U.S. exchange-traded funds company WisdomTree Investments says it expects zero long- and short-term capital gains across its 41 equity ETFs at year-end.

On Wednesday, Barclays Global Investor's iShares family said it expected to pay capital gains on only two of its 178 ETFs at year-end (see story here.)

While the announcements concerning year-end tax bills are common, this year the ETF announcements have a bit of a marketing twist to them.

With the massive sell-off in the equity markets, and mass redemptions from traditional stock mutual funds, active fund managers are expecting to slam investors with a big tax bill this year.

Traditional mutual fund companies, including Eaton Vance Corp., have already been warning investors that taxes will "rear their ugly head for mutual fund investors this year," a comment that Eaton Vance Chief Investment Officer Duncan Richardson made to Bloomberg yesterday.

Both ETF companies also hammered home the tax advantage of ETFs versus traditional funds with the capital gains statements.

Global CEO of iShares Lee Kranefuss warned active fund investors of the "double whammy" headed their way at year-end.

Laying claim to the same message, WisdomTree CEO Jonathan Steinberg said in a statement, "Many investors in actively managed mutual funds will be doubly hit with capital gains distributions on top of market losses."

The capital gains information released by the ETF companies are preliminary estimates and can change before final calculations are made at year-end.