country dividend tax is lower again: roughly 1.9% at a 20% rate. Yields move with prices and payouts, so check the live figure before budgeting on it.

Q: VHYL or VWCE for retirement income?
A: VHYL pays a real dividend (psychological clarity); VWCE plus selling shares is usually more tax-efficient. Many use VWCE in accumulation and tilt to VHYL in the income phase.

Q: Is VHYL accumulating or distributing?
A: VHYL itself is distributing — it pays dividends quarterly. There is also an accumulating share class of the same fund, IE00BK5BR626, tracking the same index at the same 0.29% TER, if you want the dividend reinvested internally instead.

Q: Does VHYL include emerging markets?
A: Yes — it tracks the FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield index, which includes both developed and emerging markets, filtered for yield.

Q: Why does VHYL have less US exposure than VWCE?
A: Because US mega-cap tech tends to be low-yielding, the high-dividend screening underweights it, giving VHYL more balanced geographic and sector exposure.

Q: How often does VHYL pay dividends?
A: Four times a year — quarterly distributions land as cash in your brokerage account. The exact amounts vary with the underlying companies’ payouts and the fund’s holdings.

Q: How does VHYL compare to TDIV or FUSD?
A: VHYL is the broadest, holding both developed and emerging markets across 2,349 names. TDIV (VanEck) is a concentrated developed-markets fund chasing a higher headline yield; FUSD (Fidelity) is US-only with a quality overlay. Confirm current TER and yield for each before deciding.

Q: Is VHYL’s TER expensive?
A: At ~0.29% (verify current) it’s reasonable for a screened global dividend fund, though higher than a plain world tracker like VWCE. Over decades the gap compounds, so weigh it with the ETF fee calculator.

Q: Should I hold VHYL while still building wealth?
A: Usually no. During accumulation, an accumulating fund defers tax and compounds more efficiently. VHYL earns its place mainly in the income phase, where the cash flow is the point.

Q: Can I reinvest VHYL’s dividends myself?
A: Yes — you can manually reinvest each distribution, but you’ll still pay dividend tax on it first, so you lose the tax-deferral advantage that an accumulating fund gives you automatically.

The bottom line

For a European income investor in 2026: VHYL (Vanguard FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield UCITS ETF, Dist) is the go-to global dividend fund — 2,349 high-yield stocks worldwide, distributing quarterly, Irish-domiciled, 0.29% TER. Its 2.42% distribution yield at 31 July 2026 (roughly 1.9% net of a 20% dividend tax) and value/income tilt make it ideal for dividend-income strategies, though VWCE plus selling shares is often more tax-efficient for pure total return. Size any income plan on the net yield, not gross. Verify current figures at the official Vanguard factsheet. The replacing your salary with dividends guide covers the income strategy, and the dividend income calculator sizes your number.

Cited sources: Vanguard official VHYL factsheet, FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield index, and justETF VHYL page. Verify all current figures before investing.

Kestutis Balciunas
European UCITS/ETF investor with 11+ years building a global dividend and index portfolio, and founder of Financial Expert Class. I write every guide here from first-hand experience investing across EU brokers and tax regimes — not theory. More about me →