Correct - apologies for not being clear... if I own a business and receive a dividend, I pay taxes. So that same income was taxed first at the corporate level and second at the personal level. THe evasion - which I consider to be a stretch here - is that by not paying a dividend it becomes trapped in retained earnings and the government doesn't receive its second piece.

I'm not saying I agree with the view here but the point is technically correct. A $100 of profit for Apple in the us is taxed 40% at corporate level to become $60 and by the time it gets to me it is worth 32

Not paying a dividend isn't remotely tax evasion, IMO.

It's barely even tax avoidance...

You two are agreeing.

Are acquisitions pre or post tax. I Don't know.

If they are pretax - You very well could evade taxes by spending excess money on acquisitions, allowing the stock price to increase based on future earnings. Then use step up capital gains when you die to avoid capital gains when transferring wealth to offspring.

Acquisitions are a capital asset and do not offset your tax liability. If a corporation earns $100 million and buys another company for $60 million, they still owe taxes on the full $100 million.

But it probably ought to