These gains don't cause pain. A capital gain is the amount of money you pocket by selling one of your investments for more than you paid for it. Technically, capital gains only count for what's called a capital asset, but that's really just anything you own for investment purposes. Stocks and bonds obviously qualify, but your house and household furnishings can also count.

For tax purposes, capital gains are classified as either long-term (held for more than one year) or short-term (held for less than one year) and there are different tax implications for how long you hold onto a capital asset. For most long-term capital gains, you're taxed no more than 15% of the value of the asset. Short-term gains get taxed as regular income, so you pay the rate for the tax bracket you're in.

Capital gains can also be realized or unrealized. When you physically sell an asset like a stock, you've realized the capital gain. When you're holding the stock, and it has a value over its purchase price, but you're not selling it, you've got an unrealized gain, and you won't realize it until you sell.

In a perfect world, we'd all have capital gains. But no one¿s that smart or lucky. When the value of an asset at sale is below what you've paid for it, it's called a capital loss. The good news is that the government lets you count that loss against any gains you've had, lowering the taxes you pay. In fact, many people who sell a stock that has risen far over their purchase price tend to sell some stinkers, too, at the same time for the tax benefit. This is known as a capital-loss offset.

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Monday, June 30, 2008

Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation Announces Appointments to Senior Management Team

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Comtex

SPRINGFIELD, Mass., June 30, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ ----Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation (Nasdaq: SWHC), parent company of Smith & Wesson Corp., the legendary 156-year old company in the global business of safety, security, protection and sport, today announced new appointments to its senior management team, reflecting the business's continued and anticipated growth. The Company has named William F. Spengler as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. John A. Kelly, formerly Chief Financial Officer, has been named to the newly created role of Vice President of Financial Planning and Control.

Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer, Michael F. Golden, said, "I am very pleased to announce these appointments, which serve to further strengthen our senior management team in areas that are critical to our future growth. Bill Spengler brings to the CFO role a tremendous amount of experience in finance, operations, and mergers and acquisitions for world-class, private and publicly traded companies. He has operated in several business sectors, including consumer goods, packaging products, orthopedics and pharmaceuticals. Bill and I worked together at Black & Decker, and during that time I developed a great respect for Bill's deep understanding of financial management. Since then his experience has broadened to include total corporate strategy and extensive business development activities, while he has continued to strengthen his expertise in finance, accounting, information technology, investor relations and manufacturing operations."

Golden continued, "John Kelly will continue to provide us with his leadership and the benefit of his 23 years of experience at Smith & Wesson. His deep knowledge of our business processes and business practices across the firearms industry are tremendous assets that we will continue to utilize as we look at opportunities to accelerate our revenue growth and enhance profitability."

Spengler was most recently Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for MGI PHARMA, Inc., a leading, publicly traded, specialty pharmaceutical company, which was recently sold to Eisai Co., Ltd. for $3.9 billion. He has a strong background in finance and accounting, having served as Vice President of Finance at Black and Decker for five years and as Chief Financial Officer of four publicly traded companies, including Guilford Pharmaceuticals prior to its acquisition by MGI PHARMA, Inc. He joined MGI PHARMA as Senior Vice President, International & Corporate Development in 2005 and was subsequently named CFO in early 2006. His experience also includes 14 years with Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he held roles of increasing responsibility in finance, planning and business development.

Commenting on his new role Spengler said, "Under Mike's leadership, Smith & Wesson has built a strong team that is aggressively taking market share in existing markets and, building upon the strength of its time-honored brand, driving toward diversified growth in new markets. The company's strategic plan is an exciting one, and I am pleased to join the team at this point in time and hope to contribute substantially to the next chapter of growth at Smith & Wesson."

Spengler received his B.A. in Economics from Yale University in 1977 and his M.B.A. from New York University in 1980.

About Smith & Wesson

Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation, a global leader in safety, security, protection and sport, is parent company to Smith & Wesson Corp., one of the world's largest manufacturers of quality firearms and firearm safety/security products and parent company to Thompson/Center Arms, Inc., a premier designer and manufacturer of premium hunting rifles, black powder rifles, interchangeable firearms systems and accessories under the Thompson/Center brand. Smith & Wesson licenses shooter eye and ear protection, knives, apparel, and other accessory lines. Smith & Wesson is based in Springfield, Massachusetts with manufacturing facilities in Springfield, Houlton, Maine, and Rochester, New Hampshire. The Smith & Wesson Academy is America's longest running firearms training facility for law enforcement, military and security professionals. For more information on Smith & Wesson, call (800) 331-0852 or log on to http://www.smith-wesson.com. For more information on Thompson/Center Arms, log on to http://www.tcarms.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

Certain statements contained in this press release may be deemed to be forward-looking statements under federal securities laws, and the Company intends that such forward-looking statements be subject to the safe-harbor created thereby. Such forward-looking statements include statements regarding the Company's continuing and anticipated growth; composition of the Company's leadership team; and the Company's participation in new and existing markets. The Company cautions that these statements are qualified by important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include the ability of the Company's management team, including the new appointments to that management team, to achieve their intended goals and strategies of enhancing the Company's operations, profitability, or diversification efforts. This and other risks are detailed from time to time in the Company's reports filed with the SEC, including its Form 10-K Report for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2008.

 Liz Sharp, VP Investor Relations Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. (480)
   949-9700, ext. 115 lsharp@smith-wesson.com

SOURCE Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation

http://www.smith-wesson.com

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