Man Finds 9-Carat Diamond in Arkansas State Park
Written by SOURCE on September 27, 2020
A man who was hiking in the Arkansas State Park stumbled upon an amazing discovery without even realizing it, a 9.07-carat diamond that he mistook for a piece of glass.
People cited that 33-year-old Kevin Kinard was adventuring through the Crater of Diamonds State Park on Labor Day weekend when he made the discovery. “It kind of looked interesting and shiny, so I put it in my bag and kept searching,” he recalled in a press release. “I just thought it might’ve been glass.”
The marble-sized diamond is the second-largest found in the State park’s history, and Kinard didn’t even realize he had found the valuable crystal until taking it to the park’s Diamond Discovery Center.
“I honestly teared up when they told me,” Kinard said. “I was in complete shock!”
Kinard is a resident of Maumelle and currently works as a bank branch manager. It is still unclear how much the diamond is worth, but it’s currently projected to land Kinard an upward of $30,000 based on other diamonds that are much smaller than his find.
“Congratulations to Mr. Kinard on finding this impressive diamond – the second-largest found at the park since 1972,” secretary of the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage, and Tourism Stacy Hurst said in a statement. “A find like this is always thrilling for the park guest, as well as the park staff, who get to help identify the gem and share in the excitement.”
However, there are only two things that are inescapable in life. Death and taxes, and the IRS found and taxed Kinard for his diamond. As Forbes pointed out, since the diamond was found outside of Kinard’s property, it still needs to be taxed even if you found it by dumb luck like the case here. Along with that, even if Kinard had no intent on selling the diamond he was still going to get taxed for it.
According to the IRS, whether it is diamonds or otherwise, just about anything is taxable according to Cesarini v. United States. The devil works hard, but the IRS most certainly works harder.
