The moment of realization felt like a heavy punch in his guts! He thought he had $10,199,878 sitting pretty in his account, only to be hit with the harsh truth that Uncle Sam was waiting, with outstretched hands, like a greedy ghost, ready to take his cut.
With shaking fingers, he hurriedly opened the IRS website, hope hanging by a thread. Maybe there was some obscure exemption he didn't know about. Maybe he could find a loophole tucked between tax code lines.
And that's when he saw it.
Short-term capital gains tax: 37%.
His breath caught in his throat. His chest tightened like a vice. Cold sweat broke out on his back as the numbers began to swirl. His pulse thundered in his ears like war drums as he reached for the calculator.
Thirty-seven percent of $9.2 million.
His fingers hesitated. Then he punched in the numbers. The number slammed into his mind with the force of a freight train:
$3,404,000. Gone.
