Community | August 28, 2011 | 47 comments

There is No Moral Case for Tax Havens !

source: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/08/28-1

Image
kennymotown
Great article that will arm you with the facts!

They are the epitome of unfairness and injustice, leaving ordinary citizens to foot the bill for multinational corporations

by Paul Vallely

There is a building in the Cayman Islands that is home to 12,000 corporations. It must be a very big building. Or a very big tax scam. Tax havens are in the spotlight since the Chancellor, George Osborne, did a deal the other day with the Swiss authorities to slap a levy on secret bank accounts held there by British citizens. Opinions are divided on the move, which could net the Treasury £5bn, but which tacitly legitimizes bank accounts kept secret from the Inland Revenue. It is a de facto amnesty for those guilty of tax evasion crimes. And they will pay less than they would if they declared their income to the British taxman.

Are there any legitimate reasons why anyone would want to have a secret bank account – and pay a premium to maintain their anonymity – or move their money to one of the pink dots on the map which are the final remnants of the British empire: the Caymans, Bermuda, the Turks and Caicos and the British Virgin Islands?

The moral case against is clear enough. Tax havens epitomize unfairness, cheating and injustice. They replace the old morality embodied in the Golden Rule of reciprocity – that we should do as we would be done by – with a new version that insists that those who have the gold make the rules.

The old view, the neocon American Christopher Caldwell wrote recently, subscribes to a religious understanding of money that was universal in the Christian world before the rise of Protestantism, which acknowledges that people are alive but money is not, making it wrong for the latter to take precedence over the former – a notion as outdated as usury, he suggested tartly.


But what is the moral case for tax havens? We can dispense with the argument advanced by their administrators that if they didn't take the money it would simply move to more distant locations; that is the self-serving logic of a man who sells torture equipment to an oppressive regime. Apologists insist that tax havens protect individual liberty. They promote the accumulation of capital, fair competition between nations and better tax law elsewhere in the world. They also foster economic growth. So much so, the Institute of Directors has said, that Britain should not curb tax havens but emulate them, promoting the growth of more hedge funds in the UK.

Yet even if all that were true – and it is not – does it outweigh the ethical harm they do? The numbered bank accounts of tax havens are notoriously sanctuaries for the spoils of theft, fraud, bribery, terrorism, drug-dealing, illegal betting, money-laundering and plunder by Arab despots such as Gaddafi, Mubarak and Ben Ali, all of whom had Swiss accounts frozen.

The corruption spreads contagion, as the financial writer Nicholas Shaxson showed in Treasure Islands, his book about offshore finance which exposed secrecy, corruption and intimidation in places as seemingly innocent as that land of milk and money, such as Jersey in the Channel Islands.

But the moral bankruptcy of the tax haven runs deeper. Indeed it is intrinsic to its purpose. The British Virgin Islands is the global capital for the incorporation of offshore companies. Though it has a population of just 22,000, it has 823,502 registered companies which make vast amounts of money through the wonder of transfer pricing. It works like this. Suppose I manufacture a product in Africa and sell it in the UK. If I am a canny businessman I set up an intermediate company in a tax haven. It need do nothing except exist on paper. But through it I can buy all the products I make in Africa, dirt cheap, and then sell them, at a much higher cost, to my UK subsidiary. The African and British companies do not, thus, make much profit, so I have little or no tax to pay. All the money stays offshore, where taxes are low or non-existent. This is perfectly legal. But it distorts the world economy and means I pay no tax. I can also borrow where rates are lowest and keep my costs where they are most tax deductible.

The same tax schemes in Great Britain are the same here, for the rest of the article go to the link:
  1. groups:
    Community,   Politics,   Green,   US Politics,   32 more
  2. tags:
    Economy,  Taxes,  Big Business,  Tax Shelter,  1 more
  3.     
    |

47 comments // There is No Moral Case for Tax Havens !

  • remanns
    • +2
      remanns  

    • IDEA -
      World wide minimum wage, or tariffs on imports to this country that SLAM international corps profits to right back to where it would be if they actually PAYED it,.....with a little penalty tax thrown in. Fuck-em.

    • 9 months ago
  • remanns
  • Forgotten_Echo
    • +5
      Forgotten_Echo  

    • There is a much easier way to make these offshore companies pay what they should be, much simplier than changing tax codes involving offshore monies.

