Industry Background of People on This Forum

[james22]

Corporate Planning, Oil & Gas

[yadayada]

Really nice to see people's backgrounds! My educational background is law, military history and business ... and I have passed the first 2 levels of the CFA exams  ;D

 

I've been a criminal prosecutor, a tax lawyer for one of the Big 4, a consultant at M/B/B and for the past few years I have owned a small business that caters to hospitals and retirement homes and done some real estate projects. I cannot say I have any profound knowledge of a particular industry, but I try to learn as much as I can about how things work.

I have a tax question for you :) . Let's say one earned most of his money outside of his european home country. And now doesn't want to pay really high taxes on it (probably more then 60% at this point). Would living in cyprus, and opening an offshore company somewhere in Hong kong be a good idea to be completly safe? To let's say invest it and spend it from that account, and pay no capital gains taxes?

 

And would asking about a lawyer in one's home country be a good idea? As it might be in a grey zone. Not sure if they are obliged to turn you in, and I am kinda paranoid about this. Because I really don't know what is legal and illegal at this point. My last tax advisor couldn't even tell me how much I had to pay, because I made it gambling.  The legal alternative would be to give most of it away to the government :( .

 

Thx

[Hielko]

I guess you made your money playing poker?

 

IANAL, and obviously don't know what laws apply to you, but there might be some options to get around paying taxes on your winnings. I'm Dutch, and I did pay gambling taxes on my winnings, but i'm probably getting a decent portion of that back because of European laws w.r.t double taxation. Since the poker sites (those location in the EU anyway) already paid European gambling taxes our government can't tax it again. Still needs to be confirmed by the supreme court in the Netherlands, but we already won this argument 4 times (two separate cases, and first at lower court and then at court of appeal).

[ItsAValueTrap]

The way our patent litigation system is set up, it is designed to select a group of decision-makers (a jury of 12) with absolutely the least ability to decide the merits of the case.  There is no way a jury can assess the merits of a high tech patent case, so in reality all they can do is attempt to figure out who is being the least honest.

Do lawyers get to the play the game where they try to bias the jury during the jury selection process?

[Rainforesthiker]

The way our patent litigation system is set up, it is designed to select a group of decision-makers (a jury of 12) with absolutely the least ability to decide the merits of the case.  There is no way a jury can assess the merits of a high tech patent case, so in reality all they can do is attempt to figure out who is being the least honest.

Do lawyers get to the play the game where they try to bias the jury during the jury selection process?

 

Yes the jury selection process, known as voire dire, is very often used by the lawyers to make their case to the potential jurors before they are even selected.

[twacowfca]

The way our patent litigation system is set up, it is designed to select a group of decision-makers (a jury of 12) with absolutely the least ability to decide the merits of the case.  There is no way a jury can assess the merits of a high tech patent case, so in reality all they can do is attempt to figure out who is being the least honest.

Do lawyers get to the play the game where they try to bias the jury during the jury selection process?

 

Yes the jury selection process, known as voire dire, is very often used by the lawyers to make their case to the potential jurors before they are even selected.

 

Yes, and perhaps attorneys may give away how weak their case is too.  Recently, I was in the petit jury pool for a woman who was charged with driving under the influence. In my county, the judges typically show no mercy in sentencing. it looked like she was in danger of losing her license and likely going to jail, possibly for a long time as a repeat offender .

 

I was amazed at how prejudiced I became against the defendant during the defense's voire dire. The pallid faced defendant sat in her chair without expression, wearing tinted glasses as her lawyer  questioned prospective jurors about their knowledge of the accuracy of breathalyzer tests.

 

The females in the jury pool disliked the defendant intensely.  They kept whispering about how guilty she certainly was.  One told another how a close relative had been killed by a drunk driver.  Meanwhile , her lawyer's questions made the defense look weaker and weaker.

[yadayada]

I guess you made your money playing poker?

 

IANAL, and obviously don't know what laws apply to you, but there might be some options to get around paying taxes on your winnings. I'm Dutch, and I did pay gambling taxes on my winnings, but i'm probably getting a decent portion of that back because of European laws w.r.t double taxation. Since the poker sites (those location in the EU anyway) already paid European gambling taxes our government can't tax it again. Still needs to be confirmed by the supreme court in the Netherlands, but we already won this argument 4 times (two separate cases, and first at lower court and then at court of appeal).

doesnt that mean that you have to pay that 35% monthly tax? Which in reality will be more like 40-50%. Which is extremly unreasonable with the amount of risk you take imo. Id pay like 20% at most really.

 

You still play?

[Hielko]

I guess you made your money playing poker?

 

IANAL, and obviously don't know what laws apply to you, but there might be some options to get around paying taxes on your winnings. I'm Dutch, and I did pay gambling taxes on my winnings, but i'm probably getting a decent portion of that back because of European laws w.r.t double taxation. Since the poker sites (those location in the EU anyway) already paid European gambling taxes our government can't tax it again. Still needs to be confirmed by the supreme court in the Netherlands, but we already won this argument 4 times (two separate cases, and first at lower court and then at court of appeal).

doesnt that mean that you have to pay that 35% monthly tax? Which in reality will be more like 40-50%. Which is extremly unreasonable with the amount of risk you take imo. Id pay like 20% at most really.

 

You still play?

