Jeffrey Webber’s Cayman Insurance Shelter Nixed By Tax Court
Mr. Webber established a grantor trust that purchased “private placement” variable life insurance policies insuring the lives of two elderly relatives (That’s the ghoulish part). The premiums paid to Lighthouse Capital Insurance Co. (Cayman Islands) after deduction for mortality risk and administrative charge were placed in separate accounts. The accounts were segregated and invested in start-up companies that Mr. Webber was intimately familiar with. They did quite well.
Mario Biaggi’s Criminal Case Followed By Tax Travails
Biaggi appealed to the Second Circuit, objecting to the failure of the IRS to release special agent reports that were submitted to the Grand Jury and on the valuation issue, but had not luck.
An interesting point that I have not been able to determine is whether the IRS ended up whipsawing the Biaggi family. The assessment for Mario Biaggi not reporting the income from the grant of Wedtech stock relied on the six year statute. So was it too late for Richard Biaggi to claim a refund for the income that he had over-reported? Perhaps a protective refund claim went in early in the game.
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Over and over again courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging one’s affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary contributions. To demand more in the name of morals is mere cant.