And since last autumn, the tax flipped
Read the line under the headline
A buyback lifts earnings per share by cutting the share count, not by earning more. And the same cash now reaches you taxed like a dividend.
01
Read the profit line before the per share line. Flat profit plus rising EPS is arithmetic, not business.
02
Ask what price they paid. Cheap shares reward the stayers, dear shares reward the leavers.
03
Count the tax now, not the sticker. A top slab holder keeps closer to two thirds of it.