1. Relief from double taxation of dividend income.
- Author
-
Smith, Dan Throop
- Subjects
TAXATION of dividends ,DOUBLE taxation ,CORPORATE taxes ,STOCKHOLDERS ,ECONOMIC policy ,TAX deductions ,CAPITAL costs ,INCOME tax ,TAX rates ,TAXATION - Abstract
Just about everyone is convinced that some form of relief from double taxation is desirable. All agree that it is not equitable or sensible economic policy that corporations pay taxes on corporate income above $50,000, and that individuals pay taxes on the dividends that come from the already taxed corporate income. What people are not agreed on, however, is the best form of relief. The author of this article describes the currently proposed methods of relief, namely, at the corporate level, by allowing deductions for dividends paid; at the stockholder level, by allowing full or partial exemption for dividends received, and by imputing the full income of corporations to stockholders as presumptive partners. The author also describes Robert N. Anthony's plan for accounting for the cost of equity capital as it might be adapted for tax purposes. Although none of the methods completely ends the discriminatory treatment of equity capital as compared with debt capital, the author concludes that in the long run, a combination of relief at the corporate level by deduction of part of the dividends paid, and at the stockholder level with some part of a corporation's tax being applied as a credit to individuals' taxes, might be most effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 1977