How One of the World’s Wealthiest Individuals Avoided Taxes for Years
Many people are always complaining that the wealthy don’t pay their fair share in taxes. While that is an argument that will never end, it seems that one of the world’s richest men might be guilty. That’s because he was able to avoid paying taxes for more than 40 years. How is that possible? The wealthy taxpayer in question is the founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad, who is reportedly one of the top ten richest people in the world.
Although IKEA is clearly influenced by all things Swedish, the man who built the IKEA empire left his native country more than 40 years ago in the name of tax savings. IKEA is the number one furniture store in the world and in the fiscal year 2014-2015 the company reported 31.9 billion euros. However, taxes have always been a huge part of IKEA’s success. That’s exactly why Mr. Kamprad left the country he loves for Switzerland. He wanted a tax break.
While he did pay taxes in Switzerland during those 40 years, he legally avoided what would have been a much larger bill if he had stayed in Sweden, for both his company and his personal income. Now, after all these years he has returned to his native Sweden and in 2014 he paid what amounted to about $2 million in taxes to Sweden, while his net worth is reportedly worth an estimated $43.2 billion.
How the Internet Became Commercial
What’s Behind the Commercial movement of the Internet? Believe it or not the Internet was not originally created to share your life on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram or to watch movies, play games or follow your favorite pastime. When it was first invented, the military and research universities were the primary…
Critical Decisions When Launching a Startup
There are countless aspects to launching a startup company. To do it successfully a founder has to make many critical decisions and be right on most of them. Many entrepreneurs have a great idea or product with great plans to make it successful. However, they don’t make the right business decisions, which leads to their…
How to Keep the Wealthy From Fleeing Connecticut
When it comes to saving on taxes the wealthy have to continually consider all their options because lawmakers never seem to stop pushing for more legislation aimed at making the wealthy pay more taxes. Lately, it seems that there are more and more reports of the nation’s wealthiest individuals living in high-tax locations deciding…
Finding Value Investments in Private Equity
Finding Value Investments in Private Equity Private investors and venture capitalists are always looking for the next great company, idea or product to put their money into, in order to reap great financial rewards down the road. However, how do private investors know where to find the true value investments that exist? Experienced Investor Jonathan…