Intel Corp (INTC)

[wbmw]

Tell it to Elmer. He thinks that he's paying more than 15% on the money he makes from dividends, because Intel paid income taxes and he owns a share of Intel.

He JUST SAID IT:

"MY tax burden. 27.2% + 15% = 42.2%"

You're nit-picking. His issue isn't 42%, it's that he's paying any taxes at all on money that has already been taxed. He believes that as a shareholder of the company, he owns his share of all the income already - and so he defines the dividend is a cash payment from the pool of money that he already owns. Therefore, he's arguing that it's double-taxation, and his basis is arguably without flaw.

If you're arguing against the double-taxation argument, then whether the real tax is 42.2%, or 15% with some amount of lost potential, or 27.2% with some portion of dollars taxed again at a lower 15% rate - all of these are versions of the same argument, and just nit-picking over the math.