Subject: Re: Dividends
. Earnings pile up, free of income tax.


There is a case to be made, but not with such inexact writing. Berkshire obviously pays vast amounts in corporate income tax, it's just that the remainder sitting within the company is not triggering personal income tax so long as it sits within the firm.

That second level of tax mainly just gets displaced to one remove, the moment that the shareholder sells and makes a personal capital gain, which can be deferred for a long time, or forever on some cases.

There is an excellent case to be made that all capital gains should be taxed at the same rate as ordinary income. Softened a pinch with inflation adjustment and year-to-year smoothing of marginal tax rates.

And also a good case to be made for slowly reducing personal income tax rates and especially employment taxes, while raising national sales tax rates.

Jim