Michael's point was that person A (someone with a high ordinary income) will have approximately double the tax bill of person B (someone with capital gains income) on an absolute basis, and that he believes this disparity to be unfair.
If you choose to create/invest in a corporation, you accept double-taxation as the cost of the benefits afforded by the corporate form.
Is the dividend/capital-gain increase across the board? Or is it bucketed progressively like the income tax rates?
Below $35k income: the 0% capital-gains/dividend rate is retained
Between $35k-$200k incomes: the 15% rate is retained
Between $200k-$400k incomes: PPACA adds a 3.8% capital-gains surtax, but the 15% base rate is retained, effectively raising the marginal rate to 18.8%
Above $400k incomes: the base marginal rate rises from 15% to 20%, plus the 3.8%, for a total of 23.8%
>Nothing the government agreed to in the last few days actually affects the asset wealthy in this country.
The increased tax rate on dividends and capital gains definitely affects the "asset wealthy" in the country. In fact, both the top income tax rate and the dividend/capital gains tax rate for those making over $400k has increased by roughly the same amount [1].
However, complete inaction by government would have increased the dividend tax rate even more, so that it would have been considered ordinary income (43.4% top rate) [2]. The legislation passed on 12/31 and 1/1 by Congress definitely helped the asset wealthy. Oracle pays a 18c dividend per share, and Larry Ellison owns roughly a billion Oracle shares. The dividend tax savings he'll receive from this legislation is massive.
[1] The top income tax rate goes from 35% to 43.4% (39.6% + 3.8% health care tax) and the top dividend/capgains tax rate goes from 15% to 23.8% (20% + 3.8% health care tax). If person A makes $100MM in salary and person B makes $100MM in dividend/capgains in 2013, their relative tax rate increase compared to 2012 is about the same: 8.4% increase vs 8.8% increase.
[2] http://www.atr.org/trillion-obamacare-tax-hike-hitting-jan-a...
[3]http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-02/bipartisan-house-ba...