Thursday, December 27, 2012

A prosperous New Year for a few

CEOs are little more than modern day robber barons and scam artists. CEOs are authorizing dividend payments so they can avoid paying taxes on the dividends they allocate to themselves. In anticipation of higher taxes on dividends when the Bush tax cuts which capped tax on dividends and capital gains at the current rate of 15 percent and which now may rise as high as 43 percent if no special capital gains and dividend caps are part of the “fiscal cliff” resolution, corporations are paying out dividends early - even when they have to borrow to do so.

Walmart are moving up the payment of the quarterly dividends by a week which is about $1.34 billion in early dividends with roughly half of this amount going directly into the pockets of the Walton family. Corporations today have record amounts of cash on their books. Many businesses have been reluctant to re-invest income and are hoarding an exceptional accumulation of cash so there are a number of companies that could find it feasible to make such extraordinary cash distributions, without impeding their normal operational capabilities. Costco, however, has decided to issue a one-time "special dividend" of $7 a share. Costco is borrowing $3.5 billion to pay out $3 billion in early dividends, money it has not actually earned. The Washington Post Company are paying out the entire yearly dividend for 2013 in 2012 to avoid taxation, despite having negative cash flow of $75 million in the first 9 months of 2012. It will pay out about $70 million in early dividends which primarily benefits the Graham family and Warren Buffet. Buffet is the single largest shareholder. Oracle announced it would pay more than $800 million in next year's dividends this month. Ellison's share of the payout is $198.9 million, based on his ownership of 23 percent of the company's stock. Sheldon Adelson will be receiving $1.2 billion in dividends from the Las Vegas hotel, The Sands. His tax savings will be over $300 million, certainly enough for him to bankroll another election. Carnival CEO Mickey Arison will receive about $89 million in early dividend pay outs. The chemicals giant Dow Chemical Co has said in a statement that it will be distributing its dividend exactly one month before the previously announced date of 30th January 2013 despite a drop in profits, plant closures and job lay-offs.

“Because of the fiscal cliff, doing it this year makes sense,”
Ikonics President and CEO Bill Ulland said of the special dividend of $1 per share. “We have a lot of cash. The director’s job is to do what’s best for the shareholders. He decided the best thing was to give part of it to shareholders.”

Citizens Financial Services Inc. is an $880 million bank holding company will pay an accelerated dividend payment for the regularly scheduled dividend due for January 2013.

 Herman Miller or Steelcase, the furniture business, are also helping their shareholders avoid paying higher taxes by moving up its payment by more than two weeks to Dec. 27 in response to the "potentially negative impact on our shareholders from pending changes in federal income tax rates, on dividends"

They aren't alone. Others are Expedia, Cisco, McGraw-Hill, J.B. Hunt, Sotheby’s and Safeway are amongst the long list

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