“The “greatest buried treasure ever unearthed in the United States” is about to be hit by the tax collector.
According to Kathleen Pender, a columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle, the couple who found in cans buried on their property more than 1,400 rare gold coins worth more than $10 million will probably owe close to half of that sum in federal and state income tax, whether or not they sell the coins.
She quoted a 2013 tax guide in which the IRS stated: “If you find and keep property that does not belong to you that has been lost or abandoned (treasure-trove), it is taxable to you at its fair market value in the first year it is in your undisputed possession.”…
