David Cay Johnston ("Perfectly Legal") on C-SPAN's WJ - 9am EDT

[Bozita]

http://www.perfectlylegalthebook.com/

Investigative Book of the Year
Chosen by Investigative Reporters & Editors, an association of 5,000 journalists
 
The book that has been PRAISED by a broad spectrum of people from Ralph Nader and Greg Palast,  to Jack Bogle, founder of Vanguard mutual funds and Lou Dobbs of CNN
 
"My favorite authority on taxes is David Cay Johnston of The New York Times, who won a Pulitzer for reporting on the terminally unsexy topic of taxes. His book "Perfectly Legal -- The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super-Rich -- and Cheat Everyone Else" is the single best work on public policy of recent years, I think."   -- Molly Ivins
 
 

[Bozita]

1. Remember the Wyly brothers?

Johnston is on C-SPAN today to discuss offshore tax shelters. His fellow NYT columnist, Floyd Norris, goes after Sam and Charles Wyly, Bush Pioneers, in today's paper.

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/08/04/business/04norris.html?ref=business

Floyd Norris
Textbook Way to Avoid Taxes, or Just Wrong


Published: August 4, 2006

A BASIC protection for American investors is that corporate executives must tell the world when they trade stock in the companies they run.

But what happens when two executives set up foreign trusts that do the trading, keep the transactions secret for years and then claim they thought everything was proper? Will the government look the other way, or will the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department seek to show that the law cannot be danced around?

The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations this week released a 370-page report with amazing detail on how some executives got around the tax laws, among them Sam and Charles Wyly, brothers and Texas entrepreneurs. They were invited to testify, but notified the committee that they would invoke their Fifth Amendment rights to avoid self-incrimination.

To explain the Wyly transactions completely would require more space than this newspaper has, let alone this column. But in summary, they transferred stock options they had received as corporate executives to foreign trusts, and got promises to be paid annuities in later years. They thus avoided paying taxes on the profits from the options, although they will pay taxes in later years as the annuities are paid.

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Here's a bit more on the sleazy bastards:

https://www.democrats.org/a/p/another_bad_batch_of_bush_money.html

Another Bad Batch of Bush Money

June 6, 2005


Washington, DC - DNC Communications Director Karen Finney released the following statement:

"The ongoing investigation into the Wyly brothers' tax evasion scheme is just the latest example of the rampant corruption that has become a trademark of Republican leadership in this country. The Wyly brothers join the ranks of Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed, and Thomas Noe as the latest Bush Pioneers to be investigated for Federal crimes. This pattern of behavior may represent the values of the Republican Party, but it doesnt represent the values of the American people."

TAXES? WE DON'T NEED TO PAY NO STINKING TAXES:
THE WYLY BROTHERS' OFFSHORE EVASION SCHEMES


Top Bush patrons Charles and Sam Wyly are under investigation for tax evasion by federal and state agencies. The Wyly brothers join the illustrious ranks of Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed and Thomas Noe to mark the 4th and 5th Bush donors raising more than $100,000 to come under federal investigations. Recently the Washington Post reported on what it called the "DeLay effect", the phenomenon of Republicans losing support due to the repeated ethics problems of their top leaders, and the worry it is causing party strategists. Rick Davis, a Republican strategist and former John McCain presidential campaign manager said, "the ethics issue is putting the party 'into a bit of troublesome water.'" With the repeated implication of Bush donors and Republican leaders in corruption investigations, Republicans have reason to worry.

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[Bozita]

2. "... more $$$ in Cayman Island banks than in NYC banks"

Incredible!

[Bozita]

3. Here's Johnston's latest column IN FULL ...

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/279591_taxevasion01.html

Tuesday, August 1, 2006

Tax cheating out of control, Senate says
By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON
THE NEW YORK TIMES

So many super-rich Americans evade taxes using offshore accounts that law enforcement cannot control the growing misconduct, according to a Senate report that singles out a Seattle company as a key player in high-level tax schemes.

Among the billionaires cited in the report are the owner of the New York Jets of the National Football League, 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.

Johnson and 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 that 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.

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