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Data Leak Shakes Notion of Secret Offshore Havens and, Possibly, Nerves

Somerville

Somerville

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This is causing reverberations all over the world

Data Leak Shakes Notion of Secret Offshore Havens and, Possibly, Nerves

They are a large and diverse group that includes a Spanish heiress; the daughter of the former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos; and Denise Rich, the former wife of the disgraced trader Marc Rich, who was pardoned by President Bill Clinton. But, according to a trove of secret financial information released Thursday, all have money and share a desire to hide it. And, it seems safe to say, they — and thousands of others in Europe and far beyond, in places like Mongolia — are suddenly very anxious after the leak of 2.5 million files detailing the offshore bank accounts and shell companies of wealthy individuals and tax-averse companies.

"There will be people all over the world today who are now scared witless," said Richard Murphy, research director for Tax Justice Network, a British-based organization that has long campaigned to end the secrecy that surrounds assets held in offshore havens.
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Somerville said:
This is causing reverberations all over the world
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Scared witless, huh?

I only support a single tax, and in my perfect world these tax havens wouldn't exist because the money in them would not be subject to taxation at all! That being said, I hate scofflaws and tax cheats, and I hope the crooks who use secret tax havens to evade taxes are subjected to the full extent of the law now that they are exposed.

BTW, is Mitt Romney on that list?
 
Somerville said:
This is causing reverberations all over the
world
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Lol ! No its not.

Its just another fringe group trying to steal whats basically private peoperty.

Its actually just another shining example of the failure of the left wing policies that have caused the massive amount of growing misery around the world.

Since theyv'e run out of other peoples money, now its time to steal any money they can get their hands on.
 
Fenton said:
Lol ! No its not.

Its just another fringe group trying to steal whats basically private peoperty.

Its actually just another shining example of the failure of the left wing policies that have caused the massive amount of growing misery around the world.

Since theyv'e run out of other peoples money, now its time to steal any money they can get their hands on.
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Wat~?
 
Fenton said:
Lol ! No its not.

Its just another fringe group trying to steal whats basically private peoperty.

Its actually just another shining example of the failure of the left wing policies that have caused the massive amount of growing misery around the world.

Since theyv'e run out of other peoples money, now its time to steal any money they can get their hands on.
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Ever hear of tax evasion? Why is it you give a pass to those who don't do their part in building your country? :doh Nah, it's better to after the welfare bums, eh? :roll:
 
Middleground said:
Ever hear of tax evasion? Why is it you
give a pass to those who don't do their part in building your country? :doh Nah, it's better to after the welfare bums, eh? :roll:
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You have direct specific evidence that these accounts are there for the explicit purpose of Tax Evation ?

Until you do, keep your rhetoric between you and the fence post.

Plus, even if the Govt in power today could access that money, it wouldn't be used for "productive purposes" anyway.
 
i pay all of my taxes, and i can afford it less than most. i admit not being too disappointed when sunlight is shone into dark corners and the roaches scatter.
 
Fenton said:
Lol ! No its not.

Its just another fringe group trying to steal whats basically private peoperty.

Its actually just another shining example of the failure of the left wing policies that have caused the massive amount of growing misery around the world.

Since theyv'e run out of other peoples money, now its time to steal any money they can get their hands on.
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Since when is stolen money private property? No I am not saying that it all or even a majority is stolen, I am saying that to have an off-shore bank account in a tax haven you have to have a reason and most people have them to avoid or hide something...
 
PeteEU said:
Since when is stolen money private property? No I am not saying that it all or even a majority is stolen, I am saying that to have an off-shore bank account in a tax haven you have to have a reason and most people have them to avoid or hide something...
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But, are these tax havens illegal? If not, then yes, this money is private property and the theft that is taking place is being done by the governments that want to take it.
 
Somerville said:
This is causing reverberations all over the world
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Interesting. Why should anyone be able to discover where I hold my money? I mean, seriously. Without due process (in our country), why should any government entity be able to find my assets? It's an interesting dilemma, at any rate.

As for "scared witless," I don't think that's the exact right term.
 
PeteEU said:
Since when is stolen money private property? No I am not saying that it all or even a majority is stolen, I am saying that to have an off-shore bank account in a tax haven you have to have a reason and most people have them to avoid or hide something...
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Well, I wouldn't trust our current administration as far as I could throw them in determining which was stolen and which was legitimate.
 
Fenton said:
Lol ! No its not.

Its just another fringe group trying to steal whats basically private peoperty.

Its actually just another shining example of the failure of the left wing policies that have caused the massive amount of growing misery around the world.

Since theyv'e run out of other peoples money, now its time to steal any money they can get their hands on.
Click to expand...

Yet another shining example of reaction without thought and without bothering to read the story.
 
Guy Incognito said:
Scared witless, huh?

I only support a single tax, and in my perfect world these tax havens wouldn't exist because the money in them would not be subject to taxation at all! That being said, I hate scofflaws and tax cheats, and I hope the crooks who use secret tax havens to evade taxes are subjected to the full extent of the law now that they are exposed.

