“Well, we finally have a Democratic nominee. Yes, a lot of water still has to flow under the bridge. The only thing we know for certain right now is that a new president and a new Congress will be sworn in next January,” Brett Arends reports for The Wall Street Journal. “But as Barack Obama is the man of the hour, it’s a reasonable time to ask what his election might mean for you and your family’s money.”
“This is not a political column, and in this space I take no stance about who should or shouldn’t win. I am only concerned with what you should do to prepare for contingencies,” Arends notes.
“The Bush tax cuts, which came into effect in 2003, are already set to expire in 2011. And politics, as well as the huge budget deficit, make it likely they will do so. That will probably mean big changes to the tax rates on capital gains and stock dividend income, among others. Senator Barack Obama has already acknowledged that he may be willing to raise the top rate on long-term capital gains still further, to 28%. That was the rate in 1997. Today it’s just 15%,” Arends reports.
“So if you are sitting on a huge profit in, say, your Apple stock, if the Democrats win in November you might want to cash it in before the end of the year,” Arends reports. “‘Go ahead and sell it’ says Benjamin Tobias, a financial planner in Plantation, Fla. ‘Pay the 15% tax, and put a happy face on the check to the IRS because you’re only paying 15%. Next year, who knows what you’ll be paying?'”
Arends also notes, “It’s way too early to make any moves based on the election, and you should probably seek professional advice before taking any bold steps with your money. It is also worth adding that a number of these changes might end up being brought in if John McCain becomes president as well. The one thing I am willing to say with some certainty is that the 15% tax rate on dividends and capital gains isn’t going to be cut.”
Full article, in which Arends also covers making changes to your IRAs and other tax-deferred accounts, along with moving some of your other investments into tax shelters such as low-cost variable annuities, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Broker” for the heads up.]
My husband is going to tax all of you rich white folks into the poorhouse.
And you’ll all pay reparations for enslaving my ancestors. My great great great grandfather was sold on the auction block for less than the cost of a MacBook Pro.
Every African-American should receive one free Macintosh, iPod and iPhone as reparation. With free software and music downloads. That should make up for our being born Black in this racist country named America.
Whitey has to pay up for all of our transgressions! It’s time to pay!
Ole Benny Tobias will pump that shit on the WSJ no doubt in collusion with hedge-funds/clients and what not to sow a little panic. People who have long held apple will sell their stock- hopefully causing a panic making AAPL slide- then ole Benny will swoop in and buy it all up, and then everyone will realize how cheap AAPL is and that there is nothing to worry about and the stock will fly back up and ole Benny will sell off a nice chunk still at 15% and hold the rest.
Given that- could be a play to bet on
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Under the Obama regime taxes will be increasingly higher, to pay for the socialist programs that will be started, (and NEVER ended). Ask Teddy (Mary Jo) Kennedy if he would be alive today if he’d had to wait in line for his operation. He can be thankful he doesn’t live in Canada, or worse, England. I lived in both places and am thankful I came to the USA before the 70’s and was able to keep a lot of what I earned and invested. No thanks to Peanut-brain Carter. This IS a political opinion.
Comment:
From: TowerTone
Mar 25, 07 – 08:06 am
Sorry, Stephen, you won’t be seeing a black or a woman in charge of the White House in ’09 (unless Condi changes her mind). When Warner bowed out of the race, the Dems lost their best hope. (I wonder why he did that…) And if Thompson decides to jump in?…
Well, according to TowerTone, it doesn’t matter anyway because you won’t be seeing “a black” in the WhiteHouse. So you may as well hold on to your shares.
Hold AAPL because when it doubles you won’t care that you have to pay more than 15%.
To all you Democrat lemmings out there:
Obama has already said he would like to almost double the capital gains tax rate from 15% currently, up to 28%.
The WSJ reporter is just bringing this to your attention. So you might want to consider getting your collective heads out of the sand. There is nothing factually incorrect whatsoever in his article.
Ignorance may be bliss, but…
I have some Apple stock and if I sold it before the end of the year and took the 15% cap gains tax I could break even by selling it next year IF … it goes up $20/per share (to $207 from today at $187) and the tax rate goes to 28%. When Apple goes waaaay beyond $207…I’m waaaay better off not selling this year. Shame on Bret Arends for using Apple as an example and not pointing this out!
What, still on page 1?
Oh, I see. It’s only been going 45 minutes.
With Obama in office you should sell all of our stock and buy a copy of the Communist Manifesto as it won’t be too long. The most liberal candidate for President EVER!.
Given the amount of money your country owes the People’s Republic of China, I think the Communists already own your ass.
Funny, no mention of the budget deficit! Just once, I’d like to see a democratic president run the country’s financial balance down , lose an election and leave it to a republican to clean up the mess. What would they do?
