He took a loan from the company; if he couldn't pay it back then yeah he is in deep trouble but he could.
This actually triggered a random memory of some court-room drama where a quant embezzled a bunch of money to buy lottery tickets though a system he devised, won, and then got charged after paying back the stolen seed money... in hindsight he woulda gotten away with his fictitious crime if he were a CEO or boardmember...
I'm surprised loaning money from the company is legal in the U.S., it's certainly not here. Probably because then you can fairly easily create a tax evasion scheme where you never pay yourself a salary and just keep borrowing money at zero interest and payment due long about five years after the sun explodes...
However if the amount owed is greater than ~£10k(?) at the end of the corporate tax year, you need to pay it back within 9 months or it’s treated as income and taxed accordingly (there’s also regulations about paying it off before the end of the corporate tax year and taking out directly after). Still 21 months for an interest free loan isn’t bad...
It's legal here in the US, but there are rules around minimum interest charges. I dealt with this during a partner buyout - the payment schedule HAD to have interest involved or else it was considered a fishy loan.
- How do you explain (to the tax man, really) where the money comes from?
- Isn't this a gross misappropriation of company funds, and very much illegal?
- How does this guy find pants to fit his enormous balls?