[sfblah]

You're splitting hairs. Treating gains from startup founder stock like gains from an investor who put in substantial amounts of money is just silly, and that part of the tax code should be fixed. It's just as abusive as the carried-interest provision.

If the person who started the company had zero access to capital, then claiming the company had no value at the beginning would be credible. Peter had substantial access to capital even in 1998-99. There was no question he was going to raise a boatload of money quickly after starting the company. Contributing shares of such a company to an IRA by claiming they're worth $1700 is just an abuse of the system.