The Bush Plan

29 Pages 7291 Words

after-tax dividends:
Dividends without taxes:
GAIN:



In his most controversial move, Bush called for the complete elimination of the tax on stock dividends for individual shareholders. The estimated cost of doing so would be more than $300 billion, or nearly half the cost of his total stimulus package. The president made the proposal to end what he called the "double taxation" of dividends. Currently, dividends are taxed twice: Companies pay dividends out of earnings that have already been taxed, then shareholders pay tax on dividends received. According to IRS data, just over 25 percent of U.S. tax filers claimed any dividend income on their 2000 returns, and 63 percent of the dividend income declared went to taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes of $100,000 or more. Helping the unemployedBush will ask Congress to extend federal unemployment benefits for more than 750,000 Americans whose benefits expired Dec. 28. In addition, Bush also wants to give states $3.6 billion to fund "personal re-employment accounts." An unemplo...