      I say we bring back import tariffs on all the goods these companies want to bring into this country. All goods imported must carry documentation showing their origin as well as destination. Place tariffs on all these goods that would make it more expensive to continue making these goods overseas and then shipping here for sale.

      Of course, there are those wo seem to think that companies will simply quit importing and sell their goods else where. My question to that is, ... where?
      We are the demand that sets the supply level.

    • 9 months ago
  • kennymotown
  • remanns
  • Paratus
    • -5
      Paratus  

    • If you don't like the tax code then change it. All this is the same as cursing the darkness rather than turning on the lights. Dems held both houses and the WH for two years. Long enough to change Title 26. They didn't. You want to change it I will sign the petition with you to do so but don't whine about the "morality" of things in the code when the government makes the rules.

    • 9 months ago
  • Forgotten_Echo
    • +2
      Forgotten_Echo  
    • Paratus:

      It is really getting old the way in which so many of you Tea Party ad Republican loyalists attempt to lay blame on Democrats for getting nothing done during President Obama's first 2 years. It is funny how all of seem to have the same memory loss regarding the Republican minority in the Senate that stalled out and filibustered anything and everything.

    • 9 months ago
  • kennymotown
  • lazloman
  • crabbyoldguy
    • -4
      crabbyoldguy  
    • kennymotown:

      So Kenny, why didn't the dems modify the tax code? Could it be because they didn't want the 2010 elections to be a complete blowout with them losing both the senate and house? Maybe it was because none of the dems could file their own tax's correctly, or they were under investigation for tax fraud.

    • 9 months ago
  • wynnmeg61
    • +2
      wynnmeg61  
    • Forgotten_Echo:

      That and the "Secret Holds" were a Senator doesn't have to do anything but call the clerk and place the hold, and they never have to even put their name to the "hold" Sneaky Ugly business, but few understand it, therefore we can have the trolls out spreading falsehoods.

    • 9 months ago
  • CreditFigaro
  • crabbyoldguy
  • kennymotown
    • +3
      kennymotown  

    • The obvious reason's for higher tax rates are War spending, A lot of the Rich have gotten wealthy off WAR, while other kids go to fight and die for the RICH, the RICH have used the Infrastructure for their benefit, standing on the shoulders of the down trodden for decades the poor and the middle class have not gained in wages. I could go on, but those who have gained the most just over this recent decade are not listening. Sick BASTARDS!

    • 9 months ago
  • Cherie_Johnson
    • +4
      Cherie_Johnson  

    • If all companies who do business in a country had to keep the revenue made in that country it would seem to be hard to avoid taxes which is what globalization is all about. For instance Banks of America US would be limited to investing in the US and not be able to mingle their money with BoA UK? Same with any corporation. We have to stop the insanity. We also should have a financial transaction tax which would solve the deficit problem. They have one in the UK and it hasn't hurt a bit. Also, go back to Glass-Steagall. These guys will steal as much as they are allowed and it is our job not to allow it.

    • 9 months ago
  • kennymotown
  • Warren_Merrill
    • -6
      Warren_Merrill  

    • Are there any legitimate reasons why anyone would want to have a secret bank account – and pay a premium to maintain their anonymity – or move their money to one of the pink dots on the map which are the final remnants of the British empire: the Caymans, Bermuda, the Turks and Caicos and the British Virgin Islands?

      Answer: To keep hard earned money from an intrusive tax happy, spend happy govewrnment.

    • 9 months ago
  • kennymotown
  • SFirman
  • ThirdSection
  • kennymotown
  • Warren_Merrill
  • kennymotown
  • cmc101
  • cmc101
  • Warren_Merrill
    • 0
      Warren_Merrill  
    • cmc101:

      I support this country. I support anyone's right to be all they can be. I don't support anyone's right to be lazy and leech off the doers. This country was not founded on socialism or communism. Anyone who worships those philosophies should move to a country based on those principles. As Americans we are free to pursue happiness. You are not free to gain happiness by taking from others. If you want something go work for it. If you don't want to make yourself marketable, blame yourself for your failures. You are not entitled to anything. Cuba has free health care, education and many other free goodies. I suggest you move there.

    • 9 months ago
  • SFirman
  • cmc101
    • 0
      cmc101  
    • Warren_Merrill:

      prostitution is a very profitable adventure but i don't recommend it
      and loan sharking is also very marketable . cutting corners is very profitable also all the victims Of Irene can get their ass out of my way because they interferer with the profit making system if they can't pay for it they don't need my service .
      If we did not have socialism in the colonies the Indians would have been superior and we would lost our foot hold on this country all communities are socialist if not where is the Patriarch leader that i mist kiss his feet and pay tribute with my profitable talents.
      I own my car ,house I support my School , church , community and services and gladly pay my taxes for the betterment of my fellow citizens and my way of life and I condemn those that poison our water food and air that we can control .

