Bill And Hillary Clinton Are Dodging ‘Death Tax’ On Their Homes Despite Campaigning To Raise It by DAVID MARTOSKO | DAILY MAIL | JUNE 17, 2014
The Clinton employed a common tax-avoidance strategy in 2010 to shield their homes from the IRS when they die • Shifting ownership of real estate to 'residence trusts' excludes them from the calculations that determine how much estate tax Chelsea must pay • Hillary and Bill have both argued for higher estate taxes, and fought Republicans' attempts to eliminate entirely what they call the 'death tax' • A Bloomberg commentator said Tuesday that the move is legal and passes the ethics smelltest, but will be terrible optics for Hillary in 2016 • She and Bill, the former president, rake in $200,000 or more for every public speech they give Bill and Hillary Clinton have been using a legal but dodgy tax loophole to evade the so-called 'death tax' that they both worked to raise, according to news reports published on Tuesday. Despite Hillary's frequent insistence that she has middle-class roots and identifies with ordinary Americans, she and her husband the former president have amassed a fortune likely valued in the tens of millions of dollars. In order to shield that wealth from the federal government's rapacious tax collectors at the IRS, they are using a financial planning strategy to shift ownership of their houses to a private trust, and then to their daughter Chelsea. This leaves the power couple free to reap the tax advantage of making such a generous gift before they die, while they rent the property back from her at a bargain price.
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The former secretary of state is promoting her book 'Hard Choices' while trying to construct an image that resonates with middle-class Americans: news of her net worth and tax-avoidance techniques will be bad 'optics'
Tax-dodge road map for the 1 per cent: Hillary Clinton now a new impediment to her handlers' goal of positioning her as an everywoman in advance of the 2016 presidential campaign The scheme, now common among America's famed '1 per cent,' will put any increases in the properties' value – so-called capital gains – outside of their estates, and therefore out of the IRS's reach when they die. It will also exclude most of the homes' values from the IRS's calculation that will determine how much of their estates is taxable. Bloomberg News examined the Clintons' financial disclosure statements and reported Tuesday that the couple made the move in 2010. In their political lives, both Clintons have advocated for narrowing the loophole that they are now leveraging. In August 2000, shortly before he left office, Bill Clinton vetoed a congressional bill that would have eliminated the estate tax. He insisted that Congress should 'proceed on grounds of fiscal responsibility and fairness' instead. Hillary has been more direct, arguing during the 2008 presidential campaign season for a change in federal law that would expose more of wealthy Americans' estates to the tax man. Bloomberg TV's Al Hunt rapped the quasi-populist Clintons on Tuesday – not for dodging taxes, but for being tone deaf to the image it projects to ordinary Americans. 'Voters may have a problem with a potential presidential candidate who spends a lot of time talking about the problems of the middle class while hobnobbing with the "rich and privileged",' Hunt said. 'It's part of a larger problem that I think she has. ... I don't think there's any ethical problem here. I think
the optics are terrible, though.' 'I think once you put that together with Hillary giving speeches for $200,000 to Goldman-Sachs, people start to say, "Wait a minute: Is she one of us or not?"'
Beneficiary: Chelsea Clinton and her children will become ultra-wealthy and pay little in estate tax when her parents are deceased, thanks to a loophole that Bill and Hillary fought to eliminate
Man of the people: Former President Bill Clinton and his wife are worth between $5 and $50 million -- the exact amount is unclear because the federal government allows politicians to disclose their finances in broad ranges of dollar amounts Federal estate taxes currently apply only to amounts over $5.34 million. Mrs. Clinton proposed lowering that cap to $3.5 million. She also argued that the top tax rate, paid only by the super-wealthy, should increase from 40 to 45 per cent. President Obama has acquiesced to Congress, however, increasing the exemption amount to its current level and leaving rates alone. Hillary Clinton's 2007 position, that a high estate tax keeps America from becoming 'dominated by inherited wealth,' is ringing hollow in 2014, however. After a guffaw-inducing gaffe in which she claimed she and President Clinton were 'dead broke' when they left the White House, her finances have been thrust into the national spotlight. They both have raked in $200,000 or more per paid speech, and Hillary received a reported $14 million book-advance deal for her recent tome 'Hard Choices,' which has sold poorly. The power couple have a net worth between $5 and $50 million. The exact amount is unclear because the federal government allows politicians to disclose their finances in broad ranges of dollar amounts. The Republican Party is running a 30-second ad Tuesday on CNN during a broadcast town hall with Hillary Clinton. The ad focuses on her wealth. Bill and Hillary Clinton are dodging ‘death tax’ on their homes despite campaigning to raise it VIDEO BELOW http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2660435/The-optics-terrible-Middle-class-championsBill-
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