There is legislation on the floor of congress to institute a tax on all stock tranactions of .5% the value of the trade. Does anybody know if this actually has a lot of support in congress? I am a little concerned, because passage of this would put my lights out as a trader. Thanks for your feedback.
Don't lose any sleep over it. Good PR for the member of Congress that put it in a bill but I don't think the Administration's Treasury honchos even support it. It would kill the U.S. exchanges (like those in Obama's home town) by driving trading offshore.
You just found out about this? Every swingin dick at ET has had their panties in a bunch for months over this.
Ha! Yeah, I guess I've had my head up my ass for awhile. I did some more research on this today, and it sounds like the EU countries are backing off on this, and Geithner, Summers, Obama, and even Pelosi aren't in favor of this cluster F of a bill either. Sigh of relief.
Back in the days they actually had taxes on trades. Lets see You had #1 the New york state transfer tax (1 lot would be taxed at 5 dollars) but this tax only takes effect on a selling transaction. The tax only took effect on non sales transfers and sales. and state taxes also existed back then as well. So if you did a round trip trade you would pay 5 bucks. But back then you did not have the amount of turnover like today.