On 21/02/2011 01:31, John Rumm wrote:
On 18/02/2011 09:45, Jeff Gaines wrote:
On 18/02/2011 in message
harry
wrote:

expect he died rich. I expect the skiving git was in Jersey to avoid
paying taxes.

He moved to Jersey the day he sold the Workmate to B&D. From memory he
got £3 million but if he'd stayed here he would have lost a lot of it in
taxes.

He would have probably lost £2,940,000 in tax! (given it was probably
during the 70's when the 98% tax rate applied to "unearned income" such
as royalties from inventions etc).

I can't find a definitive date for when he sold the Workmate design to B
& D but I think it could well have been in the mid - late 60s. The sale
itself would have been subject to Capital Gains Tax at 30% maximum and
quite possibly less.

I don't know for sure but I would have thought that royalties on an
invention would be classed as earned income rather than unearned income.
Hickman moved to Jersey in 1977 leaving behind a income tax regime that
penalised just about everybody. Even us plebs had been paying a basic
rate of 35% for the past two years and most would have left the country
given half a chance. Higher rates went up to 83% on earned income and,
as John has already pointed out, 98% on unearned income.

The Independent had a piece on Hickman on Saturday which gave him the
credit for the earlier Elite as well as the Elan. Other sources suggest
Hickman didn't join Lotus until 1958, the same year the Elite was
launched, and Hickman's involvement with the Elite was production
engineering rather than design.

Said other sources also give Hickman credit for the Plus 2 and the
Europa in addition to the Elan and, on the Workmate, included this point:

"For the second Workmate prototype Ron used Elan wishbones on either
side of the frame in a vertical position. Bet you didn’t know that the
Lotus Elan and the B&D Workmate were ‘related’."

I will now go out into the barn and kick the wheels of the old wreck
that has resided thereabouts for the last 30 odd years just for old
times sake. I wonder if Hickman's death will make defunct Lotuses a more
saleable commodity. ;-)