Billionaire Ellison Gets Tax Break

Oracle Corporation chief Larry Ellison gets $3m tax break on ‘Larryland’
Chris Ayres in Los Angeles

To some, Larry Ellison’s $200 million (£100 million) reproduction 16th-century Japanese emperor’s estate in the hills above Silicon Valley sums up everything that went wrong with America’s out-of-control property market.

Perhaps it’s that the founder of Oracle Corporation, and the world’s fourteenth richest man, hired an ordained Zen priest to design the 23-acre (9.3 hectare) plot – a process that ended up taking almost a decade. Or perhaps it’s that the property ended up featuring a 2.3 acre manmade lake filled with drinkable water, 2,000 tonnes of imported Chinese granite, a waterfall with a built-in fog machine and an on/off switch, several miles of underground tunnels for domestic staff, a 30-tonne boulder in the master bedroom shower, and a replica 16th-century bridge that was built by craftsmen in China, disassembled, then shipped to California.

Imagine, then, how upset Mr Ellison’s critics became this week when they found out that the 63-year-old entrepreneur had managed to negotiate a 60 per cent tax break on his property, known as Larryland to readers of his local newspaper, The Almanac News.

As a result, his local assessor’s office is sending him a cheque for $3 million.

Under normal circumstances, of course, no one would raise an eyebrow at the prospect of a 25-times-billionaire getting a cushy tax deal. But property tax revenues go to local government, not the Internal Revenue Service. This means that Mr Ellison’s local school district in Portola Valley, California, will lose the equivalent of three teachers as a direct result of the refund – in a year when it is already facing a $1 million budget shortfall and an increase in enrolment from 714 pupils to 750.

Other school districts near Mr Ellison’s property will also lose funding. “He went through a process that was laid out by the law,” said Susan George, town manager of Woodside – the location of Larryland – in an interview this week with the San Francisco Chronicle. “It shouldn’t make a difference how much money he has if the process was fair.”

Nevertheless, others are using Mr Ellison’s $3 million refund to call for a reform of California’s property tax law – the equivalent of UK council tax – which fixes rates to the value of a property when it is bought or built, making local government finances extraordinarily vulnerable to housing crashes.

[snip]

Oracle Corporation chief Larry Ellison gets $3m tax break on ‘Larryland’
Chris Ayres in Los Angeles

To some, Larry Ellison’s $200 million (£100 million) reproduction 16th-century Japanese emperor’s estate in the hills above Silicon Valley sums up everything that went wrong with America’s out-of-control property market.

Perhaps it’s that the founder of Oracle Corporation, and the world’s fourteenth richest man, hired an ordained Zen priest to design the 23-acre (9.3 hectare) plot – a process that ended up taking almost a decade. Or perhaps it’s that the property ended up featuring a 2.3 acre manmade lake filled with drinkable water, 2,000 tonnes of imported Chinese granite, a waterfall with a built-in fog machine and an on/off switch, several miles of underground tunnels for domestic staff, a 30-tonne boulder in the master bedroom shower, and a replica 16th-century bridge that was built by craftsmen in China, disassembled, then shipped to California.

Imagine, then, how upset Mr Ellison’s critics became this week when they found out that the 63-year-old entrepreneur had managed to negotiate a 60 per cent tax break on his property, known as Larryland to readers of his local newspaper, The Almanac News.

As a result, his local assessor’s office is sending him a cheque for $3 million.

Under normal circumstances, of course, no one would raise an eyebrow at the prospect of a 25-times-billionaire getting a cushy tax deal. But property tax revenues go to local government, not the Internal Revenue Service. This means that Mr Ellison’s local school district in Portola Valley, California, will lose the equivalent of three teachers as a direct result of the refund – in a year when it is already facing a $1 million budget shortfall and an increase in enrolment from 714 pupils to 750.

Other school districts near Mr Ellison’s property will also lose funding. “He went through a process that was laid out by the law,” said Susan George, town manager of Woodside – the location of Larryland – in an interview this week with the San Francisco Chronicle. “It shouldn’t make a difference how much money he has if the process was fair.”

Nevertheless, others are using Mr Ellison’s $3 million refund to call for a reform of California’s property tax law – the equivalent of UK council tax – which fixes rates to the value of a property when it is bought or built, making local government finances extraordinarily vulnerable to housing crashes.

 

LOL, life is most definitely fair.

 

This is what is prominent from the article above:

This means that Mr Ellison’s local school district in Portola Valley, California, will lose the equivalent of three teachers as a direct result of the refund – in a year when it is already facing a $1 million budget shortfall and an increase in enrolment from 714 pupils to 750.

3 teachers will lose their jobs!

 

who gives a f*ck.

 

Yeah, you're absolutely right.

Who the needs teachers?

What good are they?


LOL, So far we have a front runner for the stupidest post of the year.

 

oh, another dumb story from the popular press written by a clueless journalist.

ellison didn't get a tax break, he got a tax refund because he had been overpaying property taxes for years because of an unreasonable appraisal on his property. the county agreed and is paying him back. the re-appraisal process is available to all residents not just billionares.

i guess everyone who got tax refunds from the irs last year got tax breaks too?

 

So they value those teachers @ $333,333.33 each? I think there is something skewed here.