[hogFeast]

The Samsung family have been engineering this for about two decades. Lee Kun-hee was convicted twice for stuff relating to this.

The issue they have is retaining control over Samsung whilst having to pay inheritance tax. This is why the stock price rose significantly when Lee actually "died", he obviously legally died before that point the coverup was to maintain control over Samsung, because it looks like they have finally lost control.

So yes, these laws are taken pretty seriously.

Btw, the thing about the gift is true in most countries. The reason why should be obvious: if you could just gift before someone dies then no-one would pay inheritance tax. It is usually a few years: so if you receive a gift and the granter dies within a few years then it is subject to inheritance tax.

[gizmo686]

I don't know about other countries, but this is one area where the US tax code makes sense. Gifts beyond a certain value ($15,000/recipient-year) are reported. You then have an $11.5M lifetime exception for paying taxes on further gifts (2020 number). When your estate goes to pay the estate tax, it also has the same exemption as the lifetime gift tax, and anything you filed against the lifetime gift tax exception is deducted from what you are allowed to claim against the estate tax exemption. In other words, the only (federal) tax benefit gift giving can provide is $15,000/recipient annual exemption, which is inherently limited.