Posted on 05/05/2013 7:42:25 AM PDT by WayneLusvardi
Change of ownership, key to reassessment, is cut-and-dried for homeowners but not businesses. It means a loss of tens of millions of dollars a year in tax revenue.
The original deal
Dell, one of the worlds richest men, agrees to pay $200 million for the Fairmont Hotel in Santa Monica in 2006.
A few months later
The deal is reshuffled to avoid a legal change in ownership by buying the company that owns the hotel, rather than the Miramar itself. Dell brings in his wife, Susan, and a third party entity controlled by investment managers Glenn Fuhrman and John Phelan.
Fairmont Miramar Hotel Ownership
Susan Dell 49% Susan Lieberman Dell Separate Property Trust, a legal entity controlled by Susan Dell
Michael Dell 42.5% MSD Portfolio LP Investments, an investment portfolio 99% controlled by Michael Dell
Miramar Hotel LLC 8.5% Miramar Hotel LLC, a holding company created and controlled by Dells investment managers Glenn Fuhrman and John Phelan
The result: With no single entity owning more than 50%, the value of the hotel for tax purposes remains the same as the last time it sold, in 1999.
Purchase Price $200 million
Assessed Value $86 million
Estimated property tax under original deal: $2 million
Estimated property tax under reshuffled deal $860,000
Estimated tax benefit for Dell: $1,140,000
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Gee: I wonder if it was planned that way. Bwahahahahha.
That’s why businessmen get rich. They hire lawyers to get them out of confiscatory taxes levied by lesser men in politics. The alternative is to have the lesser men, who are in the political elite, running business, as in Russia and other socialist economies. It doesn’t seem to be an improvement.
Where the hell did that rule come from???
Even with Prop 13 we spend approximately $400 per month for the privilege of living in our own home. Then those who misgovern us wonder why “the folks” are becoming restless and buying guns.
Dell didn’t get rich by flushing money down the government toilet.
Good for him.
There might be an idea for everybody here. Establish an LLC for purposes of home ownership. Then, when you want to sell, sell the LLC and its assets (the house), rather than the house itself.
I like how the la times calls Proposition 13 a loop hole. So in their view anything that is not being taxed is a loop hole.
Stories like this that show the lunatic morons that run California being denied money to waste thinking up stupid crap always warms my heart...
All the commenters below missed the L.A. Times big goof.
The Times did not distinguish that the Dells bought a 49% interest in the hotel business, not the real estate. That is why the assessed value for tax purposes remain unchanged.
Let me explain this oversimplistically. Let’s say you run a day care business out of your home that is licensed. Then a family relative loans you 49% of the money to run the day care business in return for a 49% of the business value. Nor does the relative own any part of the real property. This does not affect the property value because there is no sale of the property. Capish?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.