Billionaire investor George Soros has funneled a sum bigger than the economies of Jamaica or Albania to a private charity he controls. The money can never be taxed by the US Internal Revenue Service.
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The founder of the $26 billion Soros Fund Management, transferred $18 billion to his Open Society Foundations over the past several years.
As the Wall Street Journal specifies, when a person donates untaxed, appreciated assets to a private foundation, he may also hold up to 20 percent of its market value on his personal tax return, carrying forward this deduction for five years.
When Congress eliminated the tax break in 2008, investors were given until December 31, 2017, to bring the cash home and pay the accumulated taxes. After Soros used the tax maneuver, he owes nothing to the IRS.
The donors can continue controlling the money for years or even decades, as foundations can hire family members with six-figure salaries to manage the charity.
Thus, the money can be kept by the Soros family almost forever. Soros himself has repeatedly said the wealthy in the United States should pay more taxes.
The newspaper also mentions self-proclaimed philanthropists like Mark Zuckerberg, who has promised to give up 99 percent of his Facebook shares which are worth $70 billion to the charity his family owns.
