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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Murrey Walker who wrote (411103)	2/16/2011 9:55:50 AM
From: DMaA	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793578

That is the same as asking what is the tax rate we would voluntarily pay? The fact that we do pay many many times that rate belies the idea that we have a government of, by and for the people.

To: Murrey Walker who wrote (411103)	2/16/2011 1:22:28 PM
From: Katelew	1 Recommendation Respond to of 793578

Oh. My. Yes. I worked in the brokerage industry for, I think, three or four years before the gravy train for tax cheats started to be ended. It began with all offices (mine were Merrill Lynch) no longer accepting cash for deposit. Before that, people could and did walk in with suitcases full of cash. Cash like this could be deposited in whatever amount a customer could wheelbarrow in, and then the account itself would not generate a 1099D. That's right. Investment buys and sells were not reported, nor were dividends and interest. The owner of the account was free to decide, what if anything, to report to the IRS. Those were also the days of bearer bonds, bonds that had coupons attached. Illegal money could come in the door, into an account under a ficticious name, and then back out in the form of bearer bonds. Didn't matter what name the bonds were in anyway. Whoever walked into a bank with the coupon in their hand got paid. Thus laundering money was easy to do. By the time the Reagan admin. ended, all this was gone and the familiar 1099D was in place. The tax reporting statements that came out of brokerage firms listed all the interest and dividends that had come into the account and it also listed all stock sales. Not the purchases though. Someone could still put down whatever purchase price they wanted for several more years before this ended, too. I have no doubt these changes added to the increased investment tax revenues that happened during the Clinton administration. I mean the stock market was quite strong during the Clinton administration, but on top of that investors were forced into a position of having to report honestly.