AccessMyLibrary provides FREE access to over 30 million articles from top publications available through your library.
Create a link to this page
Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:
Why I'll vote for the dividend tax cut. (the Tax Economist).
I'n the year 2000, for the first time ever, a majority of Americans owned stocks. Unfortunately, many savers joined this growing investor class just in time to be mauled by the most vicious bear market in years. Even profitable firms found their stock prices depressed as skittish investors abandoned many companies reporting solid earnings.
It doesn't have to be this way. Investing in equities shouldn't be a gamble, but a rational act based on the calculation that owning part of a profitable firm will produce wealth in the future either through increased value or dividends paid. It should be irrelevant that other firms are losing money. Even in a down market, a profitable company should be able to protect its investors by distributing its earnings as dividends.
But this doesn't happen as much any more. Why? Because the tax code punishes both the companies that pay dividends, and the investors who receive them.
Unlike most of the industrialized world, the United States imposes a double tax on dividends--once as corporate earnings, and then again when those earnings are distributed as dividends. The resulting rate typically exceeds 60 percent. Taxpayers making as little as $20,000 per year stand to lose almost half of their dividends to federal taxes. As a result, companies don't want to pay dividends, and all except tax-exempt investors don't want to get them.
Even high-tax nations such as France have seen the folly of this practice, and ended double taxation of dividends. But as double taxation continues in the U.S., the percentage of large companies paying zero dividends grows every year. Since 1980, the number of companies in the S&P 500 paying no dividends has tripled. Today, a majority of NASDAQ companies pay no regular dividends at all.
Shareholders have lost not only the cash flow that dividends represent, but also a valuable signal that the earnings of the corporations they hold stock in are solid and real. In a post-Enron/ post-Andersen world in which every earnings report is suspect, rehabilitating dividends as proof of profitability would ...
- Seniors Group Calls on Congress to 'Ax the Double Tax!'; Seniors Coalition...
- Press release article from: PR Newswire March 5, 2003 700+ words
...to "ax the double tax" on dividend income at a...taxation of their dividends. The national...half of all dividend payments, and...only receive dividends, the median dividend income is about...supporting the anti- double tax legislation...
- Bush gives dividend funds a lift: Set to end double tax.
- News wire article from: The America's Intelligence Wire February 3, 2003 700+ words
...orphans cut its dividend from $1.12...ve grown the dividend." TransCanada...double taxation of dividends that was put in...by putting a double tax on dividends, every time it...company pays a dividend to another company...
- Eliminate the double tax on dividends.
- Magazine article from: Journal of Accountancy Thomas, Deborah W. Sellers, Keith F. November 1, 1994 700+ words
...shareholders as dividends. Renewed...Elimination of the Double Tax on Dividends, in 1975...cannot deduct dividend payments...eliminated the double tax on corporate...example, if dividend and interest...ways. If dividends are paid...
- Double tax of dividends.(Speak Out)(Brief Article)
- Magazine article from: California CPA Yip, Darrell March 1, 2005 700+ words
...Double taxation of dividends?" (California CPA...that this is truly a double tax on the same income...alleviated with the qualified dividend rate now at 15 percent...there was and still is a double tax in effect. DARRELL YIP...
- FACT SHEET: THE PRESIDENT'S PROPOSAL TO END THE DOUBLE TAX ON.
- News wire article from: The America's Intelligence Wire January 14, 2003 700+ words
...bear the double tax, while dividends are not deductible...downturns. The double tax discourages...from paying dividends - indeed...eliminating the double tax. The fully...profits as dividends? Businesses...received a cash dividend and reinvested...
- CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS SUPPORT END OF DOUBLE TAX ON SAVINGS.
- News wire article from: The America's Intelligence Wire March 5, 2003 700+ words
...But the double tax punishes...half of all dividend payments...income from dividends of less than...to end the double tax on savings...assurances that dividend tax relief...stamped out dividends as a way...repeal of the double tax on savings...
- FACT SHEET: ENDING THE DOUBLE TAX ON CORPORATE EARNINGS.
- News wire article from: The America's Intelligence Wire January 14, 2003 700+ words
...shareholders in the form of dividends, the income generally...equity in the form of dividends are not. Excessive...are not subject to the double tax. Third, double taxation...earnings in the form of dividends, distorting investment...Computing the Excludable Dividend Amount To ...
- High Court finds UKi?1/2s double tax rule unlawful.
- Magazine article from: Accountancy Age December 4, 2008 700+ words
...High Court finds UK's double tax rule unlawful Judith...pounds in tax on foreign dividend payments from the Treasury...High Court ruling on 'double tax' rules failed to clarify...in rebates over the double tax dividend system, but tax experts...
- Liechtenstein And Double Tax Treaties?
- News wire article from: Mondaq Business Briefing Frick, Roger January 3, 2007 700+ words
...this the end of dividend withholding taxes...does not have any double tax treaty, apart...this the end of double tax treaties at all...double taxation for dividend payments? ECJ...liability to tax on dividends paid to a non...
- CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS HOST 'AX THE DOUBLE TAX' PRESS.
- News wire article from: The America's Intelligence Wire March 4, 2003 700+ words
...Double Taxation Of Dividends WASHINGTON (Tuesday...Congress to end the unfair double tax on dividends this Wednesday in S...citizens. WHAT: 'Ax The Double Tax' Press Conference...receive half of all dividend payments. Moreover...
Source: HighBeam Research, Why I'll vote for the dividend tax cut. (the Tax Economist).