Stocks for the Long Run : the Definitive Guide to Financial Market Returns and Long-term Investment Strategies

5

CHAPTER

THE IMPACT OF TAXES ON

STOCK AND BOND RETURNS

Stocks Have the Edge

In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.

BENJAMINFRANKLIN^1

The power to tax involves the power to destroy.

JOHNMARSHALL^2

For all long-term investors, there is only one objective—maximum

total real return after taxes.

JOHNTEMPLETON^3

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(^1) Letter to M. Leroy, 1789.
(^2) McCulloch v. Maryland, 1819.
(^3) Excerpts from “The Templeton Touch” by William Proctor, quoted in Charles D. Ellis, ed., Classics,
Homewood, Ill.: Dow Jones-Irwin, 1989, p. 738.
Copyright © 2008, 2002, 1998, 1994 by Jeremy J. Siegel. Click here for terms of use.