• xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Revealed: US Secretly profiting off the assets of dead citizens (I.e. estate taxes exist)

    • d00ery@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I believe this is different. We also have an Inheritance Tax which is a tax on a person’s estate when they die.

      However this is the Royal Estate taking all of the inheritance for people who don’t have a will or any known relatives. Usually in this scenario it would instead go to the govt., thus, eventually, benefiting everyone and not just the Royal family.

      • erusuoyera@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Also, Charlie was exempt from paying inheritance tax despite inheriting an entire fucking empire simply because he was the lucky spaff of his cousin-fucking dad.

        • FishFace@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          It doesn’t really make sense to have inheritance tax on the crown estate, thought it could have done on the Duchy of Lancaster.

      • livus@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        This is the key aspect:

        The Duchy of Lancaster’s website states that “proceeds” of bona vacantia go to three registered charities after costs are deducted. However, its accounts suggest only 15% of the £61m it has collected in bona vacantia over the last decade has been donated to charities.

        That’s basically fraudulent.

        They are within their legal rights but the British taxpayers already do a lot for them through pure goodwill, and they are trespassing on that goodwill.

    • jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      There’s a huge difference between a state charging taxes, or even a state inheriting when there’s no other legal heir, and the head of state personally taking property for their own profit.

    • livus@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      If Joe Biden and his wife were appropriating US estate taxes to renovate their private rental properties for personal gain it would probably be controversial too.

      • Lophostemon@aussie.zone
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        1 year ago

        Funny how Trump neve gets pulled up by his base for all his corruption. They probably can’t spell it, for a start.

      • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        US estate taxes help maintain the primary residence of Joe and Jill - they help fund staffing for the Whitehouse.

        I agree that these situations are quite different but that article title was outrageously sensationalist and vague.

        • livus@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Sure. That’s normal. But they’re not renting out the Whitehouse and putting the proceeds into their personal bank accounts as private income.