This guy wants to pass a bill that would put an additional 25% tax on all transactions of any normal account trading over $100,000 in stocks, options ect. (that means if you had an account with only $10,000, and traded the whole amount 10 times for a small profit, this applies to you too). If something like this passed it would be HORRIBLE for the market. Wow....dumbest idea ever. Article is below:
;contentBody
Uhhh, did you actually read the article, or are you just a republican? You couldn't have misinterpreted the article any more without being an obvious troll.
It's .25 percent...like 1/4 of 1 percent, and it only applies to options, swaps, futures, etc...I don't know any average people doing options trading with their retirement funds. And the tax is refunded on transactions up to 100K for 'average' investment tools.
This is a great idea. Unless Wall Street would prefer that our economy collapsed completely in the next decade. Then just keep doing what you're doing.
Pwned
If you have attended any of the Tea Parties, you will know that the OP's view on life is very well represented. You see all sorts of individuals who have read some headline, or listened to some blurb on Glenn Beck, and in their passion they create a straw man to absorb their fear and insecurity. There is very little substantive understanding of the issues. I don't agree with this proposed tax for a variety of reasons, but I don't need to flail my arms and scream about it because I understand the details and can evaluate it logically.
Yes, but can you say that without shedding a Beck-ian tear.
Personally I am opposed to any and all new taxes and tax hikes. We are already paying an insane amount of tax, the government needs to cut spending in order to bring the deficit down not tax us more.
An Engineer wrote:
Personally I am opposed to any and all new taxes and tax hikes. We are already paying an insane amount of tax, the government needs to cut spending in order to bring the deficit down not tax us more.
Agreed. I don't understand why the current government's answer to everything is more taxes and more spending.
If we put citizen's money back in their own pocket, we could actually grow this economy. That makes too much sense though...
common wrote:
This is a great idea. Unless Wall Street would prefer that our economy collapsed completely in the next decade. Then just keep doing what you're doing.
Despite the name "Let Wall Street Pay for the Restoration of Main Street Act" this is a tax on individuals, NOT Wall Street. Only a Democrat would consider a guy at home buying $200,000 worth of an ETF to be on a par with Goldman Sachs.
We don't need to raise taxes on anybody. We need to stop taking money from tax payers and giving it private corporations. The problem isn't tax payers paying too little. The problem is the government doing stupid, corrupt, and illegal things with our money.
An Engineer wrote:
Personally I am opposed to any and all new taxes and tax hikes. We are already paying an insane amount of tax, the government needs to cut spending in order to bring the deficit down not tax us more.
Reagan is that you?
Cut spending...except of course when it comes to defense right?
Most taxed countries:
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Taxes/P148855.asphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_revenue_as_percentage_of_GDPYep...GOP never spends a dime:
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/news_detail.asp?newsID=31Financial Conservatism born and died with Reagan.
Alan
common wrote:
It's .25 percent...like 1/4 of 1 percent, and it only applies to options, swaps, futures, etc...I don't know any average people doing options trading with their retirement funds. And the tax is refunded on transactions up to 100K for 'average' investment tools.
Also, while you made fun of the OP's math error, you made a glaring error yourself. The tax also applies to stocks - many average people trade stocks.
I'll agree that 1/4 of 1 percent sounds small, until you do the math. Once you're over the $100,000 threshold you're taxed $2.50 every time you trade $1,000. Say you're over the threshold. You buy a $50,000 ETF and then sell it 11 months later for a 10% gain. You'll have to pay $262.50 in taxes, that's over 5% of your gain plus whatever income taxes you have to pay. The tax would be 10-20 times larger than the transaction fees you pay your broker. For what? This isn't sticking it to Wall Street. It's sticking it to you!
It's even worse if you suffer a loss. You still have to pay the tax, making the loss even bigger. Not even income taxes do that.
Oh noes. Were going to become: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U06jlgpMtQs
He says that the experience in the UK shows that such a tax does not drive trading overseas. The reason for that is that there is an easy way around it, by trading through contracts for differences.
If you call up City Index, you can punt on Vodafone as well as Man U.
The kicker is that gambling winnings are tax free!
Aren't taxes right now at nearly their lowest ever?Cutting spending doesn't help pay for what has already been spent in the past like infrastructure, social programs, wars and stimulus from the current and the previous administration to keep the economy going.It's so easy to say you don't want higher taxes and it is so easy for politicians to get into office by promising lower taxes. But I am sure you will complain if pot holes don't get fixed or if you see homeless people sleeping near your Starbucks.
An Engineer wrote:
Personally I am opposed to any and all new taxes and tax hikes. We are already paying an insane amount of tax, the government needs to cut spending in order to bring the deficit down not tax us more.
It sounds like a good idea to me. People that are investing in the stock market are adding nothing productive to the economy or our country. Raise taxes on speculators and reduce taxes on earned wages.
Do mutual funds use swaps or options? If so, would they be considered part of the refundable group?
Not Easy wrote:
Aren't taxes right now at nearly their lowest ever?
No, not even close:
http://www.heritage.org/research/features/BudgetChartBook/Images/taxes-tax-rates_02-580.jpgThe US didn't have any federal internal taxes from 1817 to 1862, the government was supported by tariffs only. An income tax was instituted in 1862 to pay for the Civil War, but it was declared unconstitutional in 1872. In 1913, the 16th Amendment instituted an income tax. For most of the nations history, most Americans paid little if any taxes to the feds.
BTW, the gas tax fixes the potholes, and the feds do nothing to help homeless people.
UsedToBeKnowItAll wrote:
People that are investing in the stock market are adding nothing productive to the economy or our country.
So people who provide funding to corporations to expand business and hire people do nothing to help our economy or country?
Wait a minute. Why blame the government? They are the ones stuck cleaning up whatever mess happens for whatever reason. Companies don't clean up any mess ever they just go out of business.
You can not just blame the government for doing stupid and even corrupt things. Of course they do these things but they are not in it alone. The companies take the money. We the shareholders take the money. The companies do things for the short term because they only intend to be around for the short term. Then people only blame the government which is around for the long haul and can't hide.
Once companies throw out all sense of right and wrong for profit there is nothing the government can do until we, the people, start holding immoral companies responsible and stop buying what their products and their stock.
A quick rule of thumb is: no passed legislation in this country will hurt the major players. That's why they've got lobbyists. If this passes it'll probably just effect individual investors
The tax applies to stock transactions as well, not just derivatives. Mutual funds are not carved out, so I would imagine they are hit as well. Maybe you as an investor would get rebated when you file your taxes.
If his estimate of revenue raised assumes that trading volume doesn't change, then it is garbage. This will kill almost all program trading, stat arb, high frequency trading, etc. The exchanges will see a massive dropoff in revenue, and will fight this tooth and nail.
This is just feel-good leftist pablum. If something like this passes, which I think is almost impossible, it will have to have some sort of loophole that allows institutional investors to get around it.
