The Leaseback Blog

Sarkozy To Abolish Wealth Tax

Building a portfolio of leasebacks in France has always carried the drawback of taking you into the Wealth Tax bracket.

Introduced by the Socialist Party in 1981, the wealth tax is paid by those with total assets worth more than €790,000 (£672,100), regardless of their income.

In a television interview last week President Sarkozy said that he wanted to abandon the solidarity tax on wealth, one of the last remaining wealth taxes in Europe, to bring the French fiscal regime into line with Germany.

The bottom rate for the current wealth tax, which is levied annually, is 0.55% of the net worth of household assets, while the top rate is 1.8%. Those in the lowest band, with assets valued between €790,000 (£674,000) and €1.29m (£1m), pay up to €2,750 (£2,346) a year. Those in the highest band, with assets valued at more than €16.54m (£14m) pay at least €221,120 (£188,700).

A total of 562,000 households are expected to pay around €3.29bn (£2.8bn) of wealth tax to the French treasury this year.

I've been saying for some time that conditions have never been better for building a portfolio of French leasebacks, with mortgage rates at their lowest since the French revolution. Looks like the the situation just got even better...

Best wishes

Graham

www.leaseback.co.uk

020 8940 7000

 

Obama Meets VIP At Baltimore Airport...

 

 

 

It was a lucky chance for Barack Obama as he changed planes at Baltimore airport.

It just so happened leaseback guru Graham Rowan was also connecting to a flight to Raleigh North Carolina.

There was just enough time for the two to swap business cards and for the President to be appointed an honorary member of the Leaseback Insiders Club. Rowan offered Obama a ticket for Leaseback Liveski on 30th November - he said he would get his people to check if AirForce One could pop across to Kensington that evening.

Rowan also offered nutrition advice as the President was looking a little thin... 

Postcard From Baltimore

As we continue our stay in Baltimore Daphne and I walked past the submarine USS Torsk in the harbour. It gave me an analogy for how we prepare for retirement which I captured on this brief video:

 

For more on Leaseback Liveski visit www.leaseback.co.uk and, if you'd like a couple of the 10 remaining tickets, take 30 seconds to fill in the form there. More from the US of A soon.

Graham

Letter From America - Volume 1

Daphne and I are in Baltimore for four days learning how we can spread the word about French leaseback investing more effectively. We're at the Glazer Kennedy Info Summit along with 900 others.

Most are from the US but there are about 30 Brits here, plus some from Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Sweden and Lithuania.

 
It's our first visit to this beautiful city and the sun is shining for us.  Not that we get to see it much as the seminar runs from 8:00am to 8:30pm each day.

If you own your own business or work in marketing you might want to check out Dan Kennedy and Bill Glazer - I think they are the best in the world at what they do and we can learn a lot from them.

Three stand-outs from the first day:

- it's not enough to sell something, you have to be about something. You have to have a set of beliefs and values that your target audience agree with and buy into. For me that would touch on areas like helping people be better prepared for retirement while avoiding being a target for politicians who want to tax them within an inch of their lives

- baseball legend (with the local Baltimore Orioles team) Cal Ripken Junior talking about perseverance. He played more than 2600 consecutive games over 19 seasons - the low point was when his father was fired as manager of the team, the high point breaking a long standing record of 2300 games

- Mary Ellen Tribby talking about finally launching her own business, www.workingmomsonly.com in January 2010 after 15 years on the corporate ladder, and how she is already earning more than her six figure salary from the business   

If you want to come to our next live event, Leaseback Liveski, at the Institut Francais in South Kensington, please go to www.leaseback.co.uk and register there as we are above 20 reserved seats now and we only have 30 in total.

I'll send another report soon.

Warm regards

Graham 

Is This Heroic Customer Service Or What?

Those of us whose success depends on delivering great customer service develop finely tuned antennae when it comes to rooting out great examples of the art.

But few can be as outstanding as the example set by 53 year old Australian Richard Champion De Crespigny last week. He lived up to his middle name when one of the engines on his Qantas A380 airbus blew up and he had to use all his experience to land the giant plane on the remaining three engines.

Most of us would have wanted to get away from the airport fast and get home for a stiff drink. Not 'Champion'. He stayed with the passengers in the terminal to answer their questions for 20 minutes, then gave them all his personal mobile phone number and said 'call me if you have any issues'.  

Not just great service. Heroic service.

Watch who you fly with...

Graham

www.leaseback.co.uk 

Join Us at Leaseback Liveski on Tuesday 30th November

Hi

This is your personal invitation to join us at Leaseback Liveski on Tuesday 30th November at the Institut Francais in South Kensington.

It's an informal evening with a chance to share some wine and canapes, look at some new projects and speak with four leaseback experts. Here's a short video I've created to explain the event:

Here's the schedule for the evening:

6:30-7:15 - wine, canapes and a chance to look at our latest projects
7.15 - How to own a leaseback ski apartment, beat the taxman, have some fun and retire when YOU want to...
7:45 - The UK launch of two great new leaseback ski projects
8:00 - Prize draw for the lucky couple to win a ski weekend in the Alps
8:05 onwards - more wine and canapes, more chat with the experts

The only challenge is that we have just thirty places available so we are limiting tickets to two per applicant. To reserve yours please email info@leaseback.co.uk or register on the home page at www.leaseback.co.uk

See you there?

Warm regards

Graham

Graham Rowan
The Leaseback Team
020 8940 7000
info@leaseback.co.uk

 

www.leaseback.co.uk