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> Simple law: you cannot invest in your own company in your own Roth IRA because it is blatantly unfair to other investors who don't have similar insider trading abilities.

Why can't other investors create their own startups and invest their money similarly?

Startup founders take a lot of risk. There is a big chance his investment could have been zero. It is strange that ProPublica does not understand this basic concept.

Where is their report on millions of Roth accounts that went to zero?



> It is strange ProPublica not understand this basic concept.

One could ask how you demonstrably cannot understand the conflation of two unrelated concepts?

Concept A: taking a risk to create a startup that you hope becomes a profitable company by executing to its core competency

Concept B: investing in your own company through a tax vagary with an investment device that has nothing to do with startup (or a particular startup)

Seems clear as day to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPX-wuplDvc


This isn't a Leetcode puzzle. It's a question of how you want society to be organized. Do you really think it's reasonable to have loopholes that allow certain semi-random people to totally escape the income tax system? What possible good could that do for society?


The paltry amount he invested was hardly a risk. Had it not panned out, he would have been out basically zilch.


He was a founder. His investment was not just financial. When he invested, he was not ultra rich. So a loss would have been significant.

Remember, we can't see the future.

By your logic: You are free to invest like him in early stage startups. You will be out zilch, so why not do what he did?


> By your logic: You are free to invest like him in early stage startups. You will be out zilch, so why not do what he did?

1. Accredited investor rules 2. Please find me a startup which will allow me to buy shares at $0.001/share while simultaneous selling to other investors at a price of 500k[0]. 3. If you say to start my own and invest in my own company that I am working for in my Roth, I'll remind you that it's explicit not allowed, and the fact that it's not allowed is the thing that most people are taking issue with.

[0] Yes, that's not the full valuation issue, but it's enough to see that the value at the time wasn't really legitimate.


"With financial support from friends and family, he raised $1 million" - from his wiki.

Yeah, I don't think this person was hurting for the paltry sum they invested. It also sounds like they would've been just fine if it had failed (aka just move on to the next venture until you hit jackpot).

The rich get richer I guess, and random folks on the internet applaud the pilfering of the commons (dodging taxes).




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