George Soros’s $18 Billion Tax Shelter

Congress is still scrambling to find ways to pay for its tax cut, so perhaps it should pay closer attention to last month’s news that George Soros had transferred $18 billion of his fortune to a private charity that he controls. There it will be sheltered from the Internal Revenue Service forever. This may be the single biggest tax dodge in U.S. history, yet no one on the right or left seems to have raised an eyebrow.

True tax reform is predicated on the principle that all income should be taxed at a low rate once, and only once. But much of the wealth that Mr. Soros spent years moving into his Open Society Foundations will never be taxed. A gift of billions of dollars of appreciated stock escapes any capital gains tax, and the estate tax as well. So Mr. Soros can donate appreciated stock that Open Society Foundations can liquidate without the government ever taking a cut.

There’s more. When a person donates untaxed, appreciated assets to a private foundation, he may also deduct up to 20% of its market value on his personal return, carrying forward this deduction for five years. This double write-off may be the sweetest deal in the tax code.

The donors also can retain control of the money within the private foundation for years or even decades before it is disbursed. Since the foundation can employ family members at six-figure salaries for life to “administer” it, the umbilical cord to the donor never has to be cut.

Congress should stop ignoring this tax-avoidance scheme. The super rich have already poured hundreds of billions into private foundations, but the figure could soon be in the trillions.

Re: “True tax reform is predicated on the principle that all income should be taxed at a low rate once, and only once. But much of the wealth that Mr. Soros spent years moving into his Open Society Foundations will never be taxed.”

Why would it be taxed?

Soros gave away unrealized capital gains. Soros did not benefit from the capital gains - he gave them away to a private charity.

Soros used after-tax income to originally purchase those stocks or whatever he invested in. You only pay taxes when you cash out of that investment, AND only if the investment increases in value.

If those investments paid dividends, or interest, or rent to Soros when he owned them, then Soros paid taxes each year on that income.

If his children get paid for working for that charity, their income will be taxed.

If Soros set up a Trust Fund for his children, the Trust and/or his children would be taxed for any money that was distributed to them.

I have no idea what else the author, Stephen Moore, wanted to tax BEFORE Soros gave the money away.

Fixing this crime is not that complicated. Change the laws that allow the Soros criminals to get escape prosecution. Soros deserves a bullet to the head for the riots he has instigated and the people he is responsible for getting killed.

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