Massive Data Leak Reveals How the Ultra Rich Hide Their Wealth 893
bshell writes "According to the CBC, there was a massive leak of 'files containing information on over 120,000 offshore entities — including shell corporations and legal structures known as trusts — involving people in over 170 countries. The leak amounts to 260 gigabytes of data, or 162 times larger than the U.S. State Department cables published by WikiLeaks in 2010...In many cases, the leaked documents expose insider details of how agents would incorporate companies in Caribbean and South Pacific micro-states on behalf of wealthy clients, then assign front people called "nominees" to serve, on paper, as directors and shareholders for the corporations — disguising the companies' true owners.' Makes a good read and there are some good interactive components. Perhaps Slashdot readers can figure out how the source of the leak, the D.C.-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists got their hands on this data."
Translation ... (Score:2, Insightful)
Self entitled wealthy bastards go to great lengths to avoid paying taxes. Nobody at all is surprised.
Hypocrisy (Score:5, Insightful)
We have no problem asking service men and women to sacrifice time with their families, their personal well being and their lives...all under the banner of patriotism. Yet when we ask the wealthy to sacrifice for their country in the form of simply paying their taxes they hide it in off shore accounts and attack those who question this as "redistributors".
Blow the whistle and blow it loud on these cringing cowards.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lawrence_lessig_we_the_people_and_the_republic_we_must_reclaim.html
Who cares how they got their hands on it? (Score:5, Insightful)
In this case I'd have to say, "who care how they got their hands on this data" and hope they do more work like this.
Eat the rich.
Ever watch CNBC hosts talk about this? (Score:4, Insightful)
You'd think a guy moving his accounts offshore for the tax break had just been awarded the Medal of Honor! It's a badge of honor to a lot of people that you avoid paying taxes by any means necessary.
Re:Who cares how they got their hands on it? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd even take it a step farther : I hope that we never find out how they got their hands on this data, whoever they are.
Just so long as they keep doing good works, I for one hope they stay anonym- ... *ahem* under the radar
Take it (Score:5, Insightful)
Nice to know but... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:SHOCKING (Score:5, Insightful)
Well yes, we've always known that they do, but now we have some of their names, along with where the money is and how it got there, and in some cases, at least, it's pretty clear that some nations' domestic taxation and monetary laws were violated in the process of moving money to offshore accounts. With that information, the taxation authorities of a number of sovereign states can either a. swoop in and seize the money from offshore accounts or b. simply seize domestic assets to make up for the taxes owed.
Of course, few if any taxation authorities will do that, because, at the end of the day, most of them probably already had the information, but are either complicit or too cowed to move in.
Re:Translation ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Most of the strategies outlined in TFS are illegal, so your point is moot. Plus there are plenty of people like me who pay ~$30,000 in federal taxes (on top of other state and local taxes), but could never afford the legal and accounting team necessary to create such elaborate tax-evasion schemes. In short, it's yet again the middle class that gets fucked.
Re:Translation ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Intelligent people go to great lengths to avoid having to pay more tax than they are legally obliged to. But if you're poