I don’t know why stuff like this keeps me up at night but let’s pretend you just won some obscene amount and there’s a lot of people you’d like to set up for life. Let’s say after taxes you have $300m in your account

You can give someone up to 18k a year without incurring a gift tax and while that’d definitely be a nice bump to their income, you still have way more money than you know what to do with. So what’s the smartest way to hook them up?

A couple of options I’ve considered are:

  1. Give them a lump sum of $X million. They eat the taxes the first year and handle the savings themselves.

  2. Create a company and hire them to “work” one hour a month for a big salary. If you put $25m in an account, the interest covers the salary. They get a steady bonus income with the added bonus of getting the best insurance available. Is that legal?

  3. Set up a “shared” checking account they can use to pay for…whatever. But would these expenses count towards the gift tax? I do not know.

  4. Buy houses and let them live there rent-free. I don’t really like this one because I don’t want to be a lord to my friends and family.

For the record, I did not win the lottery. I don’t even play it. I’m just working out the details in a fantasy world for some reason

  • glimse@lemmy.worldOP
    171·
    4 months ago

    The majority of lottery winners were already bad with money and dream of lavish lifestyles. My financial goal would be to not have to worry about money - hence why I’d be giving away so much away to friends and family.

    My dream home would “only” cost $2-3m and a large portion of the expense is making it as green and efficient as possible.

    • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      252·
      4 months ago

      I think you missed the whole point of the story. The long example given of Whitaker was a guy that was already rich. If you hit the lottery and start giving to friends, a good deal of what’s written above will happen to you.

      • glimse@lemmy.worldOP
        717·
        4 months ago

        I’ll be honest - I only read about half of the first post. It was a bit too doomer for my tastes

          • glimse@lemmy.worldOP
            23·
            4 months ago

            Extremely pessimistic about the future? Everything I read there was negative and it’s a damn essay, why would I think the rest would be any different?

            • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.techEnglish
              41·
              4 months ago

              Well maybe because it’s one of the best comments of all time and it’s a good read, but I’m not going to make you read it, I’ll just think you missed out on the fun we were having. I think you’re being flippant.

              • glimse@lemmy.worldOP
                11·
                4 months ago

                It may be a good read but I was just asking a fun question. A copied reddit essay that starts by saying the theoretical situation I proposed would actually be terrible for me isn’t what I was looking for I guess. Kind of downer.

                And I still think my use of the word “doomer” is fine. The rest of the comment(s) may not have been pessimistic but the first couple of paragraphs I was referencing were about how I’m statistically more likely to go bankrupt or die…