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Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever

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Re: Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever

#51
post #33
post #9

When I was young and getting my driving license in Madrid I had to take a bus to the place were exams were done, in the south of Madrid(Mostoles). A friend of mine worked on IKEA and he told me that it was a lot of expectation as the founder had gone to Spain and it was taking the same bus that I took in order to visit the stores in Spain. It was surprising to me that someone owning billions will take the bus, while…

The testing center had their own car? Is this standard in Spain/Europe? I had to pay an instructor with a car to drive me to the testing center and let me use his car for the test while he waited around.

In Austria all the driving schools I've seen so far have their own branded cars. I'm pretty sure I also took the test in one of the driving school's cars, since they had their own test course right next to the school, and it was all paid in one package (theoretical and driving lessons, written and practical test).

Re: Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever

#52
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a difference between behaving like a poor for ethnological interest vs being obliged.

Riding a bus is not behaving like the poor.

It depends where you live ;)

Re: Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There have been many inquires into this by Swedish journalists over the years, but it's a very dense structure of companies with unclear ownership and structure. So who controls it is unknown. It is also a great tax evasion schema since the ownership is a charity (that donates money to "product design"), allowing IKEA to escape vast sums of taxation globally.

Avoidance, not evasion. If you're a very frugal person, it seems pretty normal to hate taxes. No point in saving on everything, yet then throwing x% away in taxes (yes, I am aware taxes fund a lot of good things, but at the same time a lot of money is wasted -- I'm sure Kamprad thought he could better manage and deploy that money)

Oh nice, if he thought he could use the money better, then sure, please carry on not paying taxes. Can I do the same? Or is that a privilege reserved for the mega-rich?

Or let's call a spade a spade, and let's call tax evasion tax evasion.

Re: Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever

#54
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on the mission, the end goal (if any), as with so many other things. If you're Gates, you likely feel an immense obligation to not destroy $100 billion (as with Buffett), as it's meant to be put to use as a public good. That has also become his professional life. And ideally you conservatively grow it further, to be able to bring that many more resources to bear on extremely expensive problems.

This is why my respect for Bill Gates has gone up so much over the years. It’s cool when folks like Warren Buffett pledge to give away their personal fortunes when they die. However, his personal sacrifice is actually quite small, as he only gives it up when forced to by death. Bill Gates, on the other hand has two valuable resources to offer and he is actively giving away both right now: 1) much of his vast fortune,…

Buffett doesn't exactly spend it now (he's got famously cheap tastes). He's also giving much of it away while still alive: $3bn more in Berkshire Hathaway shares to the Gates Foundation last year. Forbes claims that's 40% of his BH holdings given away so far. http://fortune.com/2017/07/10/warren-buffett-donates-gates-f...

Re: Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever

#55
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There have been many inquires into this by Swedish journalists over the years, but it's a very dense structure of companies with unclear ownership and structure. So who controls it is unknown. It is also a great tax evasion schema since the ownership is a charity (that donates money to "product design"), allowing IKEA to escape vast sums of taxation globally.

But then they put the Swedish flag in front of each shop. What a hypocrisy!

The Swedish flags predates the Swedish welfare state by several hundred years (and IKEA predates it by a couple of decades).

Re: Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There have been many inquires into this by Swedish journalists over the years, but it's a very dense structure of companies with unclear ownership and structure. So who controls it is unknown. It is also a great tax evasion schema since the ownership is a charity (that donates money to "product design"), allowing IKEA to escape vast sums of taxation globally.

Avoidance, not evasion. If you're a very frugal person, it seems pretty normal to hate taxes. No point in saving on everything, yet then throwing x% away in taxes (yes, I am aware taxes fund a lot of good things, but at the same time a lot of money is wasted -- I'm sure Kamprad thought he could better manage and deploy that money)

Please cut the ’avoidance, not evasion’ bullshit. This scheme is outright evasion, legalized by lobbying in Brussels against national law. You know that otherwise you wouldn’t care to point out this nuisance.

Re: Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever

#57
post #49

> The foundation owns itself, so no Kamprad family members hold shares. Late stage capitalism... Anyway, I don't really get why the article claims he didn't care about money. It's known for a while that IKEA avoids taxes in many dodgy ways. If he really didn't care, the connected companies could pay a reasonable amount.

He didn't care for the lifestyle that money can bring. He was living in a nondescript suburban house near Lausanne and kept his old car for 20 years. Much like Warren Buffet, he was one of these self-made fortunes for whom money is a way to keep tally.

"It's not about the money, it's about the game." -- Gordon Gekko

Re: Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever

#58
The development of no small part of English common law was the result of a multi-century cat and mouse game between wealthy landowners that wanted to keep their property in the family "forever" and everyone else that didn't want to have the dead hand of the past control substantial portions of the country's productive assets. Two groups in particular that didn't like to see assets locked away were dissolute heirs and their creditors.

Re: Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever

#59

> The foundation owns itself, so no Kamprad family members hold shares. Late stage capitalism... Anyway, I don't really get why the article claims he didn't care about money. It's known for a while that IKEA avoids taxes in many dodgy ways. If he really didn't care, the connected companies could pay a reasonable amount.

[deleted]

Re: Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever

#60

> The foundation owns itself, so no Kamprad family members hold shares. Late stage capitalism... Anyway, I don't really get why the article claims he didn't care about money. It's known for a while that IKEA avoids taxes in many dodgy ways. If he really didn't care, the connected companies could pay a reasonable amount.

Not caring about money doesn't necessarily mean you are willing to pay more taxes than you are legally required to, especially a subjective amount that others deem 'reasonable'.
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