Thousands Of Bankers To Lose Bonuses They Already Banked

The US House of Representatives has voted for legislation that will impose a 90% tax on any cash compensation over $250,0000, paid to bankers after 31st December last, at firms which have received more than $5bn in government bailout funds.
The legislation will now go before the Senate, which looks likely to impose even tougher changes, as four senators have now proposed taxes of 70% are levied on individuals (earning over $250,000) at firms which have received more than just $100m in government assistance.

As it stands, the big losers will be senior staff at AIG, Bank of America / Merrill Lynch, Citi, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo. And all but Merrill Lynch staff (who received their bonuses before the retrospective cut-off point) look like losing almost all of their 2008 bonus payouts to tax (state and local taxes will take care of most of the rest). Just how this will impact (if at all) employees of these firms who work outside the reach of the US tax code is currently unclear.

So several thousand bankers who thought that they had bagged bonuses for their work in 2008 look like now finding themselves financially disadvantaged. One banker told Here Is The City: 'So much for the 'Land of the Free'. Who would ever want to work for a bank in America now ? These lawmakers appear to have done in less than 60 days what the Soviet Union couldn't do to our country in over 60 years - turn us into a communist-like dictatorship!'.