Companies from Wynn Resorts Ltd. to IDT Corp. are paying special dividends at four times the pace of last year, helping investors stay a step ahead of the taxman with rates poised to jump in 2013.

From the end of September to mid-November, 59 companies in the Russell 3000 stock index declared a one-time cash payment to shareholders, up from about 15 in the year-earlier period, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. More than a dozen said they acted because of a pending dividend-tax increase.

Congress is poised to let the rate on dividends, which was lowered to 15 percent during the George W. Bush administration, increase after President Barack Obama won a second term on a pledge to exact more revenue from top earners. Obama highlighted low levies on dividends and capital gains as one reason Mitt Romney, his Republican opponent with an estimated $250 million fortune, paid a lower income-tax rate than average workers.