I'm not sure why you don't understand that corporations (C Corps) pay corporate income tax via an 1120 Corporate tax return. I'm also not sure why you don't understand that when they pay their shareholders a dividend that they issue a 1099 -DIV to the IRS and to the shareholder, and that the shareholder is responsible for reporting those dividends on his/her personal 1040 tax return and is responsible for paying the income tax on those earnings. The dividends they are distributing are from their earning which have already been taxed at the corporate level. This is not a new concept. If the corporation makes an S election then it can pass the earnings on to the shareholders via a K-1 and not pay corporate income tax. But the corporation in question is not a S Corp, it is a C Corp.