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Let's say you just won the lottery (in the US). What is the smartest way to give money to your friends? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 month ago by glimse@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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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:

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

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[-] pelletbucket@lemm.ee 3 points 1 month ago

I would set up a trust that automatically paid them out periodically. I would start with a relatively low amount, to see if money turned any of them into assholes, and if not I would turn it up. but, don't tell them that's what you're doing. firstly it won't work if they know you're watching, secondly, using money to control your friend's behavior is weird, which is why I don't like the idea of making them work for it either. you didn't work for it

[-] glimse@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

That seems a bit too secretive for me...both because I would immediately start building a nice house and like you implied, playing puppetmaster like that feels shady.

If the "making them work for it" was in relation to my 1-hour a month salaried position, let me be clear that they wouldn't actually have to do any work. It'd just be to have a number on paper.

[-] pelletbucket@lemm.ee 1 points 1 month ago

you're not puppeting anything. you aren't controlling their behavior if they don't know that there is a reward. I just want to avoid creating any entitled monsters

this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2024

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