I also think expenses, even salaries don't really amount to that much of a tax avoidance when the sums are in the billions. Hotels every night of the year for

I also think expenses, even salaries don't really amount to that much of a tax avoidance when the sums are in the billions. Hotels every night of the year for your staff would still be under $1M per staff member. I think (I don't know as i'm a UK citizen) that these are similar to trusts. It's fair to say that rich people avoid a lot of income tax when they fund these trusts, but the trusts themselves still then pay tax on income and expenditures. The main thing it allows is for wealth to remain in a family for longer periods of time with one big tax avoidance at the beginning (the recoup on income taxes)