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Regulation and Compliance > Legislation

New Senate Bill Would Increase Stock Buyback Tax

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Top Democratic senators introduced Tuesday the Stock Buyback Accountability Act of 2023, legislation to increase taxes a publicly traded company incurs on buying back its own stock from 1% to 4%.

The bill, introduced by Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., will “help reinvest in the economy, while also preventing abuse and reducing tax avoidance, both of which are significant risks from stock buybacks,” according to the senators.

Introduction of the bill follows “a record year for stock buybacks, which topped $1.2 trillion, and recent reports that stock buybacks continue to be a popular option for highly profitable corporations,” Brown and Wyden said.

President Joe Biden, Brown and Wyden said, “called for this increase in his State of the Union address, urging Congress to crackdown on wealthy tax cheats who exploit loopholes and avoid paying their fair share of taxes.”

Stock buybacks aren’t the “bogeyman” many politicians and economists make them out to be, Cambria Investment Management co-founder Meb Faber told ThinkAdvisor in an interview in September.

Buybacks are good for investors, Faber said, calling the notion that they are used to fatten executive paychecks a myth. He pointed out that, aside from the Inflation Reduction Act, buybacks are taxed “when the company makes money and again when the investor receives payment.

“Taxing buybacks three times is obviously insane!” he said.


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