[ by Melanie Gretchen ]

Buyers: get your credit cards ready.  One-time payouts may have their time over the next 3 months, when corporations will issue a deluge of special dividends, in anticipation of higher tax rates next year, according to Goldman Sachs and investors.  Though that may change depending on the election (for his part, presidential candidate Mitt Romney has proposed keeping rates at the current 15% for everyone), investors would seem to have a lot to gain from the re-election of President Barack Obama.

The Numbers.

• The 15% tax rate set to expire at the end of this year could more than double for many investors if President Obama wins a 2nd term and his tax proposals are enacted as a resolution to the so-called fiscal cliff
• Under one of the president’s proposals, the rate will leap up to 39.6% for the highest income earners
• Under another of the president’s proposals, that rate could be as high as 43.4% when one includes a 3.8% tax on "unearned income" for those with a gross income above $250,000 a year

The Benefit of Special Dividends. The one-time payout derived from special dividends and an overall hunt for yield by investors has driven the stock market to 4-year highs.  Indeed, when the Bush tax cuts were first set to expire at year-end, corporations ended up paying double the number of special dividends that were issued in 2009.

"A well capitalized corporate America, flush with cash, and a potential shift, regardless of party, in the tax rate higher in 2013 augur a wave of special dividend announcements.  Combining the year-to-date special dividend announcements with the traditional 4Q trend, we expect 2012 to set a record." -- Robert Boroujerdi, of Goldman Sachs, in a note to clients Friday.

C-I Note: Could we duplicate similar success?  Will the benefits trickle down?  Could that success be the kind of boost the industry has been waiting for (needing)?

For further details, go to [CNBC, 9/21/12].