Re: On Taxes

On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:53:57 -0700, Ditty posted:

A report set to be released today from the U.S. Senate's subcommittee
on Investigations details how the rich and wealthy in this country use
international banks to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.

http://tinyurl.com/666ka2

One operates an estimated $63 billion portfolio of 118 shopping
centers and malls in the U.S., United Kingdom, Australia and New
Zealand.

Another manufactures and markets toys through a company with an
estimated $35 million in annual sales and corporate offices in New
York City, Holland, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

And a third is a Florida-based construction contractor who
reportedly amassed more than $49 million in family assets.

Along with wealth and success, the three have something else in
common, a Senate report set for release Thursday says: All were
clients of an overseas bank whose financial practices "can facilitate,
and have resulted in, tax evasion by their U.S. clients."

The report asserts that Swiss banking giant UBS and LGT, a large
bank in the tiny European principality of Liechtenstein, actively
helped wealthy American clients evade federal taxes. Since 2001, the
banks collectively held thousands of U.S. client accounts with
billions of dollars in assets that weren't reported to the IRS...

....

UBS [one of the foreign banks] has an estimated 19,000 U.S.
clients with a combined $17.9 billion in accounts "that have not been
disclosed to U.S. tax authorities," according to estimates given to
the Senate panel by the bank and Bradley Birkenfeld, a former UBS
banker.

He told the subcommittee roughly 80 UBS bankers traveled to the
U.S. four to six times per year to pitch the bank's secretive services
to well-heeled clients at such upscale events as Miami's annual Art
Basel fair.

"It's really, "Where do the rich people hang out, go and talk to
them,' " Birkenfeld told the Senate staffers.

Many U.S. clients were motivated by "tax evasion," Birkenfeld told
Senate investigators, adding that both sides "clearly understood" no
U.S. taxes would be paid on the overseas accounts.

The bankers used encrypted computers, devised codes for their
clients' identities, told Customs agents the trips were for vacations,
not business, and advised clients to place jewelry, paintings and
other assets in Swiss safe deposit boxes, Birkenfeld testified in
June, when he pleaded guilty to helping California billionaire Igor
Olenicoff evade $7.2 million in U.S. taxes.
------------
[One would hope that the government would take the same approach to
collecting these back taxes and penalties as it does from "the little
people." ]

UBS was the bank that Phil Gramm lobbied for.
--
Unquestionably, there is progress. The average American now pays out twice
as much in taxes as he formerly got in wages.
H. L. Mencken
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: On Taxes
    ... international banks to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. ... clients of an overseas bank whose financial practices "can facilitate, ... UBS has an estimated 19,000 U.S. ...
    (misc.news.internet.discuss)
  • Re: On Taxes
    ... international banks to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. ... clients of an overseas bank whose financial practices "can facilitate, ... UBS has an estimated 19,000 U.S. ...
    (misc.news.internet.discuss)
  • W Post: U.S. Given A Look at Swiss Bank Accounts
    ... U.S. Given A Look at Swiss Bank Accounts ... Tax Probe Gets Names Of 70 UBS Clients ...
    (misc.taxes)
  • UBS AG Closing Swiss Offshore Accounts
    ... UBS Closing Secret Offshore Accounts ... The Swiss bank decided in July last year to stop offering offshore accounts to U.S. citizens after it was targeted by a U.S. tax investigation which challenges Switzerland's famous banking secrecy laws. ... U.S. prosecutors have alleged UBS helped clients hide $18 billion of untaxed American money in undeclared accounts. ...
    (misc.invest.stocks)
  • Re: Budget deficits and GDP
    ... have to deposit money in the bank and the bank has to have people that ... Deposits create excess reserves for loans. ... least being a very strong indicator that taxes can be increased without ... was growing too fast in short run terms before the tax increase. ...
    (sci.econ)
Loading