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I can't find details about the 501(c)(4) organization the 98% of shares were transferred to, but it feels unlikely that there's no family control of that? Yes, that's no longer family money, but it's also not like it's independent of the family.

The transfer to the 2% trust passed through estate/gift taxation (apparently), but also skipped capital gains tax.

It's all within the scope of the rules, but this is clearly tax avoidance as well as whatever else.

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If they really just wanted to avoid taxes, there are ways to do it where they’d keep way more than 2% of the company. And with all that saved, money they’d still have plenty of political power. Is this the best of all possible outcome? Maybe not. But it’s a lot better than the estate planning of basically every other rich family. You’d think we’d try to encourage more people to do it.

If not selling the company and therefore not having to pay tax on the sale proceeds that you would have made is tax avoidance, then so is sitting on the couch instead of getting a job.

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