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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CYBERKEN who wrote (730783)	3/10/2006 4:27:49 PM
From: JDN	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769670

I just finished my tax return today. I owed a bundle cause of phantom income. Most of the phantom income came from a stock option I exercised. The stock is restricted and cannot be sold by me to anyone other then the issuer YET I bought it at the book value that existed at the time of the stock option issuance. In every manner this was a qualified stock option, BUT since I am a DIRECTOR it turns out only EMPLOYEES can have qualified stock options thus mine, by definition is NON QUALIFIED. So, I had to pick up as ORDINARY INCOME the difference between the book value when the option was issued and the book value when I exercised it. Now, you might think this is fair IF I had a publicly traded security but as stated earlier its RESTRICTED STOCK and thus can ONLY be sold back to the issuer of the option at the BOOK VALUE. Thus, I have paid regular income taxes not capital gain and there is no promise of profit just because at this moment in time I can sell it to no one else. I dont think thats fair. jdn

To: CYBERKEN who wrote (730783)	3/11/2006 11:25:20 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Re: a National Capital Formation Act would supercharge our economy: "1) Eliminate the federal taxes for dividends, interest, capital gains, and the corporate income tax." You mean that ONLY working stiffs should ever pay any income taxes, LOL! FYI --- corporations ARE 'individuals' under US law... and have been since before WW I, as a result of Supreme Court decision. The ONLY difference is that they are considered to be 'individuals with infinite life'. Other then THAT, they have exactly the same legal rights and obligations as any other individual. I agree with you though that there should be no separate tax codes sections for 'dividends, interest, capital gains, or corporate income taxes'! ALL INCOME SHOULD BE TAXED AT ONE SINGLE FLAT RATE... and, with as FEW loopholes and deductions and special interest provisions as possible. (Dividends, of course, should properly be considered as an expense of doing business, and so should reduce income taxes for the corporations and businesses that pay them out.) But income --- regardless of the source, whether it's interest earned on a time deposit account, or dividends paid by an equity, or income on a pay stub --- should ALL be taxed at the same rate. The government should GET OUT OF THE BUSINESS OF PICKING THE WINNERS AND LOSERS IN SOCIETY, and let Capitalism prevail. "2) Cap the income tax rates at 25%." TOO HIGH! When you tax all income the same, and eliminate all the loopholes and special interest provisions that allow the favored to avoid taxation... the tax rate can be WAY LOWER then that. Even without serious cuts to federal spending (which are certainly also required), rates could easily be as low as 15%. "3) Eliminate the tax on estates, gifts, and the AMT." The AMT, of course, would VANISH along with all other complicated loopholes and 'gotchas' from the federal income tax system... once it was reformed. (I would personally have no problem with reforming other taxes, such as the two you point to --- estate and gift --- once comprehensive reform of the income tax system was accomplished. But, personally, I believe it would be fair to set the estate tax rate at the exact same single and low rate that income taxes get set at... say, 15%. (With an appropriate initial trigger, set high enough that 95 to 99 percent of all estates would be exempt... as per usual.) "One advantage: With no more corporate income tax, 90% of the lobbying would disappear." HaHaHaHa!!!!!!!!! "Note: One of the biggest lobbyists AGAINST the flat tax with no deductions is H & R block. That alone should shame Congress into passing it..." True enough! Also, by eliminating thousands of loopholes and special interest provisions, and moving to a single low flat rate... the economy would benefit from up to hundreds of billions of lower compliance costs EACH and EVERY YEAR. That would allow the tax rate to be set even LOWER!