How the US super-rich 'dodge' taxes

[deadparrot]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - If you had a billion dollars in the bank and lived a jet-set lifestyle out of a string of luxury homes filled with valuable artworks, your taxes would be pretty hefty, right?

Well not entirely, according to a Senate probe that has examined hundreds of documents and issued 74 subpoenas as it turns a spotlight on the murky tax dealings of some of America's richest citizens.

The Senate's subcommittee on investigations has spent a year tracking the finances of several billionaires and discovered they funnelled hundreds of millions of dollars to tiny Caribbean islands and the Isle of Man.

Named in a subcommittee report are Robert Wood Johnson IV, the owner of the New York Jets American football team, Haim Saban, the billionaire behind the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers TV show, Texan tycoons Charles and Sam Wyly and telecoms entrepreneur Walter Anderson.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/ustaxprobepeople

[dbackjon]

1. And yet they still claim an estate tax is so unfair

To the Super Wealthy.


More like, just getting back what they really owe.

[Finder]

2. Estate taxes do not affect the super rich...

since most of their assets are not taxable.

[spag68]

3. Estate and other taxes

It,s my understanding that approximately 8000 millionaires paid no taxes last year. Surprisingly that is also the number of estates subject to the estate tax.

[Solo_in_MD]

4. Given the arcane structure of the tax code this does not surprise me

We really need to revamp the tax code. The current effort, based largely on incentivizing behaviors, is an overly complex failure. Not advocating the Forbes Fair tax or even the flat tax, but a simple and fair progressive levy. Its well overdue.

[elehhhhna]

7. Here's a doozy:

"Saban blamed his tax advisors for the transactions, telling Senate investigators, "You have a very disappointed person, who feels misled, lied to, cheated." "

I call baloney. One has to sign a massive, several page confidentiality agreeement with these accounting firms before they even TALK to you about most offshore vehicles. THAT should be a CLUE.

[elehhhhna]

5. HOT DAMN, BOUT TIME. Read this post from July:

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

Offshore bank-issued credit cards are the easiest way to spend hidden income without much chance of detection.

Back in the last century, Bill Clinton's DOJ & IRS sued Mastercard, Visa, etc. for all records of U.S. citizens with personal (or trust) offshore credit-card accounts (example: a Bank of Cayman Visa cardholder).

The US DOJ got the lists after MUCH legal wrangling. The CC co's claimed on appeal that they didn't know the names of their own cardholders--just the issuing banks & acct. number. Obviously that's 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. During that time one could REFILE tax forms, report & claim the income, and pay the tax and interest--penalty free, including NO PROSECUTION. This amnesty program prompted the remittance of many, many dollars to the IRS. So far, so good. Since the BA took over, there's been no news on this.

Caymanian bank employees (it's only one of about 30 tax-haven countries, fyi) will tell you NOTHING , EXCEPT that the names on these personal & trust accounts , if released, would spark riots, if not a revolution. Religioun, sports, political, entertainment, big-biz, known criminals, you name it--the names on those accounts are very, very , VERY familiar.

This story needs a good investigative journalist, pronto.

[spag68]

6. Forbes

Instinctively I'm against anything proposed by this robber baron.

[elehhhhna]

8. k&r

[elehhhhna]

9. KICK

[Blue_Tires]

10. sadly, this has been going on for years

and we can only expect more of this when the rich fucks saw what Ken Lay was able to get away with.....

the time will come when there is more cash in shady offshore accounts than there is in the U.S. treasury