Roman Abramovich - moneysaving tips revealed
Discussion
Interesting article today alleging a creative method to reduce fleet running costs.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/28/reve...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/28/reve...
greygoose said:
I’m shocked that billionaires avoid tax on their vast wealth, it’s almost like they only care about themselves.
If it's not yachts it's movies that are never intended to be made.If it's not movies it's Forex trades with Zimbabwean dollars that fall so much the tax becomes pennies.
Twas ever thus.
iphonedyou said:
z4RRSchris said:
this is pretty standard for yacht owners - i suspect 99.9% of them are run like this....
I think 99% of them are put to charter to cover running costs, in fairness. We'd know about it if 5,994 of the world's 6,000 superyachts were using this wheeze to evade tax.
z4RRSchris said:
most are run as commercial charter businesses, which generate a massive tax write off, vat etc etc.
Indeed. Legitimately put to charter, with the benefits that entails. The allegation is of course that Abramovich was effectively pretending to be engaged in commercial charter to illegitimately secure those benefits.i don't think you can actually charter the ones that are "legitimately" put to charter.
https://www.burgessyachts.com/en/charter-a-yacht/y...
Owned by Gary Klesch, he has his FO in Jersey. I doubt youll be able to actually rent that.
https://www.burgessyachts.com/en/charter-a-yacht/y...
Owned by Gary Klesch, he has his FO in Jersey. I doubt youll be able to actually rent that.
greygoose said:
I’m shocked that billionaires avoid tax on their vast wealth, it’s almost like they only care about themselves.
Difficult to argue, but during Covid, Roman Abramovich probably did more for the cause than any other single individual. The hotel at Stamford Bridge could have been closed down and the staff furloughed for the duration, but he kept it open, fully staffed, and handed it over to the NHS to provide accommodation for staff at the nearly C&W hospital who were working flat out. Hundreds of people staying there, getting fed and watered, rooms serviced, all completely free. Although they did have to pay for alcoholic drinks, which isn't unreasonable, giving they have wines costing thousands on the menu. If British billionaires had stepped up to the plate in the same way, it would have been very nice.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/29/roma...
What could the Starmer government spend £1bn cheated by Abramovich on to boost the UK economy? School repairs, hospitals, mental health provision...etc
What could the Starmer government spend £1bn cheated by Abramovich on to boost the UK economy? School repairs, hospitals, mental health provision...etc
z4RRSchris said:
iphonedyou said:
z4RRSchris said:
this is pretty standard for yacht owners - i suspect 99.9% of them are run like this....
I think 99% of them are put to charter to cover running costs, in fairness. We'd know about it if 5,994 of the world's 6,000 superyachts were using this wheeze to evade tax.HocusPocus said:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/29/roma...
What could the Starmer government spend £1bn cheated by Abramovich on to boost the UK economy? School repairs, hospitals, mental health provision...etc
again, this is a completely normal tax structure, used even by UK Gov on the thousands of jersey / iom structures they own property through. What could the Starmer government spend £1bn cheated by Abramovich on to boost the UK economy? School repairs, hospitals, mental health provision...etc
decisions are made whilst offshore, keeping the management offshore.
I used to work for what is known as a Family Office…effectively a private investment company that managed the financial assets of an extremely wealthy family. All the assets were owned/domiciled offshore, the brothers who ran the company lived in New York and London. every asset/business would have a chain of probably three or four holding companies in different domiciles to achieve the best tax treatment. An army of lawyers and/or directors paid and retained in those domiciles to “prove” to local tax authorities that it wasn’t just a brass plaque.
Nothing illegal but when you are playing with such big numbers you can justify paying an army of people to keep your tax bill as low as possible.
Abramovich probably made some relatively simple errors which allow the tax authorities to prove that he is the person that controls those assets and not his army of lawyers.
A friend of mine used to be a BBC Presenter. When Abramovich bought Chelsea his lawyers made a pre-emptive strike making it quite plain that any speculation about where he got his money from would result in immediate legal action. It wasn’t until that high profile court case that he lost that the press really reported on his extremely dubious past.
Nothing illegal but when you are playing with such big numbers you can justify paying an army of people to keep your tax bill as low as possible.
Abramovich probably made some relatively simple errors which allow the tax authorities to prove that he is the person that controls those assets and not his army of lawyers.
A friend of mine used to be a BBC Presenter. When Abramovich bought Chelsea his lawyers made a pre-emptive strike making it quite plain that any speculation about where he got his money from would result in immediate legal action. It wasn’t until that high profile court case that he lost that the press really reported on his extremely dubious past.
Doesn't really look like any mistakes, all decisions would be signed by an offshore director etc. Just looks like the left wing media thinking that have uncovered the golden gun, whereas in practice its a 100% legal and commonly used structure.
normal practice is the board minutes for the meeting you are about to have are already written, so you can fly into jersey, sign them off, and fly out.
Jersey wouldn't exist if you couldn't do this.
normal practice is the board minutes for the meeting you are about to have are already written, so you can fly into jersey, sign them off, and fly out.
Jersey wouldn't exist if you couldn't do this.
z4RRSchris said:
Doesn't really look like any mistakes, all decisions would be signed by an offshore director etc. Just looks like the left wing media thinking that have uncovered the golden gun, whereas in practice its a 100% legal and commonly used structure.
normal practice is the board minutes for the meeting you are about to have are already written, so you can fly into jersey, sign them off, and fly out.
Jersey wouldn't exist if you couldn't do this.
Abramovich wouldn’t be flying anywhere to sign docs….not how things work for people like that. They’d be flying to him if he actually had to sign them (which is highly unlikely)normal practice is the board minutes for the meeting you are about to have are already written, so you can fly into jersey, sign them off, and fly out.
Jersey wouldn't exist if you couldn't do this.
What normally happens is that whoever his Chief Counsel is signs on behalf (not directly for him as a person but for a company which he is the Ultimate Benefical Owner). That Chief Counsel whilst he works for Abramovich full time will actually be an independent lawyer. That way all Abramovich’s communications with his lawyer are subject to client privelege, if the lawyer is a full time employee client privelge doesn’t exist.
Such lawyers spend their lives flying anywhere and everywhere signing docs foe their lords and masters….
Edited by Cheib on Wednesday 29th January 21:46
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