BTW, is Mitt Romney on that list?
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Oh that's key, really is. :roll:

Haters gonna hate.
 
Somerville said:
Yet another shining example of reaction without thought and without bothering to read the story.
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I read it, it's more of the same and no, no one's "scared witless ". Too many Democrats have their money stored in those accounts.
 
Fenton said:
I read it, it's more of the same and no, no one's "scared witless ". Too many Democrats have their money stored in those accounts.
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IF you had actually read the article you would have seen that the focus was not on Americans who have money in offshore tax havens but on people of other nations.

The embarrassment caused by Thursday's revelations has been particularly acute in France, where the Socialist president, Franois Hollande, who wants to impose a 75 percent tax on millionaires, has been struggling to contain a political firestorm touched off this week by a former budget minister's admission — after months of denials — that he had secret foreign bank accounts.
<snip>
Others identified included Maria Imelda Marcos Manotoc, a provincial governor and eldest daughter of the former Philippine president; Olga Shuvalova, the wife of Russia's deputy prime minister, Igor Shuvalov; Gunter Sachs, a German playboy and photographer who committed suicide in May 2011 at age 78; and Baroness Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, Spain's wealthiest art collector and the widow of a Thyssen steel company billionaire. The president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, and his wife, Mehriban, were featured in the documents as having set up an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands, while their tw
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An article from July 2012, by the BBC - BBC News - Tax havens: Super-rich 'hiding' at least $21tn
A global super-rich elite had at least $21 trillion (£13tn) hidden in secret tax havens by the end of 2010, according to a major study.

The figure is equivalent to the size of the US and Japanese economies combined.
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recent story out of Canada related to the document leak
Document leak reveals widespread use of tax havens - The Globe and Mail
Experts believe $20-trillion to $30-trillion may be hidden in offshore tax havens to avoid detection.
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If socialist weren't so all fired up about stealing money from people who earn it or inherit it, then they wouldn't have to hide it. Maybe someone should leak all the names and addresses of all the socialist in the world, then they would have something to be worried about.
 
DVSentinel said:
If socialist weren't so all fired up about stealing money from people who earn it or inherit it, then they wouldn't have to hide it. Maybe someone should leak all the names and addresses of all the socialist in the world, then they would have something to be worried about.
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One might easily construe your post as a threat - is it?
 
Somerville said:
One might easily construe your post as a threat - is it?
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A threat of what kind?

Issuing threats is usually a useless waste of time and only tells an opponent you are coming for them. A threat over the internet to someone whom you do not even know or know how to locate other than their town (a rather large town at that) and state would just be a double useless waste of time, unless the person issuing the threat actually had the capability to track someone down via the net, a skill that I do not posses.

Interesting, though, that you feel that the release of your private data would be a threat to you, but you think it is ok for it to be done to others. What exactly does that say about you?
 
DVSentinel said:
A threat of what kind?

Issuing threats is usually a useless waste of time and only tells an opponent you are coming for them. A threat over the internet to someone whom you do not even know or know how to locate other than their town (a rather large town at that) and state would just be a double useless waste of time, unless the person issuing the threat actually had the capability to track someone down via the net, a skill that I do not posses.

Interesting, though, that you feel that the release of your private data would be a threat to you, but you think it is ok for it to be done to others. What exactly does that say about you?
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When one looks at the behaviour of a tiny minority of True Believers, the Real 'Amurricans' in this nation - yeah, I could see my address being used for nefarious purposes that could endanger my family.

The 'private data' that has been released in the instance being discussed is information which shows people and businesses violating the laws of the nations in which they claim citizenship. As I no longer have any offshore bank accounts and haven't had for at least 10 years, my name won't be found in this release of data.
 
Somerville said:
When one looks at the behaviour of a tiny minority of True Believers, the Real 'Amurricans' in this nation - yeah, I could see my address being used for nefarious purposes that could endanger my family.

The 'private data' that has been released in the instance being discussed is information which shows people and businesses violating the laws of the nations in which they claim citizenship. As I no longer have any offshore bank accounts and haven't had for at least 10 years, my name won't be found in this release of data.
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"Violating" the law? How so? Some may indeed be violating the law, others are only avoiding the law. If a business changes it's license/registration location to a better tax country, they are not "violating" the law. Other than the UCMJ, the US, nor any other country, has jurisdiction outside their own borders. A person is not "violating" a countries laws if the action, the violation, takes place outside of the sovereign areas of that country.
 
DVSentinel said:
"Violating" the law? How so? Some may indeed be violating the law, others are only avoiding the law. If a business changes it's license/registration location to a better tax country, they are not "violating" the law. Other than the UCMJ, the US, nor any other country, has jurisdiction outside their own borders. A person is not "violating" a countries laws if the action, the violation, takes place outside of the sovereign areas of that country.
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Wanna bet?


Under FATCA, certain U.S. taxpayers holding financial assets outside the United States must report those assets to the IRS,
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http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tg/rc4507/rc4507-09e.pdf

Tax residents of France must report worldwide income. Tax is calculated on the total income of the fiscal household, which includes income from a spouse, children younger than 18, and, in some cases, adult children
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