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Fat Cats need no justification!

 

Don't Hate .... Appreciate

Evading taxes is illegal

Avoiding taxes is almost an obligation

G

 

For some people, it is all relative.
If a regular person making $100k per year can easily buy a $20k car, then a person making $5M or more per year can easily afford a $1M car. I know it seems hard to believe, but there are a lot of people in this country making more than $5M a year.

To me the more amazing thing is when these buyers get lucky and the car holds its value or better yet goes up in value.
Imagine buying a new Enzo for less than $700k and having it be worth $1M+ now. Similar story with the F50.

 

I've spoken with a couple of dealers and most people, believe it or not, finance a Veyron. Similarly, more than half of the people who buy ANY exotic - Ferrari, Lambo, etc. - end up financing.

The "I paid cash because I can afford it crowd!" on FChat will disagree with that, but that's the truth.

 

I can't even begin to imagine how the purchase of 10+ million dollar vehicles go down.

 

Questioning the morality of expensive cars?
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There are lots of businesses that can and do deduct such cars, but I'm not sure that the number of holding companies or trusts is that high. Not that I go around asking, mind you. As far as yachts and planes, charter companies are popular businesses to have to expense the cost of the boat or jet.

Neutral question: Do you think that legal 'paperwork juggling' is immoral, even if not forbidden by [tax-hungry] legislators? If the authorities were seriously concerned, they would close the deduction or forbid the structure.

 

Montana has a whole lot of registered Ferraris.

A lot of those Ferraris are 'California Cars'

Hmmm.

 

Well, as Scubyfan noted and other salesman on the board have indicated, a large number of high dollar cars from BMW/Benz to Ferrari/Lambo are now leased. However, this doesn't always mean they cannot afford it, as there are many who *could* buy the car and choose to lease. Different tools for different purposes.

I think your tone is still on the negative side though, as if it is crooked or evil ("shady") to use preferential tax structures to the owner's advantage. These methods aren't secrets - most business advisors/CPAs can come up with something.

So, another question - is it wrong then to appear that you make more than you do by leasing an exotic car? You just have to take everything with a grain of salt.

 

The ultra rich pay less out of pocket in taxes. It's the way things work. The same angles would apply to the ownership of expensive cars.

 

Trying to deduct any sort of exotic car is asking for an audit. I think most high dollar exotic car owners have figured this out.

Registering in a no or low-sales tax state is a possibility, depending on how aggressive your state of residence is... but I wouldn't recommend it. Of course, it also depends on how legit your claim is-- if the car really does spend half the year or more in Montana, I'd say go for it.

Many such cars are titled to corporations or trusts, but that has more to do with privacy, liability protection, and estate planning issues than any sort of tax avoidance. In many states, though, it doesn't take much internet time to see who the officers of a given corporation is, or the trustee of a trust.

 

I think like any expensive object like a race car, yacht, jet etc it can be titled to a company and used as an advertising expense

I'm pretty sure both Onassis & Malcolm Forbes & probably Trump all used their yachts, aircraft, limos, and other vehicles as company expenses

if you drive a car to and from work whether its a Prius or a Bug you can take the gas & maintenance off your taxes

 

Everything is relative.
There will be blue collar workers who earning $10 per hour wondering how anyone can afford a $40,000 Lexus and creating all kinds of conspiracy theories in their mind as to how anyone like that "gets away with it".

One thing you can pretty much be sure of - there will always be someone who earns more than you no matter how well you do. On a planet with 6 billion people a very small percentage, say 1/10th of one percent of them, 6 million people, will earn multiple millions of dollars a year and several of them will buy million dollar cars. I can promise you that the owners of those million dollar cars wonder how several tens of thousands of people can afford $10 million private jets and those guys wonder how thousands of guys can afford $100 million private yachts and they wonder how several hundred people can be worth more than $1 billion and so on and so on.

It's a big world and many people are very good at making money, mostly quite legitimately and most will be fully in compliance with whatever tax laws govern them and their earnings.
Be happy for them and aspire to join them. Hating them and assuming something nefarious will only serve to direct your energy away from success for yourself.

 

A 'cash cow' is something that brings in money. Perhaps we should call it a money pit (apologies to Tom Hanks/Shelley Long).

(sorry ... it's the MBA coming out in me)

 

To the government, we are ALL 'cash cows'. They will milk us every extra ounce
we can produce up until the day we die, at which point we are financially slaughtered
by them. Government doesn't create wealth - it only takes it. Yet it acts like it
BELONGS to 'government' - it's THEIR money.

Moo

Jedi

 

I go by the saying: "he who has the gold makes the rules". So if you got the $$$ and you buy a Bugatti, Enzo etc... good for you. I'm jealous!, and don't mind admitting it!

If you are a fat cat and can evade taxes... more power to you! for every trick out there, there is someone trying to close it. Most of the super wealthy folks I know, spend a lot of time and money trying to keep their wealth from being siphoned off by others, including Uncle Sam.

From what I can tell, when you can afford a Bugatti, you rarely have the kind of time to enjoy a Bugatti... cause all that money demands your attention all the time!

But again, I'm jealous and would love to try it some day!

 

if a regular person was making 100k, he wouldn't be a regular person. the median individual income in 2006 was $26,036, household $48,201. Making 100k puts you in the top 20%.

 

Actually you can't. Thats commuting, not deductable. Other trips during the day are deductable.

 

This only pertains to business owners, correct?

 

Yeah something seemed a bit off with that statement.

 

To be frank, it is the Hermes edition and PurSang that would be worth buying. The regular Veyron is indeed a street-rod with serious grunt. The other two special editions are investments. Anybody buying a Veyron has got to have the understanding that he will most likely profit off of selling the car. I can't imagine many Veyron owners keeping their Bugatti for twenty years. Look at the Enzo. Profits are HUGE on that car from MSRP.

That type of car is as much of a love of the automobile as it is a business plan. You don't lay down $1.3M on a car to hold on to. No, you drive the hell out of the thing for a year, and sell the SOB when the market looks right. In a few years when these things are out of production and owners have them, and others want them, watch resale blow-up.

I can see a PurSang going up on the block in ten years getting very large bids, FAR above the already stuffy MSRP.

A Bugatti is indeed automotive art and its in the same sense as when an art lover buys a Picaso to hang in their home for some time, show, and then sell for tens of millions of dollars above what they paid for it.

After all, the Hope Diamond was sold in Paris for $400,000...

You can't come to have $1.3M to spend on one car without becoming extremely business savy.



_J

 

I guess Wesley Snipes may not be needing his Veyron for a couple or three years now -