Oracle to prepay $867m dividends Oracle said on Monday it would pre-pay $867m worth of dividends that would otherwise not have fallen due until 2013, making it the latest US company to accelerate the distribution of cash to help shareholders offset some of the risk of higher taxes. Among the biggest beneficiaries of the move will be Larry Ellison, Oracle's co-founder and chief executive, who will receive a one-off payment of $205m from his stake in the database software group. In a filing with the SEC, Oracle said Mr Ellison "did not participate in the deliberation or the vote on this matter." The announcement follows a spate of special dividend payments by other US companies as politicians in Washington debate how to avoid the automatic tax hikes and spending cuts that would be forced by the fiscal cliff. Higher taxes on dividends and capital gains, which are taxed at 15 per cent, are among the ideas proposed in some quarters. Costco last week announced a special dividend of $3bn to its shareholders to beat the end-of-year deadline that would bring automatic tax rises if a deal in Washington is not reached. The accelerated Oracle payment could save Mr Ellison more than $30m, if the lower tax rate instituted by the Bush administration is reversed. The software company said that it would pay a dividend of 18 cents a share for stockholders of record on December 14, with the payment being made on December 21. Referring to the distribution as an "accelerated" payment, Oracle said that it would not make the usual regular quarterly payments it would have made over the following three quarters as a result. A number of other US companies whose directors own a significant amount of stock, putting them at risk from higher tax rates, have also announced one-off dividends in recent weeks, including Franklin Resources, Wynn Resorts and Werner Enterprises.