Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stichting_INGKA_Foundation
This is very disrespectful of you towards the LBGT community!
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Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever
61–70 of 373 posts
Re: Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever
#62> 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'.
And overpaying taxes will be always considered bad management. I don't think he and IKEA top management would ever want that.
Re: Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
No, the fictional character cared about money:
'I bought that building for 800 grand, and sold it for a few year later for --------. I thought that was all the money in them world. Now it's a day's pay.'
'Enough money to have a girl like Darien?"
'Enough money to not waste time.'
He was a greedy bastard---like every guy whom I saw make it big financially. He didn't have an enabling rich father though? He was a community college boy.
I graduated college, and went into graduate school. I had a lot of stress, and not much support, nor a life outside of school. I used to do homework with Wall Street, and Platoon playing in the background.
I liked those movies because they portrayed the duality of life perfectly, or so I thought back then.
I ended up having a nervous breakdown, and rarely watch either movie, but really identified with Sheen's characters in both movies.
Re: Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever
#64According to the Economist, the whole structure was created to minimise tax [1]
"What emerges is an outfit that ingeniously exploits the quirks of different jurisdictions to create a charity, dedicated to a somewhat banal cause, that is not only the world's richest foundation, but is at the moment also one of its least generous. The overall set-up of IKEA minimises tax and disclosure, handsomely rewards the founding Kamprad family and makes IKEA immune to a takeover. And if that seems too good to be true, it is: these arrangements are extremely hard to undo. The benefits from all this ingenuity come at the price of a huge constraint on the successors to Ingvar Kamprad, the store's founder (pictured above), to do with IKEA as they see fit."
Re: Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Sure, call tax evasion tax evasion, but AFAIK Kamprad wasn't doing it. Authorities go very hard against tax evasion, the illegal thing. Tax avoidance is by definition things that are legal, not tax evasion.
Re: Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever
#66> 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 really care about money personally, or at least not the material things money can buy. At least that's the image he worked very hard to portray by driving an old Volvo, living in a modest house and wearing clothes bought in a second hand store etc. He obviously cared a lot about his companies making as much money as possible. Although if you asked him he'd probably say that all that tax avoidance was just h…
Ok. But when why not donate the tax savings to an org that can use it? I just can't see "I don't care" resulting in hoarding (so much money).
Maybe "Money doesn't motivate me" would be more accurate?
Re: Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever
#67The 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…
Re: Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever
#68> 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'.
this is such a weasely way to phrase agressive tax minimization. It's the "I spent all day eating Sam's Club food samples" of business. You didn't need to do it, you're helping no one but yourself, and you look bad afterwards.
Re: Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
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Re: Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
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).
It still seems an hypocrisy to me. In any case, they use the flag as a marketing tool, something which, from my point of view, doesn't show much respect for the flag.