Hey, Mainhiker, this is the right place for political discussions even name calling (liberal, conservative, right and left wing, fascists and communist, you name it everything goes). As for mlsoft and for that matter our full administration, think they are very short sighted, they are not considering the long term ramifications of what they are doing, not just on the international political scene, but even on the domestic taxation scene.
That dividend exclusion in taxation is a catastrophe, long term. It will have long term negative impact on other tax free instruments (tax free to payees), will not create an incentive to have a better equity vs debt financial structure in corporate America) since interest on debt will still be deductible to corporations, but dividend paid will not).
That new dividend exclusion policy is a travesty as far as the retired and retiring population is concerned, since it shifts the tax burden on them. These people have their dividends paid into various IRA and 401-k accounts, and guess what, when these people take out their money from such accounts, including dividends paid, they will be the one paying taxes on those dividends. I have seen somewhere that almost 50% of all dividends paid by corporate America is into such accounts. I a sure that the current Republican crop of policy makers are simply stupid not seeing what are the long term repercussions of that taxation change. Why stupid rather than heartless, since I cannot believe they really think that the burden of taxation should be shifted to the retired and retiring population. They simply do not see it, thus they are stupid.
This administration is using "knee jerk" reaction to problem in lieu of healthy long term considerations and policies.
All this, and I am not even a liberal....
Zeev
AI