      I have many friends and family that died defending, providing comfort,and safety for you Never asking what you can do for me and they did not seek marketable gain from gambling and derivatives or claim Gods divine purpose they should have it all and the others are second class citizens

    • 9 months ago
  • Lairderg
    • +8
      Lairderg  

    • If I wasn't a pacifist, I'd suggest we invade those tax havens and get the money back that was sucked away from the American worker. Then we put that money into living wage jobs. But, I am a pacifist, and we have to find another way.

    • 9 months ago
  • kennymotown
  • Warren_Merrill
  • kennymotown
  • ThirdSection
  • Warren_Merrill
  • kennymotown
  • Warren_Merrill
    • 0
      Warren_Merrill  
    • kennymotown:

      Why don't you go earn your own way and worry about yourself rather than being jealous of those who have worked harder and longer to be more accomplished and financially better of than you? The people on this board can't elevate themselves. They're jealous. The only way they can reach the top is if they tear down everyone else to their level. You will spend the rest of your life angry and failing to find peace if you continue to operate this way.

    • 9 months ago
  • kennymotown
    • +2
      kennymotown  
    • Warren_Merrill:

      Warren thats exactly where you are wrong! I am at peace with myself, it is why I must fight against those who have stacked the deck. Every Tax break has gone to the upper echelon, and if you say thats not true Bush gave you a tax cut too I'll know where you stand. I worked it out, my tax cut was a bag of grocery's under Bush while the upper end averaged 500,000 dollar tax cut. And the payroll tax cut that Obama signed on to, was pretty much the same thing while both party's have been raiding Social Security all along.
      So now we are told austerity cuts are needed cause half the debt is because of the Bush tax cuts of a decade now. I have had 2 pension funds pulled out from beneath me at this point in time because of greed and everyday I am reminded on this blog just how this mess continues. Remind me how that can be jealously, I've seen it first hand from an ex-brother in law who when he sold his dads business moved across the river into Washington to avoid the taxes five days before the end of the year, and because he did so, got a 250,000 house and his Corporate Sailboat (120,000) because of a loophole for the rich. Now thats just one example of how revenue is shifted to us at the bottom because we can't afford 300 dollar an hour tax attorney's like he could. At the same time, I overheard the same brother in law tell his nephew who had been thinking about joining the military not to do it cause thats something the poor do. Funny stuff, I've seen it first hand in that crowd since I used to sail with them. The unbelievable schemes, and the anti-patriot attitudes that just ooze from these people was a real eye opener. Somebody has to pick up the slack to keep any resemblance of a caring society. But I guess you have walked in my shoes, so you know that I must be jealous.

    • 9 months ago
  • SFirman
    • +2
      SFirman  
    • Warren_Merrill:

      Warren, I speak for myself, but I worked for 33 years and worked my way up in the company, but not to the point of being rich, but if I had ever made 250,000 in a year would have felt rich. I enjoyed what I did, so found no reason to be jealous. I just know the Bush tax cuts did not create jobs and would like them to pay their fair share before GW gave them more then they need.

    • 9 months ago
  • cmc101
  • Warren_Merrill
  • KB723
  • kennymotown
  • kennymotown
    • +10
      kennymotown  

    • Here in America the linkage of TAX CUTS and deficit spending are clearly obvious. For a decade now the Bush tax cuts have not only created NO new jobs, they have brought on this sudden need to cut Austerity programs. Even the stupid among us are waking up and demanding the Tax Cuts need to be taken away, after all even dummies are finding out Medicare is a Government program that they are on..........

    • 9 months ago
  • Richard_Wyatt
  • kennymotown
  • Cherie_Johnson
    • +5
      Cherie_Johnson  
    • kennymotown:

      The so called religeous right have perverted the Bible. Next time ask them if they accepted Jesus and the christian covenent why are they still using the old testiment for all their preaching. The new testiment is not about hate and supposedly was the lesson of Jesus coming to earth to die for our sins. Makes me think there is a lot of sinners out there using the Bible as a dodge.

    • 9 months ago
  • kennymotown
more from Community:
from the community

top videos