📅 On This Day
Lincoln's 1862 Revenue Act Plants Seeds of Modern Tax Policy
On July 1, 1862, President Lincoln signed the Revenue Act into law, creating the first federal income tax and the office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue — a direct ancestor of today's IRS. The levy was born of Civil War necessity and repealed once the fighting ended, but the principle it established proved permanent. When the 16th Amendment arrived in 1913, that principle returned for good — and the tax treatment of dividends has been contested policy territory ever since.
A wartime emergency measure in 1862 quietly laid the constitutional groundwork that governs dividend taxation today.
🇺🇸 US
Source: IRS.gov; Library of Congress
🌍 Around the World
Norway's Energy Dividends Reward Patience, But Tax Bites Hard
Norway withholds 25% on dividends paid to non-resident shareholders, though the U.S.–Norway tax treaty reduces that rate to 15% — often applied at source for major ADRs such as Equinor (EQNR). For taxable accounts, IRS Form 1116 can recover the credit, and Norway's Skatteetaten portal handles excess reclaims in a relatively modern, efficient manner. The catch: IRA holders permanently surrender that 15% withholding, a meaningful drag on a high-yield energy position.
Norway's commodity-rich market can deliver generous, if variable, income — but foreign investors must plan carefully around the 25% headline withholding.
🇳🇴 NO
Source: Oslo Børs; PwC Tax Summaries
🔥 Dividend Streak
Buffett's Coca-Cola Stake Now Yields 20% on Original Cost
Warren Buffett assembled 400 million shares of Coca-Cola by 1994 for roughly $1.3 billion, starting at a yield of about 1.65%. After 63 consecutive annual dividend increases dating to 1963, that yield on cost has climbed to nearly 20%, and Berkshire now collects over $800 million a year from the single position. It is a striking illustration of how patient reinvestment in a growing dividend can transform a modest starting yield into an extraordinary income stream.
KO's streak of raises stretching back to 1963 turned a pedestrian entry yield into one of investing's most celebrated compounding stories.
KO — The Coca-Cola Company
Source: 247wallst.com, Feb 2026; Berkshire Hathaway filings
💡 Did You Know
Berkshire Hathaway Has Paid Just One Dividend — Back in 1967
Berkshire Hathaway issued a single ten-cent-per-share dividend in 1967 and has never declared another. Buffett famously quips he must have been in the bathroom when it was approved. The logic behind the silence is rigorous: his "one-dollar test," articulated in the 1984 shareholder letter, holds that Berkshire should retain earnings only if it can convert each dollar into more than a dollar of market value — and so far, the case for a public dividend has never been made.
One dime in 1967 remains BRK.B's entire dividend history — a deliberate choice, not an oversight.
BRK.B
🇺🇸 US
Source: Berkshire Hathaway 1984 & 2012 shareholder letters