[hippich]

dividends are treated almost the same way. at least from tax rate point. now - you can offset dividends by other losses, but you can do similarly if you have just W2 income and run side business losing money (with few caveats)

EDIT: Thanks JediWing - I have no clue why I thought dividends are taxed at the same level. Thank you correcting me.

[JediWing]

Dividends are a flat 15% for earners under ~425k income, and a flat 20% for those over.

This means that a stock grant with a generous dividend is a loophole for high earners...in addition to simply adding complexity and magic thresholds to the tax code. It seems to me to be just bad policy.