Taxpayers profited off Madoff
Re: “Letters,” May 3:
Greg Daniels writes that Bernard Madoff’s victims are a “victim of your own greed, and I fail to see why the taxpayer should pick up the tab for your poor judgment.”
On the face of it, one would say that is absolutely correct. But there is a flaw in this thinking because the taxpayer, the state, did benefit from Madoff. Clients of Madoff and the various feeder funds have been paying taxes on the phantom profits for sometimes as much as 30 years.
Federal law says clients, victims -- whatever one chooses to call them -- can claim a theft loss on 95% of the funds that were stolen for three to five years back. One cannot go back for the entire life of the fund, nor can one get taxes back on money that was withdrawn.
The Madoff victims are merely asking for a small part of what has been taken in order to rebuild their lives. Money the state gladly took for years. Additionally, if you lost your IRA in a feeder fund as I did, there is no recourse. My entire retirement account is gone.
Daphne Brogdon
Los Angeles
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