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Technology Stocks : COMS & the Ghost of USRX w/ other STUFF -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: David Lawrence who wrote (16547)	7/2/1998 3:14:00 PM
From: Scrapps	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 22053

I know I sound like a kid...but, what did we do wrong...why are we being punished? We've dipped below 29 today. It's just not fair! :o(

To: David Lawrence who wrote (16547)	7/6/1998 2:44:00 PM
From: Scrapps	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 22053

NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Last year, Congress made a deal with investors: We'll cut your capital gains tax rate to just 20%, but only if you hold on to your assets longer - 18 months or more. Now, investors may be about to get that low tax rate without the long wait. Just one year after passing the "Taxpayer Relief Act" with great fanfare, Congress is set to reverse one of its key elements. Under the new legislation, investors would no longer require investors to hold on to assets for 18 months to get a low capital gains tax rate of 20%. That's music to the ears of investors. "I think it makes a certain amount of sense not to be tying people up and slowing the process down," said one investor. The 1997 law established a three-tiered system. The less time you own an asset, the more you pay in taxes. If you hold a stock less than a year, you're taxed at the regular income tax rate, which could be as high as 39%. If you hold it between 12 and 18 months, you're taxed up to 28%. Only if you own the stock 18 months or more do you get a 20% rate. The new law would wipe out the middle period, allowing investors to qualify for the low 20% rate at 12 months rather than 18. Elda Di Re, tax partner for Ernest & Young, says the new law will simplify things for investors. "It makes so much sense. We were seeing so much complexity and misunderstanding with the 18 month holding period. It gave us 3 holding periods. People are just typically short term holders or long term holders," she said. Mutual fund holders would be among those who benefit most from a simplified system. "For them it's a reporting matter, but it's also dollars out of your pocket. And they will be very happy to know that now the capital gain distributions from mutual funds will, on the whole, be taxed just at 20 percent," said Gerald Padwe, vice president of the American Institute of CPAs. If passed, the new capital gains tax rules would be retroactive to January 1 of this year. And that could mean an immediate bonus for anyone who has already overpaid on quarterly tax estimates. --by staff writer Sonja Bartlett