One market-oriented mechanism would be a tax increase on speculation, combined with a tax decrease on investing. If it became less profitable for institutional shareholders to speculate on short-term price movements, and more profitable to invest for the long term, their holding periods might increase, and they'd likely care more about the financial health and compensation structures of the businesses they own. This could take the form of a graduated 60% speculation tax on stocks and equity-based derivatives held for less than one year, which tapered down to, say, 5% after a few years. I'm not the only investor who has thought of such a plan. Warren Buffett (perhaps facetiously) once suggested a 100% short-term capital gains tax, while John Bogle has advocated a 50% rate. Ex-American Express (NYSE: AXP) executive and former IBM (NYSE: IBM) CEO Louis Gerstner has suggested a similar plan. As someone who feels the economic impact of this crisis, you should love a higher tax on speculators, because it would align institutional shareholders with the long-term health of the companies they own. That is a necessary step to preventing another financial time bomb. Without such a shift in incentives, they would have limited reason to demand responsible management, and a crisis like this one would be more likely happen again. http://www.fool.com/investing/value/2009/07/12/the-coming-financial-time-bomb.aspx THERE'S A COMMENT SECTION AT THE END OF THAT URL. PLEASE WRITE THERE & FOLLOW UP WITH AN EMAIL TO MOTLEY FOOL DIRECTLY IF POSSIBLE. THANKS.
Buy C near $47 July 2006 and sell at $55 in December 2006...good trade! OR Buy C near $47 July 2006 and hold till July 2009 and sell at $2.90...not so good trade, but hey...no taxes Go away schmuckweed!
Wall St is full of thieves. Corporate America is full of crooks paying themselves $mil in 'salary' & bonuses. Now some retard wants to punish people who dump the shares of crooks & losers? So, let me get this straight. What this fool is advocating is for "traders" to become long-term bagholders and take it up the ass while the con-artists rape all because now you've got a tax law that punishes you if you sell??? What a Fu&%ing retarded idea! Like con-America really gives a shit about shareholders.
Guys, please post the comments in the comment section of that URL. If possible, also send an email to motley fool directly. This is the kind of talk that needs to be nipped in the bud immediately. Thanks
In Australia, they already have such a system. 50% capital gains on profits in the first year. 25% after that. It applies if you hold the stock for less than 365 calender days so you can't buy on the last day on the financial year and sell the next. Besides trading one day of the year isn't going to make you much money. It doesn't really change anything. Traders will still sell a stock today if they think it will be less tomorrow. Also, most professional traders are paying tax in the top tax bracket anyway which is approaching the 50% mark in many countries already. Runningbear
trade in your IRA. Then you won't have some of these worries. It is all tax deferred until ------------------------> whenever
Author Ilan Moscovitz (Moscovite) had the same exact article last April with a title of "Why You Should Love Higher Taxes", with lots of comments in favor of higher tax. Idiots.