Is it possible to become a millionaire (or near to) through investments?

bowlhead99

Glen_Clark wrote: »

Gideon (alias George) Osborne tells you to use 'clever financial products' to avoid paying tax ..

Well, even without using such "smart financial products" that exploit the letter of the law rather than perhaps the spirit of it - which would not help you 'get to a million' because they involve giving your assets to your kids or into a product you can't control...

It's fair to say that governments in most developed countries including our own have various reliefs and allowances in place to help people grow their assets tax efficiently. ISAs, pensions, and other risk capital incentivisation concepts (capital gains allowances, dividend allowances, EIS, VCT etc etc) are all ways of avoiding the full burden of income tax on every new pound you make, and people should make sure they take advantage of them where they're suitable. Avoiding tax where you can in pursuit of your million, is highly recommended.

As an aside, Mr Osborne had been going by "George" for a couple of decades at the time of the interview, having adopted it as a teenager. So now he's been using it for almost a third of a century, does it really make you look clever to be the only one still using his birth certificate name several times a month on these forums? Just a thought.

Pincher

bowlhead99 wrote: »

Well yes, so you don't sell it - you can still take the income from it, and if you need wodges of cash you can borrow against it. Keep it until you die, no CGT on death - just the normal inheritance taxes that anyone with that level of cash or investments would pay.

It's a bit like Apple - billions of overseas cash profits that they don't want to repatriate to the US to give to their investors because of having to pay US tax on them; so they just borrow and give that money to their investors instead.

In other words, if you want to behave like a millionaire you can, even if you technically owe a bunch of tax if you were to cash out.

Alas, I want to marry Kate Upton, but she won't marry me.


Let us say the property is worth £1million, and I want to re-mortgage so I end up borrowing £800k, who is going to lend it to me? I WANT TO liberate as much equity as I can, without selling, and spend it on fast cars and loose women, so my estate on death is below the IHT threshold: but "they" won't let me.


Actually, ten years ago, when self-certificated mortgages were rife, I could have, but now?

grey_gym_sock

Pincher wrote: »

Let us say the property is worth £1million, and I want to re-mortgage so I end up borrowing £800k, who is going to lend it to me? I WANT TO liberate as much equity as I can, without selling, and spend it on fast cars and loose women, so my estate on death is below the IHT threshold: but "they" won't let me.

set up your own charity.

sell the property to the charity, for a price equal to your CGT cost basis.

you can claim income tax relief on the difference between the sale price and the market value of the property.

as a trustee of your charity, the charity pays your expenses when you go on research trips to investigate how the charity should spend its money, e.g. on relieving poverty in the bahamas, and similar locations.

don't abuse the charity status too obviously until you're over 80, when it's almost impossible to get sent to prison.

Glen_Clark

bowlhead99 wrote: »

Well, even without using such "smart financial products" that exploit the letter of the law rather than perhaps the spirit of it - which would not help you 'get to a million' because they involve giving your assets to your kids or into a product you can't control...

Gideon is his name I am not trying to look clever by using it. But since you seem to think it important to look clever does it make him look clever to change it? Does it make you look clever to change the word he said? (from clever to smart)
The recent Panorama programme showed a way to launder earnings through offshore companies to avoid paying tax, without giving it away or losing control of it as you describe. Hidden camera footage showed its proponents saying past incumbents of number 10 have used it, and Her Majesty's Tax Collectors refused to be interviewed over it.

Malthusian

Gideon is his name I am not trying to look clever by using it. But since you seem to think it important to look clever does it make him look clever to change it?

His name is George. What's Muhammad Ali's name?

nb73

Malthusian wrote: »

His name is George. What's Muhammad Ali's name?

Is it George too?

Aretnap

Malthusian wrote: »

His name is George. What's Muhammad Ali's name?

Reginald Dwight?

zolablue25

Glen_Clark wrote: »

Its possible to become a millionaire by investing a pound in the Lottery.

Only if you share the ticket purchase with someone else

BananaRepublic

Glen_Clark wrote: »

Gideon is his name I am not trying to look clever by using it. But since you seem to think it important to look clever does it make him look clever to change it? Does it make you look clever to change the word he said? (from clever to smart)

I think you are deliberately trying to show contempt for George Osborne, but it backfires.

bowlhead99

Glen_Clark wrote: »

Gideon is his name I am not trying to look clever by using it.

Seriously? Keep telling yourself that ; you might not be achieving it, but you're certainly trying it.

But since you seem to think it important to look clever does it make him look clever to change it?

It doesn't make him particularly look not-clever. He's been using George since before you or I knew of him. Plenty of people in all walks of life prefer to adopt a different name than the one they were given, whether as some small act of rebellion or perhaps because life is easier when you have done it if you're less likely to be prejudged for having an archaic or unusual name.

Does it make you look clever to change the word he said? (from clever to smart)

I doubt it, it was only accidental as I wasn't looking at your exact wording when I typed it on my phone; the editing window is small on the browser so I paraphrased your quote from memory of what you'd written. Probably didn't change the meaning so no harm done.

The recent Panorama programme showed a way to launder earnings through offshore companies to avoid paying tax, without giving it away or losing control of it as you describe. Hidden camera footage showed its proponents saying past incumbents of number 10 have used it, and Her Majesty's Tax Collectors refused to be interviewed over it.

Broadly, this is harder to do in 2016 with a whole swathe of regulations now that didn't exist in 2003, though of course not impossible.

Though the schemes referred to in the clip were about getting your total assets down for avoiding means testing of care costs, which does broadly involve relinquishing control so that on paper you don't get to your million. Maybe one solution might be to put some of your assets into a SIPP, where you do still get to direct the assets, but this might not be practical for the wealthier because of lifetime allowances etc.