Typically a dividend payout in a taxable account is taxed as ordinary income at the taxpayer's nominal tax rate. For retirement accounts this won't be an issue.

There are ways to structure a dividend payout such that it is treated as a return of capital, and thus taxed as capital gains, which have much lower tax rates than ordinary income.

We discussed this here a few months back, when Gerald first mentioned the spin-off and dividend possibility. I suspect Gerald may structure a dividend payout in this way to benefit shareholders. We shall see. The majority of my shares are in my Roth, so it won't have much impact on me either way, but I'd love to see other shareholders have less of a tax hit when it happens.