Selling the stake or swapping it for Merrill Lynch stock would have severe tax implications, say compensation experts.
A "fiscal cliff" of sudden, severe tax increases and spending cuts looms at the end of this year.
Mr. Rowland, who has taken over negotiations for Republican lawmakers who have refused to discuss almost any tax increases, is holding out for deeper cuts in services and less severe tax increases.
Instead, a dignified and calm man, seasoned by years of parliamentary experience, raised questions of real importance to millions of people, on the housing crisis, on severe tax credit cuts to millions and on the worsening emergency in mental health.
Robert Willens, a tax expert, said that documentation issues had created potentially severe tax problems for investors in mortgage securities and that "there is enough of a question here that the courts might well have to resolve the issue".
Without the stretch, they would lose the chance for long-term, tax-deferred compounded growth, having to withdraw the money immediately or within five years and probably suffer severe tax consequences.
The Yankees are determined to bring their payroll under $189 million for 2014 to avoid severe tax penalties in future seasons, so one-year deals for Kuroda, Pettitte and Rivera make sense.
A last-minute compromise in Congress averted a dive off the "fiscal cliff" and annulled severe tax increases that had been scheduled on earned income, dividends, interest and capital gains.
His use of New York as an example of a city with a "far more severe tax regime", yet not short of thousands of "super-rich" residents, is particularly pertinent in view of scaremongers' suggestions that the rich will leave the UK, bag and baggage.
If they wanted to bolt, they could do so without severe tax pain.
