Mark Cuban says Senate's plan to tax stock buybacks tops the 'bad taxes' list

Billionaire investor Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, said that while buybacks are “everything wrong with what companies do,” the decision to place a levy on them is the top of the list of bad taxes.

Cuban — with a net worth of $5.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index — made the comments on Twitter late Wednesday after the U.S. Senate last week agreed to a 1% excise levy on share buybacks as part of a tax and climate package. The bill is expected to head to the House later this week.

That's all congress does. We agree there. But just say that. Don't try to justify buybacks. Buybacks, IMHO, are everything wrong with what companies do. It's a response to pressure from big investors, to CSuite who want to engineer EPS, to try to goose the stock, to hit bonuses
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) August 11, 2022

There are no good taxes. But, when Congress sees financial engineering, and it's to the exclusion of a significant number of stakeholders, of all the bad taxes, taxing buybacks rockets to the top of the list.
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) August 11, 2022

If it were my call, I would have created an exemption to the tax that said if all employees receive shares at an equal ratio to their W2 + Kx pay, then no tax. But we know few CEOs would accept that. So I would have made the tax 2% 🙂
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) August 11, 2022

Enjoyed exchanging ideas on the tax on stock buybacks. We seem to agree that there are no good taxes. (I don't want to speak for @norbertjmichel ) But, sometimes there are necessary taxes. Click below to see the full thread ! https://t.co/0L0ejKh0pT
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) August 11, 2022

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