Vawn Himmelsbach
5 min read
Back in February, James Fishback, founder and CEO of investment firm Azoria, proposed the idea of a “DOGE dividend” on social media. It was an idea that caught the attention of Elon Musk.
“American taxpayers deserve a ‘DOGE Dividend’: 20% the money that DOGE saves should be sent back to hard-working Americans as a tax refund check,” Fishback posted on X. “It was their money in the first place!”
He went on to say that — with $2 trillion in savings from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and 79 million tax-paying households — this payment would work out to about $5,000 per household, “with the remaining used to pay down the national debt.”
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DOGE chief Musk — who has since said he’s stepping back from his role — responded by saying he’d share the idea with President Donald Trump. The president then promoted the idea onstage at a summit on Feb. 19.
So, can you expect a DOGE dividend check any time soon?
Fishback’s proposal assumed that DOGE would achieve $2 trillion in cuts — but that doesn’t appear likely. Indeed, DOGE has revised its savings goal a few times from $2 trillion to $1 trillion and now to $150 billion.
If, however, DOGE was able to achieve $2 trillion in cuts, Fishback says 20% — or $400 billion — could then be divided among 79 million taxpaying households. That works out to $5,000 per household.
But his DOGE dividend would only go to households above a certain income threshold (those who don’t get a tax refund). In other words, lower-income Americans may not qualify.
Many Americans who have an adjusted gross income of under $40,000 owe little or no federal income tax, “especially after factoring in the effects of refundable tax credits, such as the child and earned-income credits,” according to the Pew Research Center.
Fishback says this makes the DOGE dividend different from the stimulus checks sent out as part of the 2021 American Rescue Plan during the COVID-19 pandemic — in which he says checks were sent out “indiscriminately,” according to NBC News.
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