Remember that part...

[alexpgp]

...where, in my previous post, I said I'd go home and go to sleep? Well, aside from inserting a "cook rudimentary meal and serve Galina and myself" task between "go home" and "go to sleep," that's pretty much exactly what I did. Unfortunately, after rising to hit the can about two hours ago, I realized - after an hour of tossing and turning - that I'm not going back to sleep any time soon. Thus, I'm fully conscious and at my desk at a quarter to 2 in the morning. My bad.

I accepted a short 17-page translation for Monday. Its length can be viewed as bad news (not much of a payday) and good news (more time left to finish the paper chase), or... as I sit here typing... as no news at all. It occurs to me that by signing the closing papers today, we just paid $750 to a company to act as an intermediary for a tax maneuver called an exchange, wherein we have 45 days to identify potential properties to acquire with the proceeds from the Houston sale, and then some additional inflexibly fixed period of time to close on some such property, else face the capital gains consequences. That adds additional urgency to completing the paper chase, all aspects of which must be complete by the time Galina and I leave for Houston within the week.

Cheers...

Comments

[daphnis.livejournal.com]

That's one of the penalties exacted by our system of taxation-avoidance, dear heart! If you're feelthy rich, you can get all sorts of tax breaks, but if you're moderately impecunious, forget that caper!

Me Da had a quote ~ some relative from his youth was fond of it ~ which went:

"Them as has, gets, and them as has nowt (nothing) gets took from."

Feel better now?

Hugs

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Well, actually, the break - being able to exchange one property for another without incurring immediate capital gains tax liability - is available to folks such as li'l ol' me, despite my not being a multimillionaire.

If we posit that any tax code short of outright confiscation will not really affect the super-rich (and even outright confiscation will only keep the government running for about 8 months until the well runs most uncomfortably dry thereafter), then the current setup - as far as this particular tactic is concerned - is weighed the way it is not so much as to disfavor the common Joe or Jane as it is to favor the government, in the proud tradition of tax codes dating back to when my ancestors lived in caves.

Cheers...