Corporate Finance Explained | Buybacks in the Excise Tax Era

Is a 1% tax enough to change how corporate America returns billions of dollars to shareholders?

In this episode of Corporate Finance Explained, we explore the economics of stock buybacks, the new federal 1% excise tax on share repurchases, and why capital allocation decisions can create enormous shareholder value or destroy it.

Stock buybacks have become the dominant way companies return capital to investors, but not every repurchase creates value. We break down how buybacks affect earnings per share (EPS), why valuation matters, how the new buyback tax changes the math, and why companies like Apple and JPMorgan approach repurchases very differently than businesses that have made costly capital allocation mistakes.