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How much tax is paid on dividends? November 20, 2017
I have this brilliant idea about corporate taxes, and that is they should be eliminated altogether. To offset the lost revenue, all dividends and long-term capital gains would be taxed as ordinary income. Currently, the top rate on dividends and long-term capital gains is 20% plus a 3.8% Medicare tax, bringing the total to 23.8%. The top rate on ordinary income is 39.6%.
This is been suggested by others, but my plan differs because corporations would be required to immediately distribute all profits to shareholders. There would be no such thing as "retained earnings." And taxes would be withheld from those dividends, just as with wages. Details are in my April 16, 2015 story. In that story, I claimed that my plan would increase federal revenues by $139.3 billion a year, and I provided figures to support my contention. But I'm an amateur, so I worry that I am missing something.
Figures are available on total corporate income and the total amount of undistributed profits. The difference between those two figures is the amount of distributed profits, or dividends. What I would like to know is the total tax paid on those dividends. If I knew that, I could calculate how much tax would be collected if all corporate profits were distributed. From what I've read, a large portion of dividends don't get taxed at all because they go to non-profits.
I had no luck Googling the amount of tax paid on dividends, so I had another brilliant idea: ask my congressman. That would be Mike Bishop. Getting information for constituents seems like a reasonable service a congressman's office might provide, right? Seems like they might know where to get that information. He is, after all, on the Ways and Means Committee.
Bishop's website has a page where you can send him a message, so I asked if he could get me the amount of distributed corporate profits and the amount of tax paid on those dividends for the most recent year they are available. His response was prompt but disappointing. It appears that his staff - or maybe a computer program - picked up on the word "tax" in my message and assumed I wanted to express my views on the Republican tax reform. So instead of an answer to my question, I got a long speech on how he wanted to "bring down tax rates for all Americans and simplify the tax code" blah blah blah.
Any suggestions on where I can get an answer to my question?
Send comments, questions, and tips to stevenrharry@gmail.com, or call or text me at 517-505-2696. If you'd like to be notified by email when I post a new story, let me know.
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