Moral of the story: Shut the hell up
By the time the federal and state tax vultures are finished, the finders will be lucky to keep the beat up cans the coins were in.
Solution: Shut up. Give up your U.S. citizenship. Move to Central America. Dribble out the sale of these coins for generations.
Well, it’s always possible they found $100million and just let on about the $10million so they could live a lavish lifestyle without anyone giving it a second thought...
$5million in taxes would be worth it to not have to worry about the govt snooping around.
They found this gold buried under an old oak tree?
There is going to be one pissed off leprechaun when he finds out, someone stole his stash!
If I found a cache of coins worth millions no one but my wife would ever know and I’m not 100% sure about her :)
These people were fools.
This couple found some other family's money and were lucky enough to keep half of it.
So I'm not crying for them.
And you can bet that if they had not told the authorities about it and kept it secret, they would have gotten ripped off and wound up with well less than their true value.
If they had gone to "cash for gold" places and sold them one by one, they would probably have got $1.5mm tops.
If they had gone to the same place multiple times, they might have wound up getting followed and getting robbed.
If they had gone to coin shops, the collecting community would have gotten wind of what was going on and it would all come out anyway.
The tax code is nnsense, but these people aren't special.
They won’t be paying any taxes.
It’s all academic anyway because Uncle Sam will declare that whole lot of gold coins to have been stolen from the San Fran Mint in 1901 and they will seize it all.
Right now I’m sure they have a BOLO out to coin dealers re these coins.
According to this thread last night they might have more problems.
Couple who found $10m hoard of gold coins could have broken law
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3128212/posts
In other words, since these coins are, and technically remain, legal tender of the United States, then they are redeemable for their face value. A $20 gold piece is, as currency, worth 20 dollars, just like a 1979 penny is worth a penny even though the copper content is worth more.
You could make a case that if they are sold for more than the value assigned that is a captial gain, but until sold they are only "worth" face value.
I beleive my exact words, when this story broke last week was, ‘STFU!’ :)
Still and all, a nice payday. ;)
Too bad they didn’t just “find” a few coins at a time...might have saved them some money or drive to Mexico and sell them there and not report it to the IRS.
Use the money that the Feds and State demand in taxes to buy good lawyers and accountants instead, then sue the crap out of the Feds instead.
That’s what I’d do, fight, FIGHT!!
Imagine the pressure on them to “give back to the community”!
I don’t understand how that is income. It is capital gain gleaned from their property.
I figure if you find 10 million, the tax bill will be 10 million, plus whatever it costs in time and services to fill out the reports.
Claim the weight value of the gold and pay taxes on that.
They should have laundered the coins through the Cayman’s