📅 On This Day
2001 Tax Law Quietly Tilts Corporate America Toward Buybacks
On June 7, 2001, President George W. Bush signed the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act into law. Though the 2003 dividend tax cut tends to get the headlines, this earlier act — reducing capital gains taxes and beginning the estate tax phase-out — made buybacks structurally more attractive to high-net-worth investors and corporate boards alike. The shift away from traditional cash dividends began here, in the fine print.
EGTRRA's capital-gains tilt set the stage for a quieter, but lasting, reordering of how companies return cash to shareholders.
🇺🇸 US
Source: Public Law 107-16, 115 Stat. 38 (EGTRRA of 2001); Congressional Research Service Tax Reports
🌍 Around the World
Philippine REITs Offer Rich Yields, But the Taxman Arrives First
The Philippines imposes a 25% withholding tax on dividends paid to non-resident aliens — among the highest default rates in Asia — and treaty-based reductions come with a notoriously slow reclaim process. Against that backdrop, PH-REITs stand apart: mandated to distribute at least 90% of distributable income on a quarterly basis, they deliver yields in the 6–8% range. Investors should also note that Philippine conglomerates like SM and Ayala frequently pay dividends in new shares rather than cash, adding cost-basis complexity.
High friction, high yield: the Philippines rewards patient income investors who do their withholding homework.
🇵🇭 PH
Source: PwC Philippines withholding tax summary; Republic Act 9856 (PH-REIT Act)
🔥 Dividend Streak
York Water Has Paid Dividends Since 1816, Through Every Storm
When York Water Company first distributed dividends to shareholders in 1816, James Madison was president and the United States counted just 18 states. The small Pennsylvania water utility has kept that record intact through the Civil War, two World Wars, the Great Depression, and the 2008 financial crisis — a streak of quiet, unbroken reliability that few companies anywhere can claim to rival.
YORW's unbroken record since 1816 is a reminder that the most enduring dividend payers often do the most unglamorous work.
YORW — The York Water Company
🇺🇸 US
Source: York Water Company investor relations
💡 Did You Know
Nutmeg's 32,000% Markup Once Funded History's First Dividends
The spices that bankrolled the VOC's early shareholder payouts were, by any measure, extraordinary commodities. Nutmeg's markup from the Banda Islands to European markets reportedly reached roughly 32,000% — a 320-fold increase — while mace, the rarer membrane surrounding the seed, could cover a sailor's wages from a single small pouch. Pepper, the workhorse of the trade, once functioned as literal currency, settling rents and ransoms by the peppercorn.
When supply flooded in and prices collapsed, spices stopped being money — and the VOC's dividend engine had to find new fuel.
🇳🇱 NL
Source: EBSCO; Go2Tutors/Substack; Michael Krondl