Vanguard's Low Blow
To summarise, Investment Managers manage Funds. When you invest in a mutual (or hedge or venture or wine [1]) fund, you put money in to a Fund. The Fund then pays an Investment Manager a fee for managing it. (Of course, you, the investor, indirectly pay this fee.)<p>Vanguard is mutualized. This means the Funds <i>own</i> the Investment Manager. Unsurprisingly, the Funds vote for lower fees. The result is Vanguard charging its funds staggeringly lower fees than average [2]. This also means Vanguard makes less profit than competing Investment Managers.<p>Enter this guy [3]. He observes Vanguard paying less tax (on account of making less profit) than its competition. He concludes that Vanguard is dodging its tax bill. Vanguard, he argues, should be taxed <i>as if</i> it charged the higher fees it doesn&#x27;t. They should also pay the back taxes they would have owed if they had charged these fees and earned those profits, again, that they didn&#x27;t. This last part is helpful because he likes the whistleblower bonus the IRS would pay him if the case succeeds [4]. (Or maybe not [5].)<p>If this sounds bonkers, it&#x27;s because it likely is. We don&#x27;t tax SpaceX <i>as if</i> it were bilking the U.S. government on par with its competition. In any case, the boosted post-fee gains from Vanguard&#x27;s funds are still taxed at the individual level. But my pie is better than your pie and so the idiots get their air time.<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wineinvestmentfund.com&#x2F;disclaimer.aspx?url=http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wineinvestmentfund.com&#x2F;index.aspx" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wineinvestmentfund.com&#x2F;disclaimer.aspx?url=http:&#x2F;...</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;investor.vanguard.com&#x2F;mutual-funds&#x2F;low-cost" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;investor.vanguard.com&#x2F;mutual-funds&#x2F;low-cost</a><p>[3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.linkedin.com&#x2F;in&#x2F;david-danon-a0a5017" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.linkedin.com&#x2F;in&#x2F;david-danon-a0a5017</a><p>[4] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.newsweek.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;12&#x2F;25&#x2F;vanguard-whistleblower-tax-dodge-complaint-400901.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.newsweek.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;12&#x2F;25&#x2F;vanguard-whistleblower-ta...</a><p>[5] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;articles.philly.com&#x2F;2015-11-19&#x2F;business&#x2F;68386489_1_david-danon-new-york-state-joan-madden" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;articles.philly.com&#x2F;2015-11-19&#x2F;business&#x2F;68386489_1_da...</a>