Taxes...
So, there might be a cut in the tax rate on dividends. Any opinions on what it will do to dividend paying stocks and how best to position ourselves for the effect?
my musings --
1. They are talking of lowering the tax on dividends to be the same as cap gains. 20% or so. One justification is to elim the double taxation. REITs & BDCs are not double taxed, I wonder if their dividends will be lowered also.
2. So, evidently, interest income taxes will not be lowered. Should we ease out of preferred stocks and bonds?
3. How much will the stocks prices of div paying companies rise? If the tax rate is cut by 15%, do prices jump 15%, to give approx the same net yield?
4. This could be a real windfall. I am not so much looking at realizing a nice cap gain, because I'd keep my money invested and earning dividends. But there would be a sizable tax saving coming my way.
5. What do we do?
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O.T. Just thinking... This tax saving would cover my health insurance bill next year. Nice, while I'm thinking of it, here's my gripe with health care that I have not seen any media pick up on -- We all know about the problem of health insurance costs, but here's another problem -- with the present health insurance system, you cannot move out-of-state and keep your insurance. If you are buying your own insurance and have acquired any medical issues, you are stuck in your state. If you move, you lose insurance. This is almost like restraint of trade, or restricting interstate commerce?
I found this out when my neighbor tried to move to Virginia to be near her children. She could not move. And then, last week, my insurance company sent me revisions to my policy and (among other changes) they more explicitly spell out that if you move out of state, it's "adios m.f.".
jeez. does anyone care anymore? certainly U.S. politicians don't care because they have their health insurance covered for life. |
