SEC Fee

See: Securities and Exchange Commission.

Yes, the SEC gets paid by a combo of tax dollars, fees on trades, and fees for maintaining brokerage and other licenses. Basically, every time you have a security exchange, or trade, or get sold to another, you can thank your lucky stars that the SEC exists. Try doing this function so seamlessly in Mogadishu. Then kiss the ground when you land in JFK, and stop whining about these taxes. Without our relatively very fair American system of capital markets, we'd be a nation with way less opportunity.