[Am-info] Microsoft to Issue First-Ever Dividend

[Eric M. Bennett]

Joe Barr wrote:

>You may also say "tax free."
>

According to a NY Times editorial the other day, companies which 
don't want to pay dividends complained about the Bush plan, and 
apparently the plan was modified in response so that dividends which 
could have been paid but weren't can be taken as a tax offset against 
future capital gains.  So even if Microsoft hadn't declared a 
dividend, Gates would probably still get the same tax savings under 
Bush's plan (on the condition, of course, the Microsoft's stock goes 
up).  So Microsoft might actually be telling the truth when they say 
that the timing of this announcement is just coincidence and isn't 
related to the tax proposals.


-- 
--
Eric Bennett / ericb@pobox.com / emb22@cornell.edu  www.pobox.com/~ericb/
Cornell University, Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology

One night I was watching the [Jerry Springer] show, and I realized there
were eight people screaming at each other, a chorus baying for blood, and
I thought - that's opera.
- Richard Thomas, composer for a new opera about Jerry Springer