Recluse's gold fortune to be auctioned for taxes

fiveNdime

The 69-year-old man who had lived so simply had a vast collection of thousands of gold coins worth millions of dollars stashed in old ammunition boxes in his garage.

http://news.yahoo.com/recluses-gold-fortune-auctioned-taxes-144757875.html

Baley

Isn't it everyone's dream to live like a miserable, destitute hermit and die with millions of dollars of gold stashed away?

Keep on stackin'!

Yukoncornelius1

<< <i>Isn't it everyone's dream to live like a miserable, destitute hermit and die with millions of dollars of gold stashed away?

Keep on stackin'! >>



Not me, I have enough salted away to hopefully buy a nice place down south when I retire.

tneig

And the government is the first one to steal their share..

Its a good rule to learn though, is not to die holding it all.

roadrunner

The last "gold garage sale" I was aware of was the Territorial Gold bar that disappeared from Dwight Manley's garage.

Living "large" is not for everyone, despite what you constantly see on TV. Many or even most people are quite content living within their means. 95% of the world gets this.
But the US media would suggest that our job is to consume until we're broke and feel like we're in that "upper 5%." Coin dealers are well aware of all the "scraggly" looking
old time coin buyers that frequent the local shows. In many cases those people are millionaires but you'd never guess it from their frugal lifestyles. Maybe this guy thought he
had another good 10 yrs left in him. And with the way health care costs are rising, you just might need a few million socked away for your retirement just to cover catastrophic
HC costs. That looks to be the way things are headed. What a shame to die with all that money. Just think, the old guy could have been totally destitute, living on a reverse
mortgage high on the hog in a 30 room McMansion, and wondering where the money for his next meal was coming from.

The OP's link doesn't work for me.

Baley

<< <i>The last "gold garage sale" I was aware of was the Territorial Gold bar that disappeared from Dwight Manley's garage.

Living "large" is not for everyone, despite what you constantly see on TV. Many or even most people are quite content living within their means. 95% of the world gets this.
But the US media would suggest that our job is to consume until we're broke and feel like we're in that "upper 5%." Coin dealers are well aware of all the "scraggly" looking
old time coin buyers that frequent the local shows. In many cases those people are millionaires but you'd never guess it from their frugal lifestyles. Maybe this guy thought he
had another good 10 yrs left in him. And with the way health care costs are rising, you just might need a few million socked away for your retirement just to cover catastrophic
HC costs. That looks to be the way things are headed. What a shame to die with all that money. Just think, the old guy could have been totally destitute, living on a reverse
mortgage high on the hog in a 30 room McMansion, and wondering where the money for his next meal was coming from.

The OP's link doesn't work for me. >>



Just think, the old guy could have been totally destitute, living on a reverse
mortgage high on the hog in a 30 room McMansion, and wondering where the money for his next meal was coming from.

Or, something in between

the OP link doesn't work for me either, but it's the same old sad story. Bet he had guns, too.

Timbuk3

Interesting story !!!

RGJohn

This is a good story. Thanks for letting us know.Link

I wonder why only 5 bidders were invited. Sounds like 2'nd auction will be for a wider audience.

ricko

Really sad.... however, since we cannot predict our date of demise, many of us will leave some PM's... though likely not as much as this individual. And most of us will have arranged for proper and discreet disposition (at least we should). Cheers, RickO

Nooker

it still baffles me how the US government can take their "death tax" on these coins, after they already took the taxes on his earnings, and with what remained, he bought the coins. Now the gov't gets to tax his money AGAIN???

Honestly, if somebody can give me a perfectly good reason, I will listen. . .

Mark

secondrepublic

A lot of the stuff this guy bought (gold, property) went up in price a lot over the years. If he'd sold while still alive, he would have owed taxes on it. Unfortunately you don't avoid taxes on that "profit" just by dying and giving the stuff to someone else.

We can argue about whether there's even a profit, once you subtract out inflation, but that's the system our government has created.

DrBuster

They don't stop stealing when you're alive, why would they stop when you're dead.

Baley

He had no friends in the community, and his body and gold were discovered by accident.

Authorities had to search long and hard to locate a distant relative who maybe never met the man.

Tell me: what good did having the gold do him?

"peace of mind?"

that's nice

Jcarney

<< <i>it still baffles me how the US government can take their "death tax" on these coins, after they already took the taxes on his earnings, and with what remained, he bought the coins. Now the gov't gets to tax his money AGAIN???

Honestly, if somebody can give me a perfectly good reason, I will listen. . .

Mark >>



Taxes are due on the appreciated value of the coins. It SHOULD be calculated on an inflation adjust basis, but alas, it's not.

Wolf359

150 Pounds of Gold sold for 3.5 million. They didn't even pay spot!

DrBuster

Why would that 3.5 mil not fall under the inheritence limit and have no tax on it...?

roadrunner

<< <i>He had no friends in the community, and his body and gold were discovered by accident.

Authorities had to search long and hard to locate a distant relative who maybe never met the man.

Tell me: what good did having the gold do him?

"peace of mind?"

that's nice >>




Don't underestimate the value of peace of mind, especially with a very uncertain future over the next decade. I don't see where the guy in this article has anything to be sorry for by living well within their means. The bulk of his estate will pass tax free to his heir. And that heir can decide how to best employ those $Millions. There is peace of mind in passing down the wealth. You use what you need...save the rest. If this gold hoarder guy had lived a little longer, the estate tax rules may have changed where essentially the bulk of the $5-7MILL estate was taxable. The Bush changes enacted about 10 yrs ago are soon to expire. This guy was able to pass away most of his estate w/o it being taxed. Kudos for that. That may be "peace of mind" to some in that most of the estate will avoid the Federal govt's taxation. The proceeds from that gold may do more good than we could possibly know.

Nice to see that most of the money is passing tax free to the heir(s). And while we're at it, sure, let's assign the "gun slinger" title to this poor old "gold bug" while we're at it. After all, it's been proven time and time again that the 2 almost always are linked together.