It was inevitable

Couple who found the largest hoard of gold coins in US history, worth 10 million, will owe almost half to the feds and to California in tax.

They should have simply sold them off quietly, one by one, instead of making the papers.  I guess the million dollar coin would be hard to sell without the IRS knowing, but please, the government has no moral right whatsoever to demand a cut of something like this. Obviously, they have their law, but half?  

This is how tax avoidance becomes ingrained in the culture, as it is in Italy, as rules like this have no moral basis, but rather simply exhibit the government's greed to get something from everything, like the mob.

But hey, we middle class will pay like good citizens, and "our" government will continue to spend it all, and then borrow all they can and spend that, until collapse.  Writing the check would be a lot easier if our so called public servants actually used the money wisely.

I guy I work with unexpectedly won an all expenses paid trip to LA to see a well known TV show last year.  It wasn't a show he watched or really wanted to see, but hey, it was all paid for. Then he realized that just like the gold coins, he would be liable for the tax on the fair market value of the whole thing, which he calculated at about 1500 bucks.  To the shock of the contest organizers, he declined to accept.  After all, why go all the way to LA and go to a show you don't really like, and pay 1500 bucks for the "privilege?"  Another pernicious effect of the all demanding tax code.