The U.S. tax law equates the tax rate on dividends and long‐term capital gains on stock owned by U.S. citizens and residents. However, the taxation of these two types of rewards in the hands of foreign portfolio investors remains dramatically different from each other, with the capital gain being fully exempt. Several reasons support this article's proposal to no longer exempt these gains. Extending finance theory and prior normative tax research, this article argues that foreigners’ portfolio dividends and capital gains should be taxed in the same manner because they are economically equivalent and emanate from the same source. Three recent empirical developments also support repeal of the foreigner's exemption. First, there is now extensive use by U.S. corporations of stock repurchases—which are taxed to selling shareholders as capital gain—as a form of corporate payout that was in the past primarily accomplished through dividends. Second, foreign ownership of U.S. stocks has continued to increase, with an estimated one‐third of these stocks owned by foreigners. Third, the modern tax compliance environment—including aspects of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act that apply to foreigners—reduces past congressional and academic concerns about enforcing the taxation of foreigners’ portfolio gains.

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等同于美国对外国证券投资人的股息和资本利得的税收待遇

美国税法将股息率和美国公民和居民拥有的股票的长期资本利得税率等同。但是，外国投资组合人手中的这两种奖励的征税仍然彼此截然不同，资本收益完全免税。有几个理由支持本文的提议，即不再免除这些收益。本文扩展了金融理论和先前的规范性税收研究，认为外国人的投资组合股息和资本收益应以相同的方式征税，因为它们在经济上是等价的并且来自同一来源。最近的三个经验发展也支持废除外国人的豁免。首先，现在美国广泛使用 股票回购公司是作为公司支出的一种形式（过去主要通过股息来实现），这种回购是作为对资本收益征税给出售股东的资本。其次，外国对美国股票的所有权一直在增加，估计其中三分之一是外国人所拥有。第三，现代税收合规环境（包括适用于外国人的《外国账户税收合规法》的各个方面）减少了过去国会和学术界对加强对外国人资产收益征税的担忧。