Pegasus Research Consortium

Money, Oil and Politics => Money... Money... Money... => Topic started by: space otter on December 28, 2017, 09:48:21 am

Title: The US becoming the world's new tax haven ?
Post by: space otter on December 28, 2017, 09:48:21 am
  learn something new every day..hummmmmmmmmm


https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/opinion-the-us-is-becoming-the-worlds-new-tax-haven/ar-BBHrlqh?li=BBnbfcN

Opinion: The US is becoming the world's new tax haven 2 / 28
 Bloomberg Bloomberg
Shira Ovide
1 hr ago

Seven years ago, the U.S. led an effort to address a problem facing governments everywhere. Each year, people manage to avoid paying an estimated $2.5 trillion in income tax -- a giant sum that could be used to combat poverty, update infrastructure or lower tax rates for law-abiding citizens.

Now, however, the U.S. is becoming one of the world’s best places to hide money from tax collectors. It’s a distinction that the country would do well to shed.

In 2009, amid growing budget deficits and a tax-fraud scandal at Swiss bank UBS AG, the Group of 20 developed and developing nations came to an agreement: They would no longer tolerate the network of havens, shell companies and secret accounts that had long abetted tax evasion. A year later, the U.S. passed the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, which required foreign financial institutions to report the identities and assets of potential U.S. taxpayers to the Internal Revenue Service.

Under threat of losing access to the U.S. financial system, more than 100 countries -- including such traditional havens as Bermuda and the Cayman Islands -- are complying or have agreed to comply.

The U.S. was expected to reciprocate, by sharing data on the accounts of foreign taxpayers with their respective governments. Yet Congress rejected the Obama administration’s repeated requests to make the necessary changes to the tax code. As a result, the Treasury cannot compel U.S. banks to reveal information such as account balances and names of beneficial owners. The U.S. has also failed to adopt the so-called Common Reporting Standard, a global agreement under which more than 100 countries will automatically provide each other with even more data than FATCA requires.

While the rest of the world provides the transparency that the U.S. demanded, the U.S. is rapidly becoming the new Switzerland. Financial institutions catering to the global elite, such as Rothschild & Co. and Trident Trust Co., have moved accounts from offshore havens to Nevada, Wyoming and South Dakota. New York lawyers are actively marketing the country as a place to park assets. A Russian billionaire, for example, can put real-estate assets in a U.S. trust and rest assured that neither the U.S. tax authorities nor his home-country government will know anything about it. That’s a level of secrecy that not even Vanuatu can offer.

From a certain perspective, all this might look pretty smart: Shut down foreign tax havens and then steal their business. That would be the kind of thinking that’s undermining America’s standing in so many areas, from trade to climate change. Instead of using its power to establish an equitable system of global governance, it’s demanding a standard from the rest of the world that it refuses to apply to itself. That isn’t leadership.



this handbasket is full find your own way to hell
Title: Re: The US becoming the world's new tax haven ?
Post by: The Seeker on December 28, 2017, 10:04:00 am
Hmmm, according to the article, this mostly occurred in 2009-2010; so why has it taken Bloomberg almost 8 years to bring this forth?
Title: Re: The US becoming the world's new tax haven ?
Post by: robomont on December 28, 2017, 11:20:22 am
Hoarding cash is another problem this country has.old people hoard,this causes declines in circulation.i understand their thought behind it.its common sense.
Thing is gov should take this into account when setting interest rates.that interest rate bump the other day was foolish imho.until wage stagnation is overcome,we have no real economy,just getting by has become the mantra for almost twenty years now.
My life and many americans should have never been born.for what,a long dragged out road to hell.why bother?
The prime of my life taken from me ,my peak earning potential years,and alot of my generation,just to be robbed of.i say,why bother!
Every day i wake up and am reminded of how sick this country has become.i dont even watch tv and rarely even leave my house,why,so i can be robbed more?
So i can covet things i know i will never attain.ive lost everything but my heartbeat so cops could live good.i hope it was worth it.life murderers is all there is in this country.success left us behind.now even hope is failing me.sorry so gloomy,its just how i feel at the moment.
Title: Re: The US becoming the world's new tax haven ?
Post by: Shasta56 on December 28, 2017, 01:06:15 pm
I haven't figured out how to avoid taxes, and I do hoard cash to a certain extent.  I don't know if I'm old.  When I was driving to Greedy every week last year, I would  stop at Wendy's for a bathroom break and coffee.  My coffee was always a "Senior Coffee," so it was free.  I didn't argue.  I also qualify for the senior discount at Movie Tavern.  On the other hand, I still work as a nurse, and I take my grandkids to the gym with me.  I also have only one white streak in my ginger mane. Am I old?  I don't  know.  Ask me again in ten years.

Shasta
Title: Re: The US becoming the world's new tax haven ?
Post by: The Seeker on December 28, 2017, 02:47:44 pm
Old is a relative concept, Robo; the mind, intellect, and soul are immortal; the meat suit is not...

I learned a long time ago to not be envious, I am not greedy, and I really don't hate anything altho I may get highly irritated at some people/things

The goal is to have that personal integrity that speaks to the people that know you, that tells them that you are honest, have morals, and keep your word

but these seem to be concepts that escape the majority of the people, especially with what they have teaching them...