Disgusting ain't it? The gubmint doesn't have enough money to police the super rich corporations, because they give huge tax breaks to the super rich corporations. (And by the way, we're gonna cut LIHEAP, and allow hydrofracking to bring gas prices down... you wanted lower prices, right?... and if you protest, you're a terrorist. Homeland Security works for their corporate sponsors now, as do Justices Scalia and Thomas.)
http://colf.webs.com/apps/blog/show/5934786-corporate-coprophagia
Letters to Artvoice
Collect the Stock Transfer Tax: $16 Billion This Year Alone
by Gene Grabiner
New York State collects a very small tax on each stock transfer, but then instantly rebates the tax, now in excess of $16 billion annually, back to Wall Street. The tax is hardly noticeable for anyone who invests in Wall Street, primarily hitting those who treat the stock market as a casino, making hundreds of trades daily.
The stock transfer tax doesn’t impact upon people making serious long term investments.
A stock transfer tax was used by the federal government to help pay for the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, and World War I. New York adopted one of its own in 1905 (New York Tax Law § 270.1), despite threats from the New York Stock Exchange that if passed it would instantly depart to New Jersey.
As it stands, the tax is up to .05 percent per share, for a maximum of $350 per transaction. Obviously, we’re talking about frequent moves of large blocks of stock, such as Wall Street speculators commonly engage in.
The London Stock Exchange collects a hefty stock transfer tax, far greater than what is here contemplated. Yet, the London Exchange continues to flourish mightily. Germany, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore, and France also have stock transfer taxes.
A 2003 poll commissioned by the AFL-CIO showed that by 63 percent to 24 percent, New Yorkers favored re-instituting a stock transfer tax of one or two cents per share on stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
It cannot be claimed that if New York collected the stock transfer tax, the New York Stock Exchange, AMEX, and NASDAQ would flee into cyberspace. After all, New York is increasingly effective in collecting state taxes on purchases made out-of-state over the net.
While the New York stock transfer tax has been in effect since 1905, since 1981, the money is handed right back to the brokers who paid it in the form of a 100 percent rebate. The state collects billions in stock transfer taxes and instantly rebates them all back to Wall Street. The broker fills out a return form (MT-650), submits payment to the state, and the state credits the money immediately back to the broker.
In order to discourage Wall Street speculation, consideration should be given to tying the underlying tax rate to a person’s trading volume: The lower the trading volume, the lower the tax. This would reduce the volatility that caused many of Wall Street’s and America’s problems in recent years.
This year, the stock transfer tax will amount to about $16 billion. Retaining this tax revenue will erase the state’s entire deficit, restore major pending cuts in essential services, prevent the layoffs of tens of thousands of workers in New York, and generate revenue surpluses in succeeding years.
Gene Grabiner, Buffalo
Artvoice reserves the right to edit letters for content and length. Shorter letters have a better chance at being published in their entirety. Please include your name, hometown, and contact number. E-mail letters to: editorial@artvoice.com or write to: Artvoice Letters, 810 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14202
Reader Comments (posting new comments is closed!)
|
James Burnette 14 Mar 2011, 15:36
Ugh 15 Mar 2011, 21:51
Does the author understand that in a global system such as investment markets, investors can move easily to other exchanges? Deutsche Boerse AG just bought the NYSE. Who's to say that if a prohibitive tax was placed on trading, that things wouldnt start to move overseas? This kind of slow, subtle increase in the cost of business has driven manufacturing overseas. Yes, it is small (relatively) now. But when has the state ever said "No thanks, that's enough money"? If taxes doubled, do you think you would get twice as many services? Do you think they would be better services? History has shown us that this is never the case. NYS has gone from periods of low tax to high tax schemes, sometimes doubling effective tax rate. Yet services are never twice as good or twice as plentiful. If we want to be intellectually honest, we need to look at cutting spending.
James Burnette 22 Mar 2011, 13:30
Dear Mr. Ugh: The reasons you give are also known as the "Leona Helmsley" rationale (the rich shouldn't pay taxes because they create jobs). States will forever be held hostage by big corporations pointing guns to their own heads, threatening financial suicide... and it works, thanks to people like you. If we don't put up a hard front against big corporations and call their bluff, making them pay their fair share of taxes, we end up with a race to the bottom where one jurisdiction steals companies and jobs from another state by promising lower taxes, lack of regulation and oversight, no sweatshop laws, no environmental protections. If the whole damned world expected stringent regulations, then these parasites won't have an escape plan and they would have to play according to the rules of society. The way things are now, tax breaks for the rich cause a budget deficit which leads to cutbacks in government oversight. Just what the big corporations want... to revert back to the days of railroad and oil barons, with union busting goons to crack you on the head if you complain about safety standards. The world is upside down, as it is society which is forced to play by the rules dictated by big corporations and enforced by a government paid for by unlimited corporate campaign financing. Is that your Utopia, Mr. Ugh ?? Are you a scared pitbull that bites the SPCA when they try to unchain you from your abusive master? I see a lot of people that fit that description when times are tough... that's the big corporate gameplan. Play our game or starve.
bob 29 Mar 2011, 17:52
actually ny state collects the tax but gives it all back
bob 30 Mar 2011, 12:55 We need to stop rebating the tax and use the money to form a new works projects administration and begin rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and fund universal college at cuny. Without a Tobin tax America will become a third world country if we continue with the genocidal austerity measures imposed on us by plutocratic war mongering of the dempublicians.
Mariah 14 Jun 2011, 21:50
Dear Ugh, Did you not read the following: The London Stock Exchange collects a hefty stock transfer tax, far greater than what is here contemplated. Yet, the London Exchange continues to flourish mightily. Germany, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore, and France also have stock transfer taxes. Other countries also have stock transfer taxes.... and... This year, the stock transfer tax will amount to about $16 billion. Retaining this tax revenue will erase the state’s entire deficit, restore major pending cuts in essential services, prevent the layoffs of tens of thousands of workers in New York, and generate revenue surpluses in succeeding years |
|
Issue Navigation> Issue Index > v10n10 (The Drinking Issue, week of Thursday, March 9) > Letters to Artvoice > Collect the Stock Transfer Tax: $16 Billion This Year Alone This Week's Issue • Artvoice Daily • Artvoice TV • Events Calendar • Classifieds |