what is on the horizon for leveraged buyback regulation 
in the inflation reduction act of 2022 there is a 1 excise tax on buybacks exceeding 1 million as of jan 1 2023 president biden also announced in his feb 2023 state of the union address that he would propose quadrupling the tax on corporate stock repurchases although this is yet to be officially announced and it is unclear whether it would apply to leveraged buybacks specifically the bottom lineleveraged buybacks are corporate finance transactions through which a company repurchases a quantity of its shares using debt with added debt many companies that complete a leveraged buyback also institutes cost cutting or downsizing measures leveraged repurchases are often used to increase a corporation s earnings per share buy reducing the overall number of shares outstanding this does not fundamentally impact the company s underlying performance or value this technique can also help to decapitalize a balance sheet buybacks in general have been a target of the biden administration first through a 1 excise tax in the inflation reduction act of 2022 and more recently via comments the president made in the 2023 state of the union address 