Bill Gates Quotes

I personally think that people who are inheriting the wealth must have an agreement on how that wealth will flow from generation to generation, how they would like to spend it, and have similar philosophies around philanthropy to ensure continuity and scaling up.

Some people want to amass a great amount of wealth and make a great looking obituary. I'm going to die with more money than is good to leave my son.

When vastly wealthy people say, 'I'm not leaving my kids any money,' it's typically not true.

The death tax punishes the American dream - making it virtually impossible for the average American family to build wealth across generations.

With inheritances, it's really important not to give the impression that you're extorting your children, and one way you can not do that is to make it clear to them that you're not leaving the whole of your estate to them at all, but to various charitable organizations.

The - the early Rockefellers made their wealth from being in certain businesses and - and remained personally very wealthy. Tatas were different in the sense the future generations were not so wealthy. They - they were involved in the business, but most of the family wealth is put into trust, and the family did not, in fact, enjoy enormous wealth.

Our society has a mentality that elderly people pass on their wealth to their son or immediate relatives, and I think we all do it. It's a part of nature and is an exaggerated topic.

I believe that people of substantial wealth potentially create problems for future generations unless they themselves accept responsibility to use their wealth during their lifetime to help worthwhile causes.

I want to see wealth cascading down the generations.

7 percent of inheritors get two-thirds of all the wealth transfers..

Why should men leave great fortunes to their children? If this is done from affection, is it not misguided affection? Observation teaches that, generally speaking, it is not well for the children that they should be so burdened.

I have drifted away from thinking about these philanthropic things. And it was only as the wealth got large enough and Melinda and I had talked about the view that wealth wasn't something that would be good to just pass to the children.

There is no law saying you have to die before your assets can be passed to loved ones. In fact, gifting earlier can be a lovely way to witness how your money helps your family thrive.

I'm in spend-down. I've got a billion in cash. You can't leave people a billion pounds, can you?

I have issues with inheritance tax, particularly coming from a migrant family. My dad has worked incredibly hard all his life, so it seems odd to me that someone who has gone through that experience and has managed to save then gets taxed for dying.

It's just wrong to work your whole life to build up a nest egg, build your own business - you pass away, and Uncle Sam can swoop in and take away nearly half of everything you've earned. Can you imagine that? Having to sell off most of your land just to keep it from the government, just to save the house.

Various justifications for lower capital-gains rates have been proffered over the years, none of them self-evident. But even conceding the wisdom of lower capital-gains rates, why should they never be taxed at all, even as they are passed from generation to generation?

The entire American concept of the 'family business' is put at risk by the death tax.

If I die and am worth $50 million as opposed to $3 billion, it is really not important.

Contrary to Piketty’s rentier hypothesis, I don’t see anyone on the [Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans] whose ancestors bought a great parcel of land in 1780 and have been accumulating family wealth by collecting rents ever since. In America, that old money is long gone - through instability, inflation, taxes, philanthropy, and spending.

If you can build a company and make money, great. But eventually, my intention is to give all my money away. I told my kids that. [Wealth] is not particularly helpful to kids. It's almost a burden. It's better to allow them to do their own thing and have their own successes.

We don't think every man should be free to pass on everything to his descendants.

The estate taxes, on balance, are good. They get people to give money to charity, and they prevent these family dynasties which keep other people from having opportunities. It may be good for a family, but for society it's probably not good. And I've always been in favor of having an estate tax.

Fortunes are made, and disappear, over the lifetime of a single generation. Today, a person in essence takes his wealth from society just for the duration of his or her lifetime. The next generation has to create it anew.

Rich men's sons are seldom rich men's fathers.