I actually believe this will happen. Unless some dirt comes out on Obama in the next few weeks, its looking like he is going to pull out the squeaker. It is possible he won't spend as much, and tax as much as everyone fears, but nothing he has said or voted for so far supports this. A higher tax on the job creators (most small businesses that employ over 5 people make 250K+), and greater spending is the fastest way to economic Armageddon that I can think of. However, add in the wealth redistribution of giving these extra taxes to those that don't even pay tax, and I'm not sure you will see the guy alive all that long. Its dangerous to just blatantly bend over the rich elite. Higher taxes isn't the issue. Blatant wealth redistribution is.
It is hanging on the coattails of an energy bill that the House had already passed to the Senate, the new bill wasn't allowed to come from the Senate, so it had to be added to another bill the House had already passed up to them. Might be the reason for the length.
Anybody know when the House votes on this gigantic 450 page bill? Is it during market hours again tomorrow or are they gonna mess around till next week?
Are the people who thought up this 'tax' completely retarded or what? Take for example a transaction involving the buying and selling of 1000 shares of AAPL (which can be done in seconds). The tax as I understand it is 1/4 of 1% of the price of the transaction. To be taxed on both the buy and sell side. If any of my math is wrong feel free to correct me. ...... AAPL closed today at $109.12 x 1000 shares = $109,120 1% of $109,120 = $1,091.20 1/4 of that = $272.80 ( x by 2 for both sides = $545.60) The tax on 1 share, only on the buy side = 27.28 cents. Today AAPL traded 46,328,868 shares. The tax collected on this volume would be $12,638,515 $12.6 million in tax collected on one stock in 1 day? Are you fu**ing kidding me? So we punish 'greed' by Wall St. with greed from government. This brilliant idea is from the people who lead us? Lead us where? Into the abyss?
red ink on your 3 mil shares a day you'd pay around 150k a day in taxes. every hardcore trader on this board would be out of business overnight
Red Ink, if you continue along those lines of thinking, too, you'll realize that by expecting to collect $150 billion, I think they've already accounted for the decrease in volume when they came up with those figures.
They said earlier that due to house rules a Senate bill has to sit overnight (weds don't count so Thurs would be the overnight) so earliest vote would be Fri. daytime.
Well that seems fair considering that I don't even live in the United States. I never lied to get a mortgage that I knew I couldn't afford. Nor did I create BS mortgage backed securities and peddle them all around the globe. Nor was I involved with ratings agencies who labled crap AAA+. Nor have I ever been a member of congress who was completely asleep at the wheel and derelict in my duties of oversight. Nor would I be responsible for turning NYC into a ghost town. My volume would simply go elsewhere. I am sure the Nikkei, Hang Seng, Kospi, Dax would love my volume. Traders will trade, but if I am going to have a gun jabbed into my ribs it won't be on US exchanges.
there are traders right now trading the london stock exchange where they have a stamp tax of .5 % per transaction which is double the us proposed tax of .25 %. they trade at a prop desk here and are making a killing over there, obviously exempt from the stamp tax because they are members of the lse. the same exemptions would apply here, now do you absolutely need your series 7 or could you still be part of an llc without a license and be a member i am not quite sure how the exchanges would change the rules to accomodate the active traders here. obviously the retail accounts of ameritrade and etrade would not be exempt, i would have to pay the garbage tax when i purchase shares in my ira. i wouldnt loose sleep over not being able to continue to make a living trading because this tax would never pass without exemptions for a b/d, exchange members, etc. ps the one expensive thing about being here and trading the lse is the connectivity fee over there for direct data which i believe can run anywhere from 1000 to 1500 a month. small price to pay i guess when you consider the alternative.