nheritance Tax and Debt
"What comes from dust shall return to dust. May the love of the Lord be with you forever. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen..."
It can be said that this funeral of the Devonshire family, It shocked the entire British aristocratic circle. After all, within a few days, three direct members of the family passed away one after another. In such a large ducal family, only the youngest son who had just grown up was left. Such a thing has not happened in England for too many years. ——The last time this kind of memory can be traced back to the two world wars...
and this time the funeral of the Cavendish family was also quite grand. Not only were many nobles present, but also His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of Wales. I came to Derbyshire in person to attend this funeral.
"Lord Barron, please have your condolences..."
This is also the first time in two lifetimes that Barron has seen a celebrity of the level of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. However, this is not the time for him to be excited. What he has experienced in the past few days has already It can make him calm about anything.
"Your Highness, thank you very much for coming here..."
In fact, through this period of understanding, he also understood that the reason why His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales came in person may not be for his current father, who is the 12th generation The Duke of Devonshire came here because of his grandmother, the 11th Duchess of Devonshire.
Speaking of her predecessor, the grandmother was also an extremely famous person.
Her name was Deborah Cavendish. She was once one of the famous "Six Mitford Sisters" in the British upper class. She was born on March 31, 1920. She was the son of David Ford, 2nd Baron Ridsdale. Young daughter of Freeman Mitford and Sydney Freeman Mitford.
Her family had been ennobled since the Germanic Conquest (5th-6th century).
It can be said that throughout World War II, the "Six Mitford Sisters" with very different personalities and political leanings were one of the most well-known labels in the British aristocratic circle.
Just like the Prince of Wales stood for a long time in front of Deborah Cavendish's photo and said to Barron:
"We will miss her very much. She is not a person who will be easily forgotten. What she gave to everyone through those books Joy, and her contribution to Chatsworth will never be forgotten..."
...
After the funeral, all the guests left, and the entire Chatsworth estate returned to silence.
But the matter is not over yet, what Barron needs to face is an even more troublesome thing!
According to relevant British laws, as the second son of the family, it can be said that the burden of the family will not fall on him - his predecessor thought so since he was a child. As the eldest son, his brother will inherit the Duke of Devonshire. title, and the other party is stable and mature, and has been trained as the heir of the family for a long time. In everyone's opinion, he is also the most suitable successor.
As the second son of the family, Barron Cavendish will at most inherit another lower-level title, well, at most he will receive part of the property... Besides,
no matter who looks at it, this person has a light personality and likes to hang out in nightclubs. Although the young master looks more handsome, his out-of-the-box personality really doesn't look like a "traditional aristocrat".
But things were so dramatic. His father and brother died in a car accident at the same time. As the only direct member of the Cavendish family, Barron became the first heir and would inherit the title of Duke of Devonshire, as well as the family's title. All property.
Normally, it seems that he can successfully become a British nobleman with the official Mi flag and live a boring, shameless aristocratic life...
But things are not that simple. After asking Butler Sean Later, especially after looking at the family's asset bills, Barron understood what kind of dilemma he was facing.
First of all, as the heir of the family, if he wants to inherit the title and family property, he must first solve the huge inheritance tax problem!
Normally, the inheritance tax rate in England is as high as 40% - now it is much less, sometimes as high as 80%!
However, the Cavendish family simply had the foresight to package most of the family's assets in trust funds. This can exempt a large part of the inheritance tax, but the remaining fees that need to be paid are still quite a lot... ...
But the inheritance tax is probably not the biggest headache among the troubles he has to face, because the debt of the entire family is what he needs to solve most at this time!
This starts with Barron's grandfather.
The entire Cavendish family has been passed down to Barron's generation, who is the 18th and 13th Duke of Devonshire.
At the peak of the Devonshire family, there were eight extremely huge estates in England and Ireland, covering an area of more than 200,000 acres. The inheritance tax paid by the Devonshire family alone once exceeded one million. British pounds, that was 1 million pounds in the early 19th century!
It can be said that ordinary people at that time may not be able to save hundreds of pounds in a lifetime!
From the time of the 10th Duke of Devonshire, Barron's great-grandfather, due to the poor management of the previous Duke of Devonshire and the economic environment of the entire UK at that time in the Great Depression, Devonshire The financial situation of the Duke's family was dire.
The 10th Duke of Devonshire felt that the previous huge inheritance tax had brought a burden to the family, so he tried every means to evade the huge inheritance tax through the fund model to reduce the burden on future generations.
According to the regulations at the time, it took five years before the estate could be eligible for exemption from estate tax after being packaged into a trust fund.
The 10th Duke of Devonshire was in the prime of life at the time and without considering the special circumstances of his health, he did not hesitate to hand over all his property to the trust fund.
Something unexpected happened. At the beginning of the fifth year after the 10th Duke of Devonshire handed over his property, he suddenly died of a heart attack three months before the five-year deadline. As his successor, the 11th Duke of Devonshire, Andrew, That is, Barron's grandfather faces an inheritance tax rate of up to 80% - needing to pay an inheritance tax of 7 million pounds.
There are two choices before Andrew. One is to sell the inheritance and pay off the property tax and then inherit the inheritance; the other is to earn the 7 million pounds through his own efforts.
In the end, Barron's father chose the latter in order to preserve most of the family's inherited property.
He first sold off part of his property to pay part of the inheritance tax - including nearly 60,000 acres of land, a Hardwick Manor, part of the collection including Rembrandt and Raphael paintings...
and then, through desperate efforts, Earning money to pay off the inheritance tax, it finally took 24 years to pay off the inheritance tax in installments. In 1974, he paid off all the inheritance tax of 7 million pounds, thus becoming the real Duke of Devonshire.
It can be said that Barron's grandfather kept hope for the family in the future...
But the problem lies with Barron's father. The family was finally able to make a surplus by opening the manor, undertaking events, and opening other industries such as hotels. Later, he didn't expect that he would suffer huge losses due to investment at this time!
After reviewing the family's assets and debt list, and with the explanations from Butler Sean and the family trust fund manager, Barron was speechless and discovered that the debt of the entire family trust at this time exceeded 30 million pounds!
In addition, if he wants to successfully inherit the dukedom and keep the family assets, then he will need to spend at least more than 35 million pounds, including inheritance tax!
At this moment, Barron even had the idea of giving up everything and starting over...