AP: Panel: Offshore Tax Havens Cost Billions

[Eugene]

Panel: Offshore Tax Havens Cost Billions

By MARY DALRYMPLE
The Associated Press
Monday, July 31, 2006; 10:59 PM

WASHINGTON -- Offshore tax havens hold trillions of dollars in assets and allow
wealthy Americans to avoid paying $40 billion to $70 billion in taxes each year,
a Senate panel said in a report being released Tuesday.

The investigative subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs Committee came to that conclusion after delving for more than a year
into offshore tax evasion.

In one tax shelter, detailed in the investigators' lengthy report, $2 billion
in capital gains were sheltered from taxation in an arrangement known as POINT,
or Personally Optimized Investment Transaction, which took advantage of offshore
secrecy.

Its promoters created the tax shelter by making billions of dollars in securities
transactions to generate billions of dollars in capital losses, but the
transactions were all fake, the investigators concluded.

-snip-

Full story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/31/AR2006073101454.html

[saigon68]

1. On the FLIP SIDE seniors Canadian Prescriptions seized at Border

Guess who loves Ya Baby

Its the Awol Chimpanzee

[Amonester]

2. Anything in the name of Darth Chenious or Herr Rumdfailed in

there (yet)?

Perhaps if they dig deeper...

Poppy?? Uncle Bucky?? Who else?

K&R

[Rex]

3. Hey thats about how much the federal gummit spends on edcutaion.

Ever yer. Hotdam.

[aquart]

4. So outlaw them. Unless they already are.

I once had a boss who sent me for a walk when he was dealing with his clients' hidden bank accounts in Switzerland or the Channel Islands. That was a long time ago. I don't know what the law is now.

[hang a left]

5. NYT:Tax Cheats Called Out of Control

Tax Cheats Called Out of Control


By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON
Published: August 1, 2006

So many superrich Americans evade taxes using offshore accounts that law enforcement cannot control the growing misconduct, according to a Senate report that provides the most detailed look ever at high-level tax schemes.

Among the billionaires cited in the report are the owner of the New York Jets football team, Robert Wood Johnson IV; the producer of the “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” children’s show, Haim Saban; and two Texas businessmen, Charles and Sam Wyly, who the Center for Public Integrity found in 2000 were the ninth-largest contributors to President Bush.

Mr. Johnson and Mr. Saban, who are portrayed as victims in the report, are scheduled to testify today before the Senate Permanent Investigations subcommittee. They are expected to say that professional advisers assured them their deals to avoid taxes were more likely lawful than not. The Wyly brothers told the committee that they would invoke their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and thus were not called to testify. The report characterizes them as active participants in tax schemes.

Cheating now equals about 7 cents out of each dollar paid by honest taxpayers, as much as $70 billion a year, the report estimated.

“The universe of offshore tax cheating has become so large that no one, not even the United States government, could go after all of it,” said Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat whose staff ran the investigation.

snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/01/business/01tax.html?hp&ex=1154491200&en=e09ef4772e1f3fdd&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Captain Hilts]

6. What they need is a tax break! nt

[Nickster]

16. LoL, exactly what I was thinking! n/t

[msongs]

7. can I refuse to testify somewhere by threaten to take the fifth?????

like if a grand jury calls me, or jury duty, or I get arrested for some false charge?

these guys should be FORCED to take the fifth in public in the view of cameras and photogs.

the rich have special rules and favors.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/howarddean2008.htm

[Rex]

8. That's okay boys, just guard the rich and their affairs.

Stick to the war on drugs which they also control. :eyes:

[mntleo2]

9. Sooooo, Then They Lay Off All Those IRS Lawyers?

These are the ones who are supposed to invstigate and bring chargesagainstthe wealthy. However they retained the lawyers who go after the poor for having the audacity to actually file an Earned Income Credit.

What a bunch of pigs!

Cat In Seattle

[elehhhhna]

10. THIS is a story that's been BEGGING for a GOOD, DEEP INVESTIGATION.

It's late now, so I'll fill in some shocking-ish details tomorrow. nighty night DUers!

[Up2Late]

11. Well DUH! When CONgress cuts the IRS's operating budget...

...so far that they have to lay off most of their investigators, and the same congress continues, every year, to make the Tax code more and more complicated (which adds more and more loop holes big enough to drive a HUMMER through), ya think the super Rich might see an opportunity to cheat?

Yeah, I think so too.

If you want to see the depth of the problem, check out this Feb. 19, 2004 FRONTLINE documentary called

"Tax Me if You Can"

<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/tax/>

It's absolutely mind blowing.

[lostnfound]

12. Saban is a big Democratic contributor

Of course it's fine to go after him but be forewarned if targets end up being quite selective or imbalanced.

As an irrelevant side note, the Wyly brothers founded Green Mountain Energy, and Michael's.

[truthisfreedom]

13. so do it. or else.

[truthisfreedom]

14. i say hang them all. we need a good hanging in this country.

a good DEMOCRATIC hanging.

