Who lost a 100 million euro bet and still kept his job? TNT

[thessalonian13]

Obviously you don't know much about stock options.
The base price of the stock awarded is taxed as normal income.
The difference in the base price and award/sell price is taxed as capital gains.

If you are getting taxed at a 20-28% rate, you need to get someone else to do your taxes.
The highest Federal tax rate I ever paid was 17% when my wife and I were working and I had a good year trading stocks without holding them for 1 year (taxed as normal income).
Last year my effective tax rate was less than 12%.

I am not an accountant. When Warren Buffet gets taxed at a lower rate than his secretary who makes $60,000, we don't need rich people like you telling us we need to get new accountants. Fact is, millionaires and billionaires have loopholes and off shore accounts to funnel their money through that us middle class don't have, can't afford and don't even know about. We live paycheck to paycheck and maybe have a 401k. We are not rich enough to have the luxury of selling stocks that have lost money in order to offset the gains from the stocks you sold and made money in like you do. And, if you don't own a home, then you are really "SOL". You don't get to claim your only "realistic" loophole, the mortgage interest, and thus pay whatever tax rate you fall into. Even the greatest accountant in the world can't help you there. By the way, my brother is a federal agent with the IRS and his job is to go after millionaire tax cheats. He is even amazed by the way accountants manipulate loopholes to go undetected and to avoid paying taxes.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Hoaxster is not alone----while I do not actively trade stocks outside of my 401k, I do itemize deductions and usually have an effective tax rate of between 11-15%. I don't have a CPA on retainer---I use H&R Block.

 

['Lord Brown's bidding']

As do I....and any of you who think you are actually paying your bracket's tax rate must not get refunds; if you do, your effective tax rate is probably less (this assumes you claim one or two exceptions, so as not to give as much money to IRS in what would amount to an interest-free loan to the govt; you don't claim any exceptions you are going to get a refund-probably a big one-but more because you overpaid than because of things the govt says you should pay less taxes for). And fire whoever does your taxes, if not an accountant (with programs like TurboTax and H&R Block, you really should do your own.

 

[Catatonic]

I am not an accountant. When Warren Buffet gets taxed at a lower rate than his secretary who makes $60,000, we don't need rich people like you telling us we need to get new accountants. Fact is, millionaires and billionaires have loopholes and off shore accounts to funnel their money through that us middle class don't have, can't afford and don't even know about. We live paycheck to paycheck and maybe have a 401k. We are not rich enough to have the luxury of selling stocks that have lost money in order to offset the gains from the stocks you sold and made money in like you do. And, if you don't own a home, then you are really "SOL". You don't get to claim your only "realistic" loophole, the mortgage interest, and thus pay whatever tax rate you fall into. Even the greatest accountant in the world can't help you there. By the way, my brother is a federal agent with the IRS and his job is to go after millionaire tax cheats. He is even amazed by the way accountants manipulate loopholes to go undetected and to avoid paying taxes.

I stand by my post.
If you are one of those "us schleps get taxed at 20%-28%" as you posted and you live paycheck to paycheck, you have some serious issues.
I am not a "rich person" but someone who lived well within my means just as I do now.
My house is paid for as well as my three vehicles (2000, 2005 and 2007).
I use coupons, I look for deals and I don't buy anything unless I really need to.

And seriously Dude, if you are paying 20% -28%, you are a lot richer than me.

 

[SignificantOwner]

Our CEO makes very little compared to many other large companies.

As my parents used to say, "if everyone was jumping off a bridge would you jump off too?"