Don Nickles: “I stated publicly that I think that leaves a lot to be desired. So the amendment we will be offering tomorrow will…”

“I stated publicly that I think that leaves a lot to be desired. So the amendment we will be offering tomorrow will enhance that, improve that. It would say for all taxpayers, for dividend exclusion, our effort is to eliminate double taxation of dividends. Unfortunately, we find ourselves presently where we tax dividends more than almost any other country in the world. Now we are, as a free enterprise, as capitalistic as anybody in the world, but we tax the distribution of profits, i.e., dividends from corporations, higher than almost anybody, i.e., dividends, higher than Great Britain, France, and Italy. Japan is basically tied with us. We tax dividends at 35 percent of the corporate level and whatever the individual taxpayer's rate is. So if the taxpayer is at 38.6, it is that amount plus 35. So their tax is 73 percent; almost three-fourths of the distribution of profits is taxed. That makes no sense.”