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16 IRET Congressional Advisory 1 (1993)

handle is hein.taxfoundation/iretcgadv0015 and id is 1 raw text is: IRE
Advio
June 3, 1993 No. 16
HOUSE TAX BILL CONVERSION
PROVISION: FUTURES OUT,
OPTIONS IN, RISKS UP
The House-passed tax bill would tax capital
gains on commodities and stocks as if they were
ordinary income if the positions were hedged by

means of futures contracts. The
Committee print claims that a
hedged position - in which
the holder of the stock or
commodity    has   a   firm
agreement to sell the asset to a
buyer at a certain price at a
specific future date -   is
indistinguishable from loans
in  terms  of   the  returns
anticipated and the risks borne
by the taxpayer. The asset-
holder is supposedly in   a
position like that of a lender

Ways and Means

It is ludicrious tax p
the r~eturins of on
tr-ansaction ais orA
income and the loss
party to the same
capital losses, yet t1
House bill does.

whose income is due to the time value of money
rather than market risk, earning interest rather than
profits from speculation. The contention is absurd.
The rationale is based on brainless semantics, not
economics.
The problem, as the House sees it, is this.
Suppose X bought $100 of gold bullion, cotton, or
World Wide Widget Corporation stock and agreed
to sell it (or some similar property) to Y at some
future date for $115. Under current law, X would
report a $15 capital gain on the sale of the asset.
However, because the sale was definite from the day

of purchase, the House would consider the
transaction to be not risky enough to deserve capital
gains treatment - being too much like interest.
The House would call the transaction a conversion
transaction and treat a portion of the $15 profit as
if it were ordinary income (but not as interest,
according  to the cryptic Ways and    Means
Committee print). The portion that would be treated
as ordinary income would be the $100 asset
acquisition price multiplied by 120% of some
interest rate selected by the Treasury.
As the proposal states: For example, assume
that X purchases stock for $100 on January 1, 1994,
and on that same day agrees to sell it to Y on
January 1, 1996 for $115.   Assume that the
applicable rate is 5%. On January 1, 1996, X
delivers the stock to Y in exchange for $115 in
satisfaction of their agreement. Assume that under
current law X would have recognized a capital gain
of $15. Under the provision,
$12.36 of that amount would
be recharacterized as ordinary
olicy to regard   income (i.e., 120%  of 5%
e pariy to a      compounded for two years,
ary interest     applied to an investment of
es of the other   $100).'
trasaction as
,it is what the       Petty criticisms of the
example aside (e.g., anyone
familiar with financial markets
knows that they are not open
on New Year's Day; If the
futures trade were made the day after the purchase,
would the 24 hours of risk let the taxpayer avoid the
penalty? If the income is to be taxed as ordinary
income because it resembles interest, why is it to be
viewed not as interest? If it is to be viewed not
as interest, why is the amount denied capital gains
treatment set with reference to an interest rate?),
does the proposal make sense? It does not.
Consider the more sensible treatment of stock
options which would be retained under the proposal.
Asset sales resulting from the sale of options to buy,
as opposed to firm commitments to buy, would not

Institute for
Research on the
Economics of
Taxation

IRET is a non-profit, tax exempt 501(c)(3) economic policy research and educational organization devoted to inorming the
public about policies that will promote economic growth and efficient operation of the free market economy.
1730 K Street, N., Suite 910, Washington, D.C. 20006
Voice 202-463-1400 * Fax 202-463-6199 0 Internet www.iret.org

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