Now you know…cus I just learned too! 😊

That's the way billionaires don't pay taxes

Art is a valuable asset after all.

LoL so we gonna pretend that 50m initial purchase was free. Penguish.

Adam explained it better. This guy left out the private appraiser.

Now I understand why someone bought a taped banana for millions of dollar and called it art 🎨

I learned about this many years ago, when I became curious about the Getty family wealth. The Getty family maintained its immense fortune primarily through the creation of trusts—notably the J. Paul Getty Trust and the Pleiades Trust—which allowed them to shield assets from estate taxes, evade California state income tax by basing operations in Nevada, and facilitate the transfer of wealth through corporate sales, such as the 1984 acquisition of Getty Oil by Texaco. •The J. Paul Getty Trust: Founded in 1953, J. Paul Getty left the bulk of his estate ($660+ million in stock) to his museum trust, protecting it from inheritance taxes while maintaining it as a charitable entity, according to Wikipedia and Philanthropy Roundtable. •Tax Avoidance Structures: The family used specialized trusts, including the Pleiades Trust, which was domiciled in Nevada to avoid California's income tax on trust income. •Trust Restructuring: In 1985, after a legal battle, the massive family trust was divided, allowing different branches of the family to control their own shares, notes Refinery29. •Diversification: Beyond the oil fortune, family members pursued new ventures, such as Mark Getty co-founding Getty Images in 1995, building a new empire, according to YouTube. •Notoriously Stingy Management: J. Paul Getty was famous for his frugality, often seeking tax deductions for expenses, including the 1973 ransom of his grandson, where he only paid the maximum tax-deductible amount, as explained by The Ringer.

It is only a Tax benefit? or also a way to transfer cash , tax free

Mate, your explanation doesn’t make sense to me. Perhaps I’m too thick? 1. Gov sends chap A a $80 million tax bill. 2. Chap A goes and buys a painting for $50 million. 3. OK, so now he’s done $50 million. 4. Chap A still owes the government $80 million. 5. He puts it in storage. After a time he puts it up for auction and it sells to Chap B for $80 million. 6. OK. He’s now made $30 million profit on the painting. He still owes the government $80 million on his tax bill. 7. Take away the $30 million profit , he still has to fork out $50 million to pay the rest of his tax bill. 8. So Chap B now has the painting, which he paid $80 million for. He hands it over to a museum and the government write off $80 million of his tax. But what is the difference? He still ends up having to fork out $80 million of his money. At the end of the day, Chap A is down $50 million, and Chap B is down $80 million.

Misleading ☝️"Modern art"=💩; always parody, as intended, for demoralization & ideological subversion. Promoted by CIA as Cold War psyop weapon (& money laundering scam) —admitted by UK media in 1995 🚨note the 'usual suspects' behind it 👇

I think they also use them to represent commissions on trafficking services for $ laundering purposes too...the cash out might be the tax move...but art is primarily a money laundering tool for international crime

Exactly. This is how it is done. The uglier the painting the better. If the art was good, the billionaire might be tempted to keep it. Then he has to buy another crap painting instead. Modern art looks like crap because it's being used as a tax dodge.

Bookmarking this for when I become a billionaire too

Don't they pay some one $50 million to start with So they did spend money on painting

If you guys are interested in this topic, planet money (npr) has an episode discussing the freeport system in depth.

So art galleries are full of ugly worthless pieces of #@*%

@Bobby_Don_Welch Most “philanthropy” is just legal money laundering

Well, even if all this is true, they still paid 50 mil for the painting so not cost free.

I knew there had to be some reason why people pay stupidly high prices for stuff at auction. Now I know.

Many times they donate the 80 million dollar painting to a private family foundation. They get an 80 million dollar tax write off. The foundation sells the painting tax free, so they can still manage, invest tax free, loan, donate, & employ family or friends with the 80 million.

Lost me with "keep their $80M"... they didn't sell it. They "donated" it to the Museum. They got a tax write-off, but they still spent $50M on the painting.

The fix is so simple. No charitable deductions, period. If you want to be generous to NGOs, museums, churches, etc ... do so with your OWN funds --- without the taxpayers chipping in a tax subsidy.

Dear billionaires! I have a great idea for you guys. Buy kids paintings (beautifully framed..,kids are the best artists!) through auctions. Then, do your trick, store it away, donate it to a non-profit University let’s say, then write it off as a donation on your tax return. Your tax bill is gone, and a lot of happy kids with their college payments in the bank. Imagine, if that kid will go to a University where you donate his or her painting… wow… full circle holding hands of each other benefits all! 🥰

@RodolfoMen94420 So that's what Hunter Biden was up to.

Let me get this straight... You blow $50M on a crappy painting. Then you donate it to a museum and get a tax write-off... say it's $80M... But you're still out the $50M. Whoever gets that money also has to pay income tax on it. What am I missing here?

The ugly paintings they indeed buy are for tax evasion and money laundering.

Wash trading 🤣🤣🤣

@PamelaSOCFEN Once again government involved where it shouldn’t be and foreigners learn how to become wealthy off of tax payors. They are private museums so why is the government giving any money to these museums. I’m so sick of this.

@PamelaSOCFEN Everything was built around the billionaires to keep them super wealthy while the majority are enslaved.

This was very enlightening and distressing to think billionaires play the same slimy games as those committing Welfare fraud against the Government. It’s about scruples; no one has them anymore, and I’m wondering if there is such a thing as a virtuous person anywhere? It just might be the supply has been exhausted.

More likely than this contorted scheme, it likely has to do with acts of trafficking, and used as a cover.

I worked for several very wealthy people. They use a lot of art for tax purposes. It's all a BS hack

Hmm makes sense