SarahBell Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37029915 Among properties across the UK he owned 190 acres in Belgravia, an area near to Buckingham Palace, and one of London's most expensive districts. The duke's fortune was estimated at $10.8bn (£8.3bn) by Forbes magazine, making him the world's 68th richest person and the UK's third. -- So how does inheritance tax work for the very rich? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Errol Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 So how does inheritance tax work for the very rich? Unless they are very stupid indeed, almost none of the Duke's wealth will be susceptible to IHT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccc Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Interesting only recently the estate was selling off London properties. Wonder if this wasn't quite so unexpected as reported. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crumbless Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 (edited) Will be one hell of an inheritance bill, no doubt lots of London property will have the market to pay for it. (sarcasm) Edited August 10, 2016 by Crumbless Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doomed Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 I do hope I am included in the will. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nome Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Worth £8.3bn? I'm guessing he wasn't actually very good at being a philanthropist? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crumbless Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Worth £8.3bn? I'm guessing he wasn't actually very good at being a philanthropist? Oxymoron that a land owning philanthropist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Banner Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 I read, this morning, that the new Duke of Westminster was not sent to boarding school. He went to a state primary school, followed by a local private school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crumbless Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 I read, this morning, that the new Duke of Westminster was not sent to boarding school. He went to a state primary school, followed by a local private school. He could have been the nicest person on the planet, but plebs like me will just look at all that vast unearned wealth he had and wonder why the state gives him best part of £1milion a year in farm subsidies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
council dweller Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 .....no, I have no feeling of envy. RIP.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porca misèria Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 BBC news have been saying he regarded prime London property - his own core wealth - as a bubble. For what it's worth. Something telling about our rich list. It's topped by those who made their billions either in distant parts of the world (like India) or many generations ago (like him). Native-born Brits without an inherited property empire are way behind, 'cos a prospective Gates or Buffett here would've been persecuted and taxed to (relative) oblivion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Errol Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 I read, this morning, that the new Duke of Westminster was not sent to boarding school. He went to a state primary school, followed by a local private school. And after the local private school - which was presumably a Preparatory school? Ordinarily one would then move to one of the big 10 Public Schools. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Banner Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 (edited) And after the local private school - which was presumably a Preparatory school? Ordinarily one would then move to one of the big 10 Public Schools. The way I understand it, the state primary was in lieu of prep school and the local private school was in lieu of public school. Edit: From Wikipedia... Unusually for the children of hereditary peers, the Duke of Westminster and his sisters were educated at a local state primary school, followed by a small private day school near the family home of Eaton Hall near the city of Chester before attending Ellesmere College, Shropshire, a public school and part of the Woodard Corporation.[1][2] He then studied countryside management at Newcastle University[3][4] and the University of Oxford. Edited August 10, 2016 by Bruce Banner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCountOfNowhere Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Has anyone in the MSM questioned how his family got the land in the first place ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spunko2010 Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 A lot of the media focus so far hasn't been on his wealth but on the apparent claim he was a "nice chap" and didn't like public schools. He may or may not have been a decent fellow, but who cares? Such unearned wealth is the problem and needs to be addressed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldbug9999 Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 (edited) I remember seeing a documentary about him many years ago, seem like a prize ****, favourite past time was going out on a fishing boat to shoot seagulls with a shotgun. Always harping on about how important it was to hoard land, basically he was the UK ultimate rentier landlord. Good riddance. Edited August 10, 2016 by goldbug9999 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCountOfNowhere Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 I remember seeing a documentary about him many years ago, seem like a prize ****, favourite past time was going out on a fishing boat to shoot seagulls with a shotgun. Always harping on about how important it was to hoard land, basically he was the UK ultimate rentier landlord. Good riddance. We now have a new Duke Of Westminster. Love live the Duke. Hooray. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mubes Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 We now have a new Duke Of Westminster. Love live the Duke. Hooray. The new duke worth 9bn or so, works as a full time account manager (£35k pa?) for a coffee recycling biz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Masked Tulip Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 I recall him several years back saying that house prices were in a bubble in London. We talked about it on here. His tax bill was probably lower than the likes of you or I. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 There's absolutely no justification for someone inheriting this amount of wealth. There should be a lifetime allowance for each beneficiary on the order of 50k or so. How many lifetimes will it take me to earn 8 billion pounds worth of central London? Is it even possible today to buy enough of Belgravia to matter? How can you have a fair society when huge chunks of the country we live in are passed down father to son, with the rest of us plebs never even given a chance of the same? Anyone can aspire to be Prime Minister, but only one person can work towards becoming the Duke of Westminster, or to own the parts of London that are locked away in this estate. The system is profoundly unequal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yellerkat Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Has anyone in the MSM questioned how his family got the land in the first place ? Sort of: Obviously displaying a degree of self-awareness unusual in the soi-disant 'gentry.' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayward Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 the UK's rich list tells you everything you need to know about this country...near feudal the family should hang their heads in shame that they should have grasped and held on to so much wealth...where is the philanthropic instinct we see so often with the wealthy in non feudal societies such as the USA? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spunko2010 Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 If you read up on his life, it does seem he was never comfortable with the role he was expected to play - or at least he was extremely self-deprecatory without letting on his true feelings. Regardless, the problem I have with all of this is he could easily have given a shed load of it away to charity or to the state but chose not to. If it made him as unhappy as he claims then won't his son be just as unhappy in all likelihood? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayward Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 I read somewhere about how people with old Norman names such as Montagu etc are still very much more likely to live longer, have higher status etc....and this is after near 1000 years...unbelievable but true Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crumbless Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 (edited) If you read up on his life, it does seem he was never comfortable with the role he was expected to play - or at least he was extremely self-deprecatory without letting on his true feelings. Regardless, the problem I have with all of this is he could easily have given a shed load of it away to charity or to the state but chose not to. If it made him as unhappy as he claims then won't his son be just as unhappy in all likelihood? To be fair, he'd do more good with it than the state or the parasites that work for self serving non charities. Only self made multi Billionaire from a non rich background i can think of is Mike Ashley and he makes his money from Chinese slave labour. Edited August 10, 2016 by Crumbless Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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