Chapter 1491 Unable to Pay Inheritance Tax
The situation Vallarino is facing now is exactly the same as the situation Billy, Swan and even their father encountered.
Billy's grandfather, the previous 'Count of Paris' Henry, had a terrible ability to squander money. No matter how much property he had, he would find a way to squander it all. Even if Xiao Peng's current assets fell into Henry's hands, he would probably squander them all.
He is the kind of person who believes that "the greatest tragedy is that a person dies with his money left unspent."
When he died, all he left to his descendants was the title of 'Count of Paris' and a bunch of empty shells - their family's current wealth is the properties and land scattered around the country.
This sounds like a good thing, but in Western tax laws, inheriting ancestral property requires paying high inheritance taxes. The amount is terrifyingly high, and the highest proportion can even reach 95%!
Of course, the rich have many ways to avoid taxes, and it is impossible for them to pay such high taxes. Their way to deal with high tax rates is to donate.
Donate valuable family buildings such as old houses, castles, and land to the country to avoid high inheritance taxes.
Nearly all of Europe's national historic mansions are donated to the state by heirs of prominent families upon inheritance to avoid taxes. Castles, which are expensive to maintain but practical yet affordable, are particularly popular donations. Billy's father donated two castles in southwestern France, thus avoiding hefty inheritance taxes.
Castles are useless things. They are tasteless to eat and a pity to throw away. They also require a lot of maintenance costs, a large number of people to be employed to ensure their livelihood, and high property taxes, etc. Therefore, using castles to avoid taxes is a good business.
However, not all families will donate their castles. There are many ways to avoid inheritance tax, such as setting up trust funds in the name of their children, or transferring shares, etc. Some castles are family symbols and it is impossible to donate them. For example, the Hohenzollern Castle in Germany is the symbol of the Hohenzollern family. Although it is managed by relevant German departments, its ownership is indeed the Hohenzollern family.
Donating a symbolic castle like this would mean the family's decline, something no one wants to see. Therefore, many families still grit their teeth and maintain castles to defend their family's honor.
Billy was looked down upon at the Shangmei press conference, largely because his family avoided taxes by donating the castle - this meant that his family had no money and the castle was just an empty shell.
As the saying goes: A fallen noble is worse than a chicken.
Vallarino's situation is similar to Billy's, but he does not have a prodigal grandfather. Instead, he has parents who were defeated in the internal struggles of wealthy families.
His family prospered thanks to the Kimberly-Clark Corporation, but also fell because of it. Now, as he claimed, his family does have vast tracts of land and real estate, but as a recent inheritor, he still has a significant inheritance tax to pay. As a member of the House of Savoy, they had finally made their way back to Italy. If he relied on donating castles to avoid taxes, he would likely be isolated from the family—a disgrace.
But why not use the castle to avoid taxes? He really couldn't do anything; he couldn't come up with that much money. Using land to avoid taxes wasn't very effective, and even if he donated all his land, he wouldn't be able to avoid as much tax as the castle.
He had no other choice but to go to Paris to seek help from Shelfina and told her and her husband about his experience.
Although he and Shelfina divorced, their relationship had always been very good: even if he was down and out, he was still a member of the Savoy family, so such a relationship had to be maintained - in addition, since the two had originally had a political marriage and had no feelings for each other, it was easier for them to face each other after separation.
As for Shelfina's current husband? He and Vallarino are simply old acquaintances. While Europe's aristocracy is incredibly numerous, the true aristocratic community is relatively small, consisting of a handful of direct descendants, all of whom are generally known to one another. Therefore, marital infidelity is particularly common within aristocratic circles. It can be said that the two extremes of marital fidelity and infidelity in Europe both originate from within the aristocracy.
Shelfina came with her ex-husband on the 'Luna' to play video games with Xiao Peng at night, which shows the aristocratic self-centered lifestyle.
It was her current husband's idea to let Shelfina bring Vallarino to the 'Luna': he said it was to help Vallarino get along well with Xiao Peng at the same time, but in fact his purpose was to hope that Shelfina would stay away so that he could have some fun with his lover for a while - generally speaking, behind every 'goddess' that countless men long to embrace, there is one or more men who 'sex with' her and make her want to vomit!
No matter how rich Shelfina was or how well she took care of herself, she was already over forty years old. Men were just so 'loyal' sometimes, and no matter how old they were, they still liked young and beautiful girls...
"Valalino, this is a bit ridiculous." Xiao Peng said, "You can't donate your castle to your country to offset taxes, but you can give it to me? This reason doesn't make sense."
After hearing this, Vallarino said directly, "Xiao, this reason is indeed valid. Although old-school nobles in other European countries will donate castles and the like to avoid taxes, we, the Savoy family, really can't do that in Italy. We were driven out of Italy for over half a century and finally returned to Italy. Our family in Italy must showcase our original 'royal' image. If people knew that we need to rely on donating castles to inherit our family property, it would be very detrimental to our family's image among the people. If I donate this castle to the country, I will basically be isolated and looked down upon by the Savoy family!"
He paused. "But giving you the castle is different! What family in Europe doesn't know that the Orange family gave you their Villa Eikenhorst and Orange Gardens? After all, they are the Dutch royal family and don't have to pay any taxes there. But even so, they are willing to give you their family mansion. So, as a member of the House of Savoy, what about me giving you a castle? This is a display of the Savoy family's strength!"
Xiao Peng snapped his fingers. "Then find a way to get money from me to tide you over the inheritance tax crisis. Your plan is indeed quite good."
Vallarino quickly said, "Mr. Xiao, if you do this, you can also get an extremely beautiful castle. I swear to God, that castle is really beautiful..."
Xiao Peng shook his head like a rattle: "You think too much, I really have no interest in the castle!"
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