THE TAX MAN COMETH! May pay up to 47% in taxes!

[Goldstrike]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10668081/Couple-who-found-10-million-in-gold-coins-may-have-to-pay-half-to-taxman.html
They should have kept quite about their incredible lucky find!!!

 

[wvrick]

Sad really, a good lesson for everyone.

 

[Goldstrike]

-- moved topic --

 

[Hobo lobo]

They will probably still come out ahead. Very difficult to get top price out of a rare find if sold " under the table", plus they don't have look over there shoulder and worry about the IRS finding out about it. Easy to hide a few thousand, Ten million is a little harder

 

[yowow#1]

It seems to me they should be able to pay taxes on the value of a gold coin in gold weight, not what someone offers them for it. example if you have a gold coin worth a $1,000 in gold weight but someone says collector value is a million. should you have to pay taxes on collector value or actual gold value. I would definitely get a good lawyer and take it before the courts.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Sometimes silence is golden,LOL no pun intended.HH Ron

 

[Surfinsafari]

As soon as I saw the article, I knew the IRS would stick their nose in. I wouldn't have said a word, I would just have been gone one day, detecting beaches around the world and sellin a few coins here and there to live on. Those folks are not very smart.

 

[Hobo lobo]

As soon as I saw the article, I knew the IRS would stick their nose in. I wouldn't have said a word, I would just have been gone one day, detecting beaches around the world and sellin a few coins here and there to live on. Those folks are not very smart.

Not that easy to sell a million dollar coin 'here and there", without attracting attention . Selling them like that would likely only fetch about 1/2 or less of there value. I don't have any connections where I could sell one that casually. Traveling around the world detecting beaches probably isn't their thing.

 

[Elton]

I'm still waiting for prior owners, and Insurance carriers to jump in the Frey... Maybe even the government from when Gold ownership was banned..

 

[sliderule]

I seemed to remember reading an article about a relatively recent case in Utah where a man was paid for services in U.S. silver dollars as he had requested. It was a good amount, and somehow the IRS found out about it. It went to court, and the man receiving the payment argued that he was paid in U.S. currency (or dollars), not silver. He won. Now, if it was sold for silver, I guess that is another story, maybe capital gains or something. I would argue the gold found was only U.S. twenty dollar gold pieces (as some appear to be) and declare that value. But, I think silence would have been the better alternative. Keep it down home cuz.

 

[Larry (IL)]

Yep, the finders headaches have only begun.......

 

[Goldstrike]

It's sad on the one hand because the only 2 choices this 'do the right thing' couple have would be to either cave in and cough up the 47% or whatever the IRS demand or retain a lawyer/s to fight the point (base the taxes on collector value or face value) which will cost them a ton of money.
After all is said and done, they will be left with a much smaller amount than they originally found. I'm all for paying my 'fair share' (I hate that statement) in taxes but I would never declare what I may find after all the blood, sweat, tears and time that I expended in detecting 'it'. (realising they did not metal detect it) No wonder in the days that England came down heavy with taxes on their citizen's, piracy flourished! it was all tax free!!!!

 

[hunter12]

But remember, the tax man has to take there money, and share it with the majority who don't work under the new system, only fare.

 

[MarkCZ]

Stupid People!
I would have gotten me a current coin book,
Wrapped a bunch of the best ones (most rare)
Filed the rest down into shavings and spent the next ten years selling then off one ounce at a time and never in the same place!
Really sad!

wvrick and I have talked about this very thing Many Times!

Mark

 

[Hobo lobo]

Even after paying the Gov. taxes they will come out way ahead of "filing them down" and destroying rare, uncirculated non replaceable coins. The coins will not be sold for the gold content, but many times the gold value.

 

[Phillip_in_NM]

You know, just for giggles a few years back, I kept a record of EVERY cent I paid in taxes in one year - income tax, sales tax, built-in taxes on gasoline, property taxes, etc. (ad nauseum - Latin for "until it makes you sick"). Just over 65% of my income went to taxes of some sort - enlightening and sickening at the same time!

Yeah, the tax man cometh alright and just keeps on coming!

 

[MarkCZ]

Even after paying the Gov. taxes they will come out way ahead of "filing them down" and destroying rare, uncirculated non replaceable coins. The coins will not be sold for the gold content, but many times the gold value.

The Gov isn't done with them yet!
It wouldn't surprise me in the end if the Gov doesn't just claim them as stolen property, being how they are in uncirculated condition! yep! they were stolen from their mint, or they were stolen from transport to some distribution point.

And like I said I would have wrapped up the most valuable ones, filed down the lesser valued ones, the wrapped ones would have also been sold off one at a time, each time at some different place and with the same story told, My grandfather has had this sense I was a little kid, I hate to see it go but times are hard!
How many I filed down would be based off melt weight and collectable value. I just would have tried to move them at one time, and few people would have known I had them at all!

Mark

 

[Hobo lobo]

They found them a year ago and have had lots of time to explore their options and probably considered trying to sell them and avoid taxes. Their attorney probably discussed the various options with them. ALL of the coins are rare due to there mint condition. You must like to file things down, if I were going to destroy a rare numismatic coin, which I would never do. It's way easier and more efficient just to melt it down. For all anyone knows what they disclosed may be only a part of the hoard, what a perfect way to avoid most of the taxes and not arouse suspicion.
It has been determined that they were probably NOT stolen, it was on the news.

 

[jughed440]

tsk, tsk, tsk...should have kept quiet. Not much sympathy goes their way....pay up, fools.

 

[MarkCZ]

They found them a year ago and have had lots of time to explore their options and probably considered trying to sell them and avoid taxes. Their attorney probably discussed the various options with them. ALL of the coins are rare due to there mint condition. You must like to file things down, if I were going to destroy a rare numismatic coin, which I would never do. It's way easier and more efficient just to melt it down. For all anyone knows what they disclosed may be only a part of the hoard, what a perfect way to avoid most of the taxes and not arouse suspicion.
It has been determined that they were probably NOT stolen, it was on the news.

No, I don't like to file things down, but keep a bunch in coin folders, sell some off in a transformed state (not traceable) to help me live out my life here while I'm on this planet. Maybe give some money away along the way to help others. My livelihood is worth more than keeping some rare coins. If it would help me and my family to live out the rest of our lives then the importance of some collectable piece of metal tends to lose its importance. Look at all the treasure that has been buried with all then Egyptian kings for them to use in the after life, they didn't really get to take it with them. So, its only good here on the planet. I made $38,000.00 last year and the Gov got $8,500.00 of that, screw'em.
Something else to think about,
Lets say there is only one known silver dollar and some rich guy paid five million bucks for it, then along comes good ole Joe and finds a hole boat load of the exact some coins, lets say 20,000 of them and he goes public with them, now how rare is the one that guy paid all those millions for worth?
I'd keep some to move one at a time over the years, transform some of the others and have a good retirement! Maybe save a few for my grand kids, for collage.

But I've gave enough to our Government sense I've been working sense I was 16 years old. So, yep! I would file them down, melt them down (some of them), into small sellable batches and retire.
Yea, its only a dream, but it is a nice one!
Collectable only goes so far with me.

Mark