Banks May Dole Out Bonuses Early

[NeoConsSuck]

Source: MSNBC

"Bush-era" tax provisions that benefitted the wealthy are set to expire at the end of 2010. If Congress doesn't extend the favorable rates through next year, it could make a big difference whether employees at Wall Street behemoths like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citigroup and the like earn their income by year-end.

Some big banks pay bonuses before year-end, while others delay the holiday gift til early January. However, the sunset of a Bush-era tax break may cause them to award compensation in 2010. "Executives are thinking about deferred compensation choices -- deferring bonuses and income, which they can choose to do," says Greg Rosica, a tax partner at Ernst & Young. "People who have stock options are considering the strategy with that. At companies paying out bonuses, early January vs. December can be a very different tax situation for the recipients."

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Wall Street has shown that it's willing to shift pay-out dates to benefit its employees: Merrill Lynch management decided to dole out billions of dollars in bonuses at the end of 2008, days before the troubled investment bank collapsed into Bank of America's arms. So, perhaps bankers and traders may get at least one last year of relatively low tax rates if bank managers decide to pay bonuses in 2010.

"What most of Wall Street wants is a short-term windfall - for Wall Street," says James Gomes, director of the Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise at Clark University. "That would mean a White House that seeks to lower taxes on higher incomes, lower capital gains taxes, the permanent end of the estate tax, and less financial regulation."



Read more: http://www.newsweek.com/2010/10/04/banks-may-dole-out-bonuses-early.html

[Blandocyte]

1. Effing mother effers

"People who have stock options are considering the strategy with that. At companies paying out bonuses, early January vs. December can be a very different tax situation for the recipients."

People who are on unemployment are considering the strategy with that. At benefits ending in certain months, early January vs. December can mean a very different ability to pay the heating bill for the recipients.

[DJ13]

2. We want it all, and we want it now

[Thav]

3. Ok then, we're calling in our debts.

Pay up, bitches. It's time the American public foreclosed on THEM.

[Doctor_J]

4. These people act like they've never heard of a guillotine

:wtf:

[Jefferson23]

5. For crying out loud, they have no decency and never will. Go to hell already. n/t