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Super-Rich Tax Cheats
The disgruntled Liechtenstein man who ratted out super-rich tax dodgers and sold the stolen information to the US and a few other countries lives in hiding and has $10 million bounty on his head (that was only to be expected...). Did he pay any tax on the millions of dollars and euros he made selling this information? I seriously doubt it.
American News Project: They hide an estimated $100 billion a year from the IRS, but now the U.S. Senate is turning up the heat on super-rich tax cheats. The man who ratted out some of these tax dodgers now lives in hiding and has a $10 million bounty on his head. This is a story straight out of our new Gilded Age -- one of billionaires, foreign bankers, corruption, secrecy and, of course, greed. The disgruntled Liechtenstein man who ratted out super-rich tax dodgers and sold the stolen information to the US and a few other coun... more -
The broken promise of America: betrayal by America's rich
Who's paying the price for America's growing income gap? In the United States it is the richest among us who are most assuredly and solely benefiting, while the U.S. economy consistently fails over 30-million hard-working Americans primarily with substandard wages.
The U.S. government rigs the tax codes and contorts the laws specifically to over-burden the working classes while making the wealthiest in the United States more and more wealthy. The top one percent garners about 80% of all income gains. It is an extremely "lop-sided" system designed by the rich of this nation to benefit primarily the wealthiest top one-percent of our nation--particularly the top one-tenth of those wealthiest "one-percenters."
The working classes are simply and efficiently over-taxed to sure economic death working as much as 6 months out the year to pay "their" taxes, while the rich pay (as a percentage) MUCH less than their fair share. Is it fair that the wage earners are held to report literally ALL their income while the rich are exempted? Is it fair that American "corporations" (which the rich control with iron-clad fists) are shipping jobs, assets and intellectual property off-shore just as fast as they can?
The insolence and audacity of the rich to frame their own ideas exclusively in terms of purely "raw commercial value," serves as the primary excuse avoiding very real and generations-neglected social obligations and responsibilities to this nation--namely "to make society a more valuable place, to create involved participants...to form a more perfect union, to promote justice, to provide the common defense, to provide domestic tranquility, to provide for the COMMON wealth (the general welfare)--those are the reasons we created this country, and those should be the focus of our policies...but if our policies are merely pecuniary...then we're going to go down the wrong path." [quoting David K. Johnston, New York Times]
A devastating cast-like system is materializing in the United States at the behest of the rich who would have us remain ignorant or intentionally misled and deluded from the startling reality that is befalling hard-working Americans today... Who's paying the price for America's growing income gap? In the United States it is the richest among us who are most assur... more -
The luxury of taxing the poor
Are taxes being levied fairly when it comes to the rich and the poor?
PBS NOW correspondent David Brancaccio investigates and finds that, for the rich and those doing their bidding in government, their obstinance is their bliss. Many states are providing corporate welfare on massive scales to big business interests in the context of "providing jobs" that do very little to alleviate crippling poverty in the communities they exploit with staggeringly inadequate wages and benefits--and this even after decades within those very communities their presence was expected to improve.
While most of the rich carefully concern themselves about which set of new clubs may best improve their golf game, working class families are irresponsibly left to teeter on the edge of complete destruction for the privilege of footing the bills for so many of those very luxuries the rich enjoin for themselves.
It is a fact that growing numbers ***within the United States*** are barely subsisting, often in poor conditions, and often going hungry without food, and without so many of just the basic "necessities" most of us take for granted every day. (Perhaps you should read that again.)
Watch and learn about reality in the land in of the "free", because if it's true you may not be rich, you certainly are paying for it. Are taxes being levied fairly when it comes to the rich and the poor? ... more -
Hundreds of super rich under investigation
Hundreds of rich Americans whose names and secret foreign bank account information were turned over to US tax authorities could face criminal prosecution. A Senate committee is scheduled to convene tomorrow and among those called to testify are foreign bank account holders, including one of the wealthiest men in Los Angeles.
Are America's wealthiest citizens cheating the government out of billions?
48 year-old Peter Lowy and his family own the giant Westfield shopping center fortune and will control the retail space in the rebuilt World Trade Center in New York. Bob Bennett, a lawyer for Lowy, who is a prominent contributor to both Democratic and Republican candidates, told ABC News that Lowy's name was on the list of secret accounts from a Liechtenstein bank but that Lowy did nothing wrong.
Bennett said Lowy is out of the country tomorrow and will not be available to testify. Hundreds of rich Americans whose names and secret foreign bank account information were turned over to US tax authorities could face c... more -
IRS seeks names of 20,000 Swiss bank clients
Federal authorities asked a federal court on Monday to force UBS, the Swiss banking giant, to turn over the names of wealthy American clients suspected of evading taxes through secret offshore accounts.
The request, from the Justice Department, is part of a widening federal investigation into the private banking services offered by UBS to Americans. While that investigation has centered on a former top UBS private banker, Bradley Birkenfeld, an American, it is rapidly broadening to include bank clients.
The request was made in court papers filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami by R. Alexander Acosta, the top federal prosecutor in Florida. The papers are related to the separate criminal case against Mr. Birkenfeld, who pleaded guilty last month to a single fraud charge and is cooperating with investigators.
The investigation threatens to peel back layers of Swiss banking secrecy, a tradition that began in the Middle Ages.
It also increasingly promises to put UBS, the world’s largest private bank, on a collision course with American prosecutors and regulators, who argue that Swiss secrecy laws do not apply to American clients who were sold UBS services.
UBS said in a statement that it was aware of the request, known as a John Doe summons, and that “UBS takes this matter very seriously and is working diligently with both Swiss and U.S. government authorities, consistent with Swiss law and the legal frameworks for intergovernmental cooperation and assistance.”
A federal judge could rule on the request as early as this week, according to people briefed on the matter. Approval of the request could open the floodgates to a flow of information about offshore tax evasion.
Douglas H. Shulman, the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, said in a statement: “We will be taking additional steps to ferret out offshore tax avoidance beyond today’s announcement involving UBS. If service of the John Doe summons is approved, the I.R.S. will pursue people and advisers identified through the summons process who use offshore bank and financial accounts to circumvent their tax responsibilities.”
UBS is considering whether to turn over to the United States authorities the names of as many as 20,000 American clients as part of the criminal investigation, but it is grappling with pressure from Swiss banking and legal circles not to betray Swiss confidences. Unlike in the United States, tax evasion is legal in Switzerland. Tax fraud, however, is not.
Prosecutors suspect that UBS helped American clients stash $20 billion overseas in secret offshore accounts, evading $300 million or more in taxes. Federal authorities asked a federal court on Monday to force UBS, the Swiss banking giant, to turn over the names of wealthy American ... more -
Save our SNIPES!: Denzel and Woody Try to Keep Wesley from Prison
Snipes was too busy betting on black I guess to pay his taxes--unfortunately, this game of ROULET didn't work out in his favour. NOW, his credibly fantastic friends like Woody Harrelson, Denzel Washington and the somewhat Honorable JUDGE Joe Brown are coming to his defense.
I like Woody's words best: ""Wes took the time to discuss and dissect the issue of racism. ... He strives for rightness in all his relations and I realized early on what a true citizen of the world Wes is. ... it is an honor to call Wes my brother."
I guess White men can jump to the aid of their 'brothers' in need... Snipes was too busy betting on black I guess to pay his taxes--unfortunately, this game of ROULET didn't work out in his favour. ... more
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Tax Evasion
