Sure we've all either read the NYT 15,000+ word article on how Trump's dad Fred and Donald found loopholes and flat out did some illegal tax cheating to funnel "The Donald" more than $400 million.
But before we get to that, a story for context. I've talked about this some here, but not for a long time.
My great, great grandfather had a business where he made things like cement/concrete (never figure out the two) flower pots and bird baths (have one in my front yard as I type this). That turned into benches and walls. Then even bigger things like roads and bridges. If I venture across southern Illinois to where my family has lived since we came here from Scotland in 1887 I still cross bridges with my initials on it (I am a IV).
Proud they still stand. Sad they are like a 100 years old and we've never upgraded
He left my grandfather more than a few bucks. Grandfather became a wildly successful small, rural town doctor for 50+ years.
He had a "Midas" touch with the stock market. His investment strategy. Plastics, drugs, transportation.
Amassed a massive sum of money. But he didn't trust lawyers or accountants, so didn't use them. Nobody thought he would outlive my grandmother, pretty much everything was in her name. He outlived her. He paid around 45% in taxes. He still did no estate planning. He passed away and my parents had to pay pretty much another 45% in taxes, which required them to sell a shit load of stock. Just not enough cash on hand.
My parents were not going to make this mistake for a third time and engaged UBS Paine Webber so we have a "team" of folks investing our money, doing our taxes, looking at legal stuff.
It is at this point I should note we don't have tens and tens of millions (I know, small violin playing). Well under the threshold of were even the most liberal of our elected leaders want to tax at close to a 50% rate.
There are so many legal things my parents and their estate does. Legal. Not a loophole or some "gray" area. They can give me and my brother $10,000 a year tax free. We are both blessed to make good livings, but fucking $10,000 is still a lot of money. It can cover property taxes. Not sure how else my brother uses his, but I use it for insurance (Obamacare — a god sent item I might add for somebody that works for themselves), for my car, and house.
We also have what we in my family we call a "last to die" insurance policy. Basically an insurance plan (found you can insure anything) of mutual fund investments that is pegged to the currently quarterly value of the estate and the tax rate for that amount, so when the last of my parents pass away we cash it in and don’t have to directly pay a penny in taxes.
Many other things. My "Estate" owns my house. A tax thing I don’t understand. I don't have access to my trust directly, nor do I want to, but if there is an emergency, like the house fire that totalled my home, I got access to it. Paid to replaced my sewer line and do some foundation work on the house Allstate didn't cover.
Pretty much tax free transfer of money (no clue how it was done, but 110% legal I am sure), some kind of trust, for my brother and his wife, to pay for Katie's (their kid) education. They will never have to pay a dime for her education (still in public schools, she is 9. Nobody in my family has gone to a school at any level that wasn’t public!!!!!).
We're a family of doctors and PhDs. That is kind of how we roll :). Education. Education. Education!
Frankly it all gets kind of complex, but that is why we pay UBS a good deal of money, because they are making us money hands over fist.
Heck mom told me the other day, and she doesn't follow it daily, weekly, but maybe monthly what is going on with their money. Imagine this. They put $100,000 in her UBS checking account and she didn't know anything about until she called a 800 number to check the balance.
Her side of the family were dirt poor. I recall her father. 93. His mind 100% there. Bad hips, needed a walker. Blind and almost deaf. Mom would cook him meals. She found him watering down the chili. She is like WTF.
He said "Joyce I was alive during the Great Depression. I recall waiting in lines for bread. We were starving. My mom crying and saying we can afford to buy you whatever you won't, and he is like "it is habit, ingrained in me wondering where my next meal might come from, it isn't going to change."
I say all of this because honestly we don't' want to pay any more in taxes then we have to. But there are legal ways to do it for fuck sake!
Bet it won't surprise anybody here but if you have money the system is kind of rigged in your favor. Big time. Even when the economy went in the shitter in 2007 we still were making money every quarter. Slower rate of growth. But NOT A SINGLE QUARTER did we LOSE MONEY.
But something like this wasn't good enough for Trump. He was grifting and cheating. Heck he didn't want to pay a single penny in taxes so he didn’t. He bent and then IMHO broke the law.
The question I have for him which is how much money is enough?
My brother and I will eventually have millions. I have already told my parents, and honestly they don’t so much like the idea, I will give away 40-60% of what I get and/or set-up a fund to give earns off the money away. Keep the rest invested and live off the quarterly payments.
Best quess right now, although the money continues to grow and grow $50,000+ a quarter.
I make that or a little less now with my business and honestly because the cost of living is so low here in rural, flyover American, my house and car are paid for, I have no credit card debit or student loans, insurance paid for, I have everything I want and maybe more. And I have somewhat expensive taste.
On that note, mom asked me if there was anything I was thinking about for X-Mas. Sure a long time away, but they could start to see if they could find it on sale or get a deal. My parents might have a shit load of money but I don’t think they pay full price for anything. Sales. Coupons. You name it to save a penny.
I am like honestly I can’t think of something. I kind of have everything I want.
This became more about me and my situation then I planned on, but I have a fraction of a percent of what Trump has, and I don’t honestly think he is even close to a billionaire.
If he hadn’t gone bankrupt multiple times and he had a better credit and was only worth like $200M if he need a billion or so for a huge project, he could get it on his own. Easy with an investor or two.
But nope, he had to cheat and break the law. And that is sad, but the saddest thing of all, he got away with it.
