SWR Duh? The Atocha thingie while in this case, hypothetical, still does not include the years and money to find it. Also an operation like this isn't as bed of roses.
But most important, you mention $10,000,000 as a nice tidy sum, which it is, but after paying the investors, outstanding expenses, etc ., just how much actual usable cash would remain in his families pocket to compensate for 10 + years of hard work?
If for example, they managed to retain 30%, say $3,000,000 / 30% + tax, = $2,000,000. (aprox.) This divided by 10+ years equals $200,000 a year among them. if three are involved ,that comes around $ 66,000 each per year, BEFORE other personal income taxes. Again this is subject to being crudely hypothetical, but I tend to believe that his shop in Calif was making more than this for them..
Based upon this factor, I rather suspect that the entire Fleet and the Atocha would still be under the sand and coral IF only this much could be realized. Any further explorations would soon cease.
Obviously I am not up on US taxes in such a situation, but the above serves to crudely, and basically to show my trend of thought.
" YOU TAKE THE RISK, YOU SHOULD TAKE THE PROFITS", if we don't follow this , all future recoveries , which do add to the overall benifit of the US, will quickly dry up. Why go for an unknown, and a rough, uncomfortable life when you can have a nice secure 8-5 job and a comfortable home, unless you are compensated for it.
For minor shore recoveries by small diving businesses, , or small caches, which never will amount to much, the standard tax setup is ok and fair in so far as our tax setup can be..
Don Jose de La Mancha
p.s. For your information, Uncle has a law that you MUST declare any amount of money / values over $10,000 that you are taking out of the US, and further requires you to state any and all foreign bank etc., accounts that you may have.
In addition, most banks in the world, incluiding Swiss, are pressured to report any funds that a US citizen has in their account. Thank the Patriot Act and money laundering for this.