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A comment on Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summaries and social video. Parent comment

Re:Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summar... by nickff on Tuesday October 21, 2025 @01:31AM (#45652760)
If a company retains earnings, it has to pay taxes on them (as profits), but the money is still at risk (from a shareholder’s point of view) if something bad happens to the company (lawsuit or market problem). Shareholders usually want to receive whatever money the company has saved up, to safeguard it from being lost for no reason, and so that they (the shareholder) can put it to use elsewhere. This would change if the government stopped taxing retained earnings.
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Re:Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summar... by selfhoster11 on Tuesday October 21, 2025 @08:56AM (#45655168)
That doesn't fully explain why this doesn't happen with non-profits.
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Re:Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summar... by olalonde on Tuesday October 21, 2025 @04:43PM (#45661446)
Many nonprofits do this — it’s called an endowment fund.
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Re:Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summar... by ta1243 on Tuesday October 21, 2025 @03:33PM (#45660578)
> This would change if the government stopped taxing retained earnings.

No it wouldn't, because

> the money is still at risk (from a shareholder’s point of view) if something bad happens to the company (lawsuit or market problem).

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Re:Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summar... by warkdarrior on Tuesday October 21, 2025 @06:52PM (#45662746)
It would definitely change, because a shareholder could then take a loan against the non-taxed retained earnings they are owed. So then it comes down to whether the tax is higher or lower than the loan interest (adjust for the risk you mentioned).
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Re:Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summar... by lottin on Tuesday October 21, 2025 @06:03PM (#45662308)
Retained earnings are not taxed per se. A company pays taxes on profits. Whether the profits are distributed to shareholders or retained makes no difference whatsoever as far as taxes are concerned.
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Re:Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summar... by nickff on Tuesday October 21, 2025 @06:46PM (#45662691)
They are taxed; they are taxed because they are a subset of profits, which is a taxed category. They are not taxed more than other profits, but that doesn’t mean they’re ’not taxed’.
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Re:Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summar... by blibble on Tuesday October 21, 2025 @08:28PM (#45663571)
they are not

retained earnings by definition are the accumulation of net incomes, and net income by definition is post tax

what went into the produce the retained earnings (profit) has been taxed

but the retained earnings themselves are not subject to additional taxation (with a few exceptions)

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