I still play. The tax is 29% and it's indeed monthly, but I basically never have big losing months (obviously need to manage the risk w.r.t. the games I'm playing to achieve that result). But it doesn't really matter at this point, because it's nearly certain that I'll get back all the taxes I'm paying right now. So I expect that my effective tax rate will be 0%.

[yadayada]

Really the tax rate will be 0%? Or is that only on certain sites?

[rkbabang]

The way our patent litigation system is set up, it is designed to select a group of decision-makers (a jury of 12) with absolutely the least ability to decide the merits of the case.  There is no way a jury can assess the merits of a high tech patent case, so in reality all they can do is attempt to figure out who is being the least honest.

Do lawyers get to the play the game where they try to bias the jury during the jury selection process?

 

Yes the jury selection process, known as voire dire, is very often used by the lawyers to make their case to the potential jurors before they are even selected.

 

Voire dire is French term for jury tampering.  Obviously if jurors are asked anything other than "do you know anyone involved", then you are not really getting a randomly selected jury of your peers, but rather a government selected jury which have been screened to make sure they all agree that what you are being charged with should be illegal and that they are all ready and willing to convict you of it if they think you did it.

 

[twacowfca]

The way our patent litigation system is set up, it is designed to select a group of decision-makers (a jury of 12) with absolutely the least ability to decide the merits of the case.  There is no way a jury can assess the merits of a high tech patent case, so in reality all they can do is attempt to figure out who is being the least honest.

Do lawyers get to the play the game where they try to bias the jury during the jury selection process?

 

Yes the jury selection process, known as voire dire, is very often used by the lawyers to make their case to the potential jurors before they are even selected.

 

Voire dire is French term for jury tampering.  Obviously if jurors are asked anything other than "do you know anyone involved", then you are not really getting a randomly selected jury of your peers, but rather a government selected jury which have been screened to make sure they all agree that what you are being charged with should be illegal and that they are all ready and willing to convict you of it if they think you did it.

 

 

That's a faux amis. 

 

In the English system of justice, the term refers back to the Latin.  It's a process where the defense and prosecution and sometimes the judge have the opportunity to question jurors to identify possible biases and exclude those individuals from the jury pool.  Typically each side is also allowed the opportunity to peremptorily challenge and exclude a small number of those in the pool for any reason in addition to unlimited exclusions for bias.

[Olmsted]

Military. Then consulting.

[rkbabang]

The way our patent litigation system is set up, it is designed to select a group of decision-makers (a jury of 12) with absolutely the least ability to decide the merits of the case.  There is no way a jury can assess the merits of a high tech patent case, so in reality all they can do is attempt to figure out who is being the least honest.

Do lawyers get to the play the game where they try to bias the jury during the jury selection process?

 

Yes the jury selection process, known as voire dire, is very often used by the lawyers to make their case to the potential jurors before they are even selected.

 

Voire dire is French term for jury tampering.  Obviously if jurors are asked anything other than "do you know anyone involved", then you are not really getting a randomly selected jury of your peers, but rather a government selected jury which have been screened to make sure they all agree that what you are being charged with should be illegal and that they are all ready and willing to convict you of it if they think you did it.

 

 

That's a faux amis. 

 

In the English system of justice, the term refers back to the Latin.  It's a process where the defense and prosecution and sometimes the judge have the opportunity to question jurors to identify possible biases and exclude those individuals from the jury pool.  Typically each side is also allowed the opportunity to peremptorily challenge and exclude a small number of those in the pool for any reason in addition to unlimited exclusions for bias.

 

I know how the system works and its history. I'm just saying that it is flawed.  If you are charged with manufacturing and selling drugs, for example, you would need only one person who thought that what you did should not be illegal to hang the jury, but in our current system that person wouldn't have a chance in hell of making it onto the jury, so you are screwed.

 

With truly random juries it would be extremely difficult for the government  to prosecute people for breaking any law that wasn't supported by greater than 11/12th of the population.  Which is the beauty of how a jury system could work to limit the power of the state.

[Guest deepValue]

Hedge fund for about a year, then quit because it was run by engineers who only wanted to invest in tech and telecom...

 

Now managing my money full time and periodically launching business ventures.

[Evolveus]

Came from the fillm and music technical side in california. made a career path switch and worked with a financial planner and now a major brkoerage firm.  The unfortunate thing is that there at the brokerage firm is an emphasis on asset gathering and activity, with value investing coming in a very distant second.  Havng O'd on Munger and Buffett for many years, that's been a hard pill to swallow. 

[Guest deepValue]

...at the brokerage firm is an emphasis on asset gathering and activity, with value investing coming in a very distant second.  Havng O'd on Munger and Buffett for many years, that's been a hard pill to swallow.

 

One of Houston's most coveted money managers has just barely beaten the S&P 500 over his investment career before fees. Fortunately for him, he married the right woman (even more wealthy and connected than he) and has never had trouble growing AUM. The notion that you can build a successful business on relationships alone has always fascinated me; it's a great system as long as you're in the club (or are a social climber).

[eclecticvalue]

Yup its all about the relationships, its amazing if you have a flat or negative returns for the year but the relationships with the clients are strong then clients aren't going to leave you anytime soon.

[BG2008]

I know of funds with less than 5% who managed to survive for 10 years.