Billionaire spent half the year on superyacht to avoid property taxes

Decades before the world's richest people began leaving high-tax states like California and New York for Florida and Texas, one tech mogul quietly found his own way to avoid local taxes, strict building rules, and the need for a permanent home.Charles Simonyi, the Microsoft engineer behind Word and Excel, solved two problems at once by owning a luxury property by building a floating home. Instead of buying expensive apartments in different cities, he commissioned a custom-built $100 million 233-foot superyacht called Skat in 1990s, by 2002 Skat was fully built and delivered. For almost two decades, he spent up to six months each year living and working on the yacht, avoiding millions in property taxes while enjoying some of the world's most exclusive waterfront locations.A floating solution to land-based taxesForbes estimates Simonyi has a net worth of around $7.2 billion.