You’re dreaming. Clinging to obviously failed policies like tax breaks for the rich and $2 BILLION dollars per week wasted in Iraq make McCain unelectable as it is.
Face it: McCain is a nice old man, but he’s just not up to the job, which is undoing the damage Bush has done to this country. Put McCain and Obama on the same stage, and Obama will look like a super hero standing next to a doddering old guy.
“So if you are sitting on a huge profit in, say, your Apple stock, if the Democrats win in November you might want to cash it in before the end of the year,” Arends reports. “‘Go ahead and sell it’ says Benjamin Tobias, a financial planner in Plantation, Fla. ‘Pay the 15% tax, and put a happy face on the check to the IRS because you’re only paying 15%. Next year, who knows what you’ll be paying?'”
And when the stock plummets to $50 overnight, the author can buy it all up.
Nice catch, MCCFR.
I didn’t foresee the Republicans running a Democrat.
Here is my outlook in duplicity.
I am pulling for Obama.
It’s Halloween, and the kids want their candy.
(And I still think Warner would have been a better choice than the three left)
Mitt in ’12.
Barack Hussein Obama will be “Jimmy Carter II” if he’s elected, you can book it. Get ready for everyone’s taxes to increase, unemployment, inflation and interest rates will skyrocket, and the economy will take a dive the likes of which we haven’t seen since the late 1970s. It’s going to be a fun 4 years watching how much he’s going to screw up.
Hey Mr.Reeee…
You said “WHEN Obama wins this prediction will have as much credence as Bush’s fantasies of Iraqi WMD…”
Hate to tell you this but we DID find WMD in Iraq. We found over 500 artillary shells loaded with high purity and still deadly mustard gas. Mustard gas IS classified as a WMD and since we found some in Iraq, your claim is flat wrong.
“How scared are the vested interests in the USA, when the WSJ publishes such an unmitigated pile of unsubstantiated, alarmist, propagandist crap! “
Except that Obama SAID he will do these things (raise capital gains, let the tax cut expire, rtc.)
…and that would be an obamanation.
It doesn’t matter what would happen in the Obama administration. We are going to be required to believe that McCain won, and the economy will be just as peachy keen as it is today.
It’s true- if obama wins- he said he would raise certain taxes- so next year I’d have to start paying 28% fed instead of 15% on my K1.
I predict someone will win the presidential election this fall.
Bold.
Osama will not win
Put McCain and Obama on the same stage, and Obama will look like a super hero…
Read up on McCain’s life or just wait for the RNC campaign and you’ll quickly find out that McCain is an actual super hero.
Obama just plays one on TV.
It’s over, girls and boys. I’ll come back to type “I told you so” soon enough. Have a nice summer!
It was not that long ago that Americans thought a black man could not quarterback an NFL football team.
All of a sudden they think a black man can run the whole country?
Americans have come a long way but they aren’t out of the southern woods yet.
Aside from the social programs via FDR and Johnson how do you nitwits ever expect to pay for anything?
Granted, the government has never shown to be good at pretty much managing anything. And seeing how ineptly this war (and how illegally it was drummed up with proofwise is just finally coming into the light) has been managed is further proof of that.
However, to think Republicans have a lock on saving your pocket you have to think again. Well, not unless your rich or a huge corporation. They are still clinging to that “trickle down theory” that didn’t work 20 odd years ago and is still not working now. But the important people do well with it and makes them money so who cares if it works? The Base buys it.
So, we scare up a war, manage it badly and even financially. Then we give tax breaks to people as sort of a “shut up” strategy. And throw in some cash to the masses to “stimulate” the economy. Don’t run it right in the first place, throw money at it and hope it works out.
Now whomever gets into office, Republican or Democrat is going to be saddled with this disaster and neither one will be able to do anything BUT to raise taxes and all sorts of other things to get us out of this mess. Thus making them the “bad guys” (rightly or not depending on everything else they do). Or they can just stall it all and run it out to the next sucker who will get stuck with it.
Our government is like a teenager with a credit card. It doesn’t matter which party is in office, just the morals and intelligence of those holding it. You can either do the right thing and be unpopular and probably loose your party seats in congress and the senate or you can play politics with it. Don’t solve the problem just blame it on the other guy.
Or both of these groups can do something unheard of and get together and do the right thing for the people and not their damn parties.
One of the things that some of our most respected Presidents ever reminded us to watch out for was the party systems (Washington) and the industrial military complex (Eisenhower).
Stop viewing this as a Republican problem or a Democratic problem. It’s an AMERICAN problem. Grow the hell up.
Al
Ever notice that most of the “race riots” were in the north and west?
In liberal cities?
Just wondering.
@Mark
What a load of crap. The US and other countries also have reserves of deadly shit (tell me that the US military does not keep strains of anthrax and smallpox in ‘reserve’.
Should the US be invaded?