On 13 May 2018 at 11:58am sarahknows wrote:
Some hedge fund bloke has bought the rusty house as a second home and put it in his kid's names to save inheritance tax....what's Lewes coming to?
On 13 May 2018 at 1:17pm Nigel wrote:
Good for him. I suppose you wouldn't do the same given half a chance?
On 13 May 2018 at 1:20pm Dexter wrote:
Yeh, good for him Nigel.
I hope you're enjoying paying more tax because of it.
I'm not.
On 13 May 2018 at 4:27pm Peeping Tom wrote:
Hope he's got enough money left over to afford curtains.
On 13 May 2018 at 8:33pm CactusBadger wrote:
So l somebody finally bought the rusty bucket. 
On 14 May 2018 at 10:11am Taxing wrote:
He's only saving inheritance tax if he's paying rent to his kids at a full, commercial rate, otherwise HMRC see it is a not in any way clever attempt at a tax dodge and charge the inheritance tax on it anyway. You've not been able to pull that one off since the 90's. If he is doing that then his kids are paying income tax on the rent so it wouldn't take too long for that to work out pretty tax inefficient.
Far more likely is that the house is held in a legal trust, the stated aims of which are to give his kids somewhere to live in the future. Costs a bit in admin but is an absolute bargain compared to inheritance tax. Does mean the family don't technically own the house though so he can't liquidate it if he needs the cash, that's a lot of money potentially tied up for a long time. Anyway, rather than a second home it's far more likely he's money laundering, buy an expensive house through a couple of Cayman Islands companies, hold on to it for a few years, sell it to a different Cayman Islands company wait another year or so then flog it for a tidy pile of completely clean money. That's the reason most of London is owned by Russians...
On 14 May 2018 at 10:41am Bob wrote:
It might have rusted away by then.
On 14 May 2018 at 3:37pm Brainless Bob wrote:
I think it is wonderful how so many people in Lewes are experts in everything.
On 14 May 2018 at 4:55pm David wrote:
Surety provided he lives for seven years he/she can gift it tax free.
On 14 May 2018 at 5:07pm Taxing wrote:
Sort of, although the kids will have to pay Capital Gains tax on any increase in value from now until they choose to sell it as it's not their principal, private residence which given house prices in Lewes and the likely increase in value of the house over seven years could again be a pretty eye-watering sum of money. If he gives it to them then they live in it and he survives seven years then yes, there's basically no tax on that but the implication from the opening post was that nobody was living there, just popping in now and then and the days of being able to switch your principal private residence on a weekly basis are long gone. Yeah you can do it but just putting the house in trust or buying it with an off-shore company are both significantly less hassle.
On 14 May 2018 at 7:54pm jojo wrote:
I am not happy about people leaving large houses empty here as second homes-depresses me. Cant the uber-rich stay in LOndon?
On 15 May 2018 at 4:38am The Gardener wrote:
If it’s true, then everything about it stinks. What would happen if every house in Lewes was bought up by second home owning short sighted overpaid c**ts? Lewes would turn into places like Southwold in Norfolk, dead during the week but rammed with gloating tossers at the weekend, all deluded that they own a little part of an unspoilt paradise.
On 15 May 2018 at 8:26am @The Gardener wrote:
It's rammed with gloating tossers every day, not just the weekend!
On 15 May 2018 at 10:48am Tossers wrote:
It won't be empty though, they'll employ a local agent and stuff it with air bnb tossers when they aren't using it. It'll be competition for the tosser income that silly glass house up in Cuilfail gets.
On 15 May 2018 at 11:36am Nigel wrote:
So every successful person is a tosser? How green eyed you all are. I bet you would all do the same if you could. The reason house prices are so high in Lewes is because you locals flog em at the highest rate. I bet no one has thought ' I will loose 30k and only sell to a local nurse'. It's called capitalism and we are all part of it. If a tin of beans go's up 20% in a year we moan, if a house price does we cheer and this is having dire consequences.
On 15 May 2018 at 5:24pm A Person wrote:
Er no, Nigel. But a system which thinks that it's a good idea to allow the ultra-rich to stockpile housing when thousands have no roof at all is pretty crude, wouldn't you think? I'd much rather that person contributed a bit more to the tax system so that some of their excess cash can be fairly distributed - to the NHS, perhaps? Or just fixing the bloody potholes in the road.