[melm00se]

15. I know the flat tax is

anathema, but enacting it would, I believe, chew into those numbers pretty quickly

[Lochloosa]

17. The Flat Tax is BS. Period. N/T needed.

[Lochloosa]

18. Interesting little tidbit about the * and the vice *

http://www.globalpolicy.org/nations/launder/regions/2004/0716gimmeshelter.htm

President Bush, who has said he disapproves of U.S. companies setting up subsidiaries in tax havens, was a director of a Texas oil company when it decided to do just that. In 1989, Harken Energy Corp. set up Harken Bahrain Oil Co. in the Cayman Islands to oversee a drilling contract with the government of Bahrain. When questioned about it by reporters, Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett said the president had no recollection of the matter. Vice President Dick Cheney was also a big fan of locating subsidiaries in tax havens during his days as CEO of Halliburton Corp. An analysis of Halliburton's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission by watchdog group Citizen Works showed that while Cheney was CEO of Halliburton between 1995 and 2000, the number of subsidiaries the company operated in tax havens rose from nine to 44.

[DiverDave]

19. Nothing to see here, move along.

there will be no indictment's, no "official" investigation...these assholes put pennies out to the whores in the senate and congress, and save millions.
Remember France in 1789...

[blue collar welder]

20. This is just one more reason

for all of us to get behind the FAIRTAX plan.I've talked a bit about this in some other post and I know alot of people think this is some big RW scam. Off shore accounts hold TRILLIONS in assests and we are getting ripped off by the rich SOB's that hide their money there. Thats about 40-70 BILLION that my school system could use or any other Gov.program could use.

[OKNancy]

21. We think it's a right wing scam....

because it is. Under that sort of system, blue collar people are hurt the most.

[elehhhhna]

22. The dirt on the BA & personal offshore (tax-avoidance) bank acccounts;

The Clinton Admin JD sued Mastercard, Visa, etc. for records of citizens with offshore credit-card accounts (say, a Bank of Cayman Visa cardholder). Offshore bank credit cards are the easiest way to use hidden income, bar none.

The US DOJ got the lists after MUCH legal wrangling. The CC co's claimed they don't know the names of their cardholders--just the issuing bank & acct. number. A BIG FAT LIE. They sure can find you when your payment's late, right? The Judge had a FIT and they lost.

DOJ got the records. A 2 year "offshore personal acct tax amnesty" was announced in '99 or '00. In that time anyone could REFILE tax forms, report & claim the income, pay the tax and interest--penalty free, including NO PROSECUTION. UpMeanwhile amnesty promted the remittance of buhzillions of dollars to the IRS. SO far, so good.

Fast forward to the Bush Administration. Guess what? The investigation program has been DROPPED, STOPPED, and BURIED.

Caymanians (it's one of about 30 tax-haven countries) will tell you that the names on these personal & trust accounts , if released, would spark a revolution. Religios, sports, political, entertainment, big-biz, you name it--the names on those accounts are very, very , VERY familiar.


This story needs a good investigative journalist, pronto.

[underpants]

23. Its all them welfare recipients I'll bet

:grr:

:sarcasm:

[farmbo]

24. Scoundrels! Moneygrubbers! We'll show them. We'll cut their (estate) taxes

Had enough?

:grr:

[FreeStateDemocrat]

25. NYT:Tax Cheats Called Out of Control (Super rich)

By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON
Published: August 1, 2006
So many superrich Americans evade taxes using offshore accounts that law enforcement cannot control the growing misconduct, according to a Senate report that provides the most detailed look ever at high-level tax schemes.

Senator Carl Levin discussed tax abuses at a briefing Monday in Washington. Cheating accounts for as much as $70 billion a year.
Among the billionaires cited in the report are the owner of the New York Jets football team, Robert Wood Johnson IV; the producer of the “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” children’s show, Haim Saban; and two Texas businessmen, Charles and Sam Wyly, who the Center for Public Integrity found in 2000 were the ninth-largest contributors to President Bush.

Mr. Johnson and Mr. Saban, who are portrayed as victims in the report, are scheduled to testify today before the Senate Permanent Investigations subcommittee. They are expected to say that professional advisers assured them their deals to avoid taxes were more likely lawful than not. The Wyly brothers told the committee that they would invoke their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and thus were not called to testify. The report characterizes them as active participants in tax schemes.

Cheating now equals about 7 cents out of each dollar paid by honest taxpayers, as much as $70 billion a year, the report estimated.

“The universe of offshore tax cheating has become so large that no one, not even the United States government, could go after all of it,” said Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat whose staff ran the investigation. (cont'd)

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/01/business/01tax.html?hp&ex=1154491200&en=e09ef4772e1f3fdd&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[DoYouEverWonder]

26. So when is someone going to indict

these greedy pigs?

[dkofos]

32. When we elect 300 independents to the house

and 75 independents to the Senate.

Or HELL freezes over.

Whichever comes first

[havocmom]

27. And IRS got rid of a lot of the lawyers who went after rich tax cheats

Any questions?

[mom cat]

31. Just in case they don't get the inheritance tax extended, they will

make it up by cheating more, with Bush's blessings..

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

28. Here's how it's gonna work:

There is a lot more of us than there is of them. They give to the repukes bigtime, too. So the maladministration will audit more bartenders, waitresses, taxi drivers and sub-contractors, not to mention small businesses and let these guys slide.

It's just good bidness for the super-rich and the repukes.

Watch and see.

[mainegreen]

29. My mantra: kill the rich who don't give back.

But evidently that's too radical or amoral or whatever.

Seems justified to me.

[daleo]

30. They're not out of control, they are in control

In control of the government.