4 Big Tech giants have plowed over $1 trillion into stock buybacks in 10 years — more than Tesla or Meta’s entire market value::Apple poured over $600 billion into buybacks in the decade to March 31, exceeding Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta’s combined spending.
Because buybacks are already taxed at the normal capital gains tax rate. Targeting stock buybacks is stupid. Just say you want to increase corporate taxes overall. Easier and more effective at raising money.
They’re trying to discourage buybacks.
But this is not enough. The fact that companies put this money into the stock value itself instead of the company should be discouraged.
I don’t understand how this is not manipulating the stock price when done at this scale.
It’s the same thing.
It’s not because they announce it way ahead of time. Manipulation would be Apple buying a bunch of stock right before they announce the new iPhone, then selling after the announcement. That’s very illegal.
Giving money to existing shareholders is completely legal (as long as you give it equally per share) because it’s the shareholders’ money. They own the company.
Your example would be manipulating for the company. Stock buybacks primarily manipulate for the execs and large shareholders. Even though they have reporting requirements, they benefit from the general increases in price.
If the company wants to give money to shareholders, they could do that in the form of dividends.
No one is being manipulated. The company is handing the stockholders their own profits. Dividends are the same thing, just taxed differently.