I knew I shouldn't have kept reading...
You can perhaps sit there and argue with a straight face that taxing me because I sell stock to you is somehow taxing the corporations that the stock is in. The corporation, and other sane people, will disagree, as they appear to have the same money at the start and end and don't even know I sold the stock, but perhaps you can argue that this 'second tax' happens. But it's kinda moot when the first tax only happened in your imagination.
I never said anything like this. It is taxing the individual. Both the first and second tax happened, and especially in this case, since this is where you believe is the only place the first tax happens.
All this because you thought objecting to someone explaining dividends was clever. (When, in reality, an argument can be made that dividends are double-taxed, which is what the non-stupid people in this argument assumed you were talking about before you started insisting this had nothing to do with dividends.)
Yes, dividends are also double-taxed. There is a reason capital gains and dividends taxes are so similar--it's because they are so closely tied to the profit of the corporation. The increase in value you get from a dividend is equal to the increase in value you can get with capital gains. Look at the entire life of a company. People invest in the IPO. They are able to sell their shares at some point because that company has a value, and will one day either give a dividend, or be sold. Think about it. Imagine a world where companies do not give dividends, and are never sold. There would be no possible incentive to buy stock. There is no other reason for someone to buy stocks. This is *all* *directly* valued by current and expected future profits.