Re:Who Owns England?
by mistermann on Tuesday May 23, 2017 @09:22PM
(#14406920)
This is the case in Canada as well, if the buyer so chooses, just wrap it in a corporation. This way the government can pretend foreign buyers are 5% of the market and challenge anyone to prove them wrong, while more and more people who actually pay taxes but cannot afford to buy a home fall further behind.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
I'm imagining online home buying with a checkbox "[ ] Create a shell corporation to hold the asset acquired in this transaction (+$3,000)".
The trick seems to be to have a shell company that owns the property and then buy and sell the company rather than the property - the Panama Papers are full of these kinds of shenanigans.
... or buy and sell options on that stock, so no actual change in ownership at all, (company or property) but rather just an exchange of contracts and obligations with a somewhat remote (and hard-to-prove) relationship with anything even remotely taxable.
Here's an example of that kind of shell company trickery:
Re:Who Owns England?
by mistermann on Wednesday May 24, 2017 @09:49AM
(#14409957)
Yes, and I believe this avoids a large tax as well. Our politicians have completely failed us, but so many people are getting so rich they don't care.
Re:Who Owns England?
by fiftyacorn on Wednesday May 24, 2017 @03:52AM
(#14408229)
I seen similar for the number of foreign buyers in london - they wont really be foreign buyers just shadow firms offshore avoiding stamp duty