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Rich People Scrambling To Stay Rich Before They Become Slightly Less Rich
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Dec 24, 2012
Modified Dec 24, 2012
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By
Christopher Robbins
Published Dec 24, 2012
Modified Dec 24, 2012
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As the country's lawmakers stumble towards the fiscal cliff, rich people are scrambling to take advantage of the current capital gains rate of 15% that is their God-given right. If Congress doesn't broker a deal before January 1, the top tax rate paid on sold investments could rise to 23.8%, which some scientists say would plunge the nation into a world in which people watched Blossom unironically and still thought of Apple products as being hideously uncool (a.k.a. 1993).
The Times gives us a peek into how dreadful the lives of attorneys, real estate brokers, and other rich-people remoras have been since being under the gun of The Great Deadline.
Dolly Lenz, vice chairman of Douglas Elliman, found herself doing inventory at a wine cellar at 1 a.m. one night earlier this month at a $30 million co-op apartment on Central Park West, before the movers came to collect the 355 bottles. The apartment closing was at 8 the following morning.
“It was a bit of an oversight by the owners, who forgot they had all that wine,” Ms. Lenz said. The wine might have been more valuable than the apartment, she half-joked (three pieces of art in the apartment were valued at a total of $51 million, she said).
Lawyers are benefiting, too. Sandor Krauss, a Manhattan real estate lawyer, had 16 closings scheduled for this week and said he was on pace to do as many as 70 closings this month—triple the volume he did last December. “This will be the biggest December of my career,” he said.
Take heed, America: do you know where your priceless wine collection is? Oh right, in this paper bag.
For a more sobering look at what the fiscal cliff could mean for non job-creating taxpayers (Spoiler: we're all gonna be paying a bit more regardless of income or job-creating ability) take a look at this video made by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. Now you can actually yell to your family, "No I can't cram olives into the Festive Gouda Ball, I'm watching a video about taxes!"
Fiscal Cliff: How Much Would Taxes Rise in 2013? from Urban Institute on Vimeo.
Tagged
capital gains
fiscal cliff
rich people
rich people remoras
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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