The Queen?
House of Secrets: Who Owns London's Most Expensive Mansion?
11–20 of 23 posts
Re: House of Secrets: Who Owns London's Most Expensive Mansion?
#12Spoiler - it's a secret because someone is evading tax, hiding mafia money, or money they gained through corruption. It's a shame but unsurprising the investigator is a journalist rather than the British police or revenue service.
A. Because someone wants to keep their ownership of an asset private does not mean they are doing something nefarious
B. That said, the quote "behind every great fortune is a great crime" does come to mind
Re: House of Secrets: Who Owns London's Most Expensive Mansion?
#13It's not unusual for wealthy foreigners to own expensive real estate in large, stable cities. The most expensive buildings in New York City, with beautiful views of Central Park etc., have, surprisingly, many absent owners. Overseas billionaires use investments in cities like New York and Sidney as places to safely park their millions outside of their own countries. I would imagine that London is likewise a perfect place to do this.
Re: House of Secrets: Who Owns London's Most Expensive Mansion?
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
because it's registered in the name of an off-shore company? pretty much any HNWI doesn't bank in high tax jurisdictions so yeah they're all tax evaders. the richer you get the less tax you pay.
I wouldn't judge that too quickly - it could well be about hiding money stolen from another country: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/london-proper...
So that's fine then?!
Re: House of Secrets: Who Owns London's Most Expensive Mansion?
#15It's not unusual for wealthy foreigners to own expensive real estate in large, stable cities. The most expensive buildings in New York City, with beautiful views of Central Park etc., have, surprisingly, many absent owners. Overseas billionaires use investments in cities like New York and Sidney as places to safely park their millions outside of their own countries. I would imagine that London is likewise a perfect p…
Whenever I walk in Central Park in the evening, I pay attention to how many windows of adjoining buildings have their lights on, as a rough proxy of current occupancy. Billionaire-class buildings like 15CPW, One57, etc. are often 80% dark. On a holiday weekend like today (it’s considered lame to be stuck in the city -- you need to be in the Hamptons or wherever), they can be completely dark. I’ll go check in a while. My building on the other hand will be lit up like a Christmas tree.
Re: House of Secrets: Who Owns London's Most Expensive Mansion?
#16Spoiler - it's a secret because someone is evading tax, hiding mafia money, or money they gained through corruption. It's a shame but unsurprising the investigator is a journalist rather than the British police or revenue service.
because it's registered in the name of an off-shore company? pretty much any HNWI doesn't bank in high tax jurisdictions so yeah they're all tax evaders. the richer you get the less tax you pay.
Up until last summer (when the Government won a case letting them change the law), having your expensive house owned by an offshore corporation was the canonical way to avoid a particular type of UK tax called Stamp Duty.
When you buy a property, you have to pay Stamp Duty [1] on the value it's sold at. Stamp Duty uses marginal tax brackets, and the highest one (for the portion of the transaction over £1.5M), is 12%...so it adds up if you're buying a large house.
Given that the tax rate for buying "shares in a foreign company that has a share register in the UK" is a flat 0.5%, the scheme was that you set up the house as the only asset of an offshore corporation registered in the UK, and instead of selling someone the house, you sell them the shares of the corporation. The buyer can now inhabit the house at their leisure (since they own the company that owns it), but the direct ownership of the house didn't change - so no Stamp Duty was triggered.
There are likely other tax benefits to having your expensive house owned by a numbered corporation, but Stamp Duty is/was a significant one.
Re: House of Secrets: Who Owns London's Most Expensive Mansion?
#17It's not unusual for wealthy foreigners to own expensive real estate in large, stable cities. The most expensive buildings in New York City, with beautiful views of Central Park etc., have, surprisingly, many absent owners. Overseas billionaires use investments in cities like New York and Sidney as places to safely park their millions outside of their own countries. I would imagine that London is likewise a perfect p…
Whenever I walk in Central Park in the evening, I pay attention to how many windows of adjoining buildings have their lights on, as a rough proxy of current occupancy. Billionaire-class buildings like 15CPW, One57, etc. are often 80% dark. On a holiday weekend like today (it’s considered lame to be stuck in the city -- you need to be in the Hamptons or wherever), they can be completely dark. I’ll go check in a while.…
I wonder if there's a cool data science project here. On a repeat basis: take a picture at night, do some basic CV on it, and output an occupancy rate. Might be interesting for some of the luxury buildings you've noticed.
Re: House of Secrets: Who Owns London's Most Expensive Mansion?
#18It's not unusual for wealthy foreigners to own expensive real estate in large, stable cities. The most expensive buildings in New York City, with beautiful views of Central Park etc., have, surprisingly, many absent owners. Overseas billionaires use investments in cities like New York and Sidney as places to safely park their millions outside of their own countries. I would imagine that London is likewise a perfect p…
Same with works of art, classic cars, illegal antiquities and golden potatoes. All kept rather than volatile, traceable money.
Re: House of Secrets: Who Owns London's Most Expensive Mansion?
#19It's not unusual for wealthy foreigners to own expensive real estate in large, stable cities. The most expensive buildings in New York City, with beautiful views of Central Park etc., have, surprisingly, many absent owners. Overseas billionaires use investments in cities like New York and Sidney as places to safely park their millions outside of their own countries. I would imagine that London is likewise a perfect p…
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Re: House of Secrets: Who Owns London's Most Expensive Mansion?
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
because it's registered in the name of an off-shore company? pretty much any HNWI doesn't bank in high tax jurisdictions so yeah they're all tax evaders. the richer you get the less tax you pay.
Up until last summer (when the Government won a case letting them change the law), having your expensive house owned by an offshore corporation was the canonical way to avoid a particular type of UK tax called Stamp Duty. When you buy a property, you have to pay Stamp Duty [1] on the value it's sold at. Stamp Duty uses marginal tax brackets, and the highest one (for the portion of the transaction over £1.5M), is 12%.…
Even with the new taxes, people were/are still purchasing through foreign companies (that way, you avoid the 0.5% stamp duty when the shares are sold?).
They do have to pay the Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings (ATED) then though, which is basically an annual tax that needs to be paid when a corporate entity (i.e not a person or a trust) owns a property.