• TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world
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    15 hours ago

    Okay. Thanks. That makes sense.

    I guess the cycle continues if you will the stock to your children. So it could be decades until anyone pays taxes.

    And if the stock tanks, then I guess you declare bankruptcy.

    • ObjectivityIncarnate@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      I guess the cycle continues if you will the stock to your children.

      In the US at least, there is what’s called a “step-up in basis”, where when you do this, they receive the stock as if they had just bought it, instead of ‘inheriting’ the parent’s accumulated capital gains. In other words, if I bought a stock for $10 and it becomes worth $100, then I sell it, I’d pay capital gains tax on the $90 I made. But if the stock goes to my kid while it’s worth $100, it’s treated as if they bought it when it was worth $100 (which, in a way, is true, it is worth $100 at the time they gained possession of it), so if they sell it right after inheriting, they would pay no capital gains.

      This is probably a large part of the reason that 70% of generational wealth is gone in two generations, and 90% in three, on average.

      And if the stock tanks, then I guess you declare bankruptcy.

      Yeah, ultimately, it is kind of a ‘house of cards’. The only way this strategy works at all is if the market value of the assets being used as collateral continuously increases, and not just increases, but increases at a greater rate than inflation and the interest rate on the debt, combined.

      • TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        This is probably a large part of the reason that 70% of generational wealth is gone in two generations, and 90% in three, on average.

        Are you saying they mismanage the wealth by selling the assets, therefore not paying capital gains, but also using the cash to fund their lifestyle?

        I assumed a fiscal manager would advise them to live off debt in the same way their parent had.

        The only way this strategy works at all is if the market value of the assets being used as collateral continuously increases, and not just increases, but increases at a greater rate than inflation and the interest rate on the debt, combined.

        Line goes up.