Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Jan 13, 2014 (II)

choi

(1) Zachary R Mider, Little Tax Haven on the Prairie.
www.businessweek.com/articles/20 ... n-for-rich-families

Quote:

"South Dakota was a pioneer in 'dynasty trusts,' which allow families to escape estate taxes forever. The state offers iron-clad secrecy for trusts and protection of assets from creditors and former spouses. It also has rules that make it easier for families to set up their own trust company, rather than rely on a bank trustee, and to enhance their control over trust investment decisions. An added attraction: South Dakota levies no state income taxes on investments.

"In the past four years, the amount of money administered by South Dakota trust companies has tripled to $121 billion, almost all of it from out of state, according to the state’s Division of Banking.

In 1993 "most states limited the duration of trusts to the lifetime of a living heir, plus 21 years. Only three—South Dakota, Idaho, and Wisconsin—did not impose any time limit. Because the estate tax is imposed on large fortunes at death, McDowell wrote, [unless sheltered] wealth that’s big enough to last for generations will have to contend with multiple tax bills.

"The amount that can be put into a dynasty trust is usually limited by federal rules. * * * On Jan. 1, 2013, Congress made the $5 million limit permanent. * **  For the richest families, even a $5 million dynasty trust represents only a fraction of their fortune, so lawyers have invented complicated strategies—one is an installment sale of assets to an intentionally defective grantor trust—to squeeze bigger sums into the vehicles, as much as $39 million, according to a presentation published by South Dakota Trust last year.

Note:
(a) summary underneath the title in print: South Dakota courts the rich with safeguards for family fortunes
(b) The article is a wordplay on Little House on the Prairie (novel)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_House_on_the_Prairie_(novel)
(1935; The book is about the months the Ingalls [author's maiden name] family spent on the Kansas prairie around the town of Independence)

(c) "Among the nation’s billionaires, one of the most sought-after pieces of real estate is a former SS Kresge five-and-dime that’s been converted to offices in Sioux Falls, SD. A branch of Chicago’s Pritzker family rents space in the building on South Phillips Avenue; the Minnesota clan that controls the Radisson Hotels chain has an office down the hall * * * Most days, the offices are shut. Even when empty, they provide their tenants with an important asset: a South Dakota address for the trust company that holds their wealth."
(i) SS Kresge
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._S._Kresge
(section 1 Biography: a five and ten cent store [or a five and dime store, equivalent to today's dollar store])

Quote: "Sebastian Spering Kresge (July 31, 1867 – October 18, 1966), was the founder of the SS Kresge Company, one of the 20th century's largest retail organizations. The company was renamed the Kmart Corporation in 1977, and evolved into today's Sears Holdings Corporation, parent of Kmart and Searsa
(ii) Sioux Falls, South Dakota
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sioux_Falls,_South_Dakota
(the largest city in the US state of South Dakota [whose capital is ]; section History: The history of Sioux Falls revolves around the cascades of the Big Sioux River [photo])
(iii) Hyatt
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyatt
(The Hyatt Corporation was born upon purchase of the Hyatt House, [a motel "near"--according to company website--not "at"] at Los Angeles International Airport in 1957; The original owners were entrepreneurs, Hyatt R von Dehn and Jack D Crouch; sold to Jay Pritzker [in 1957])
(iv) Radisson Hotels
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radisson_Hotels
("The first Radisson Hotel was built in 1909 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, US. It is named after the 17th-century French explorer Pierre-Esprit Radisson. The hotel was purchased in 1962 by Curt Carlson (1914–1999) and is still owned by the Carlson estate")

* Pierre-Esprit Radisson
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Esprit_Radisson
(1636–1710; born French, married an English woman, entered thevEnglish service; co-founded Hudson Bay Company in 1670 with his brother-in-law Médard des Groseilliers [whose second wife was the widowed (French) step-sister of Pierre-Esprit Radisson, Marguerite Hayet])


(d) A South Dakota lawyer made an analogy to a trust. Pierce "McDowell [III] says, covering his cabernet [wine in a glass] with his right hand. 'Here you’ve filled it to the rim and push it downstream to the next generation. You can sip from it, you can have the equivalent of outright ownership, but you don’t own it under the law. Your children—they, too, will have the opportunity to sip from it.”

For "you don’t own it under the law," see trust law
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trust_law
(introduction; section 1 History: Romans, medieval England, equity, monopolistic trust)

(e) names:
(i) "Sebastian Spering (SS) Kresge was born on July 31, 1867, to Sebastian and Catherine Kunkle Kresge in Bald Mountain, Pennsylvania. The son of
Swiss farmers who immigrated to America, Kresge learned to be frugal with his money early in life. It was this frugality that would later lead to his success in business."
Kresge, Sebastian Spering. Pennsylvania Center for the Book, Library of Congress (at one of Penn State University libraries), undated.

pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Kresge__Sebastian.html

There are three origins (German and Slavic) for Kresge. (That is why I need to know where his ancesters were from.) The German surnames
Kresge/Kreske are from "Old High German gratag ‘greedy.’"
(ii)
(A) Hyatt as a surname: "English: possibly a topographic name from Middle English hegh, hie
‘high’ + yate ‘gate’. Jewish (American): Americanized spelling of Chait."
(B) Chait as a surname: "Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): occupational name for a tailor, Yiddish khayet (from Hebrew chayat)."

choi

(2) David Wolman, Miami Tax Vice. The latest moneymaker in gangland isn’t a new drug. It’s tax refund fraud. [A second subtitle:] They have your Social Security number. They know birthday. They found your address. They file your tax return.
www.businessweek.com/articles/20 ... -gangsters-millions
(filing bogus tax returns using stolen identities)

Quote:

“In Florida opaque car windows are illegal

“Although the government can be slow to build roads and fix budgets, it can issue tax returns within days.
"Organized crime has learned that stealing from the federal government can be easier and more lucrative than dealing drugs. * * * In 2012, the [South Florida Identity Theft Tax Fraud] Strike Force’s work resulted in 79 indictments for attempted thefts totaling $40 million. By October 2013 it had risen to 269 defendants and $449 million in intended payouts.

"All a criminal needs to assemble fake returns are real Social Security numbers, dates of birth, bank account information, addresses, and an Internet connection.

Note:
(a) "Strewn across the center console were a handful of prepaid debit cards"
(i) console table (n):
"a table fixed to a wall with its top supported by consoles or front legs; broadly :  a table designed to fit against a wall"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/console%20table
(ii) table (furniture)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_(furniture)
(Tables can be freestanding or designed for placement against a wall (a console table))
(iii) What is a console in this sense? (Electronic game has its console, which is something different in meaning.)

corbel
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corbel
(In architecture a corbel or console is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket; see photos)

(b) "[A]n affluent city in Broward County [2010 census: fewer than 24,000]" (Wikipedia), Parkland, Florida is ~12 miles west of Boca Raton.