Big win for Larry Ellison
- Deal: Oracle's accelerated dividend
- Ticker: ORCL
- Beneficiary: CEO Larry Ellison
- Potential tax savings : $58 million
Oracle's Larry Ellison might not have saved enough in taxes this year to buy another Hawaiian island, but the company's decision to push three quarterly dividends slated for 2013 to 2012 instead amounted to a tidy savings for the tech billionaire.
Oracle (ORCL) paid 18 cents a share to investors this year. Ellison received roughly $205 million on his roughly 1.14 billion in Oracle shares.
By getting the payout in 2012 with dividends taxed at 15%, he should pay just $31 million in taxes on those dividends. If Oracle had paid the dividends next year on its regular schedule, and dividend taxes jumped to 43.4% for the wealthiest Americans, Ellison would be expected to pay $89 million in taxes on those dividends.
Oracle did not return calls for comment. But when the company announced it was accelerating its dividend payment, it said Ellison did not take part in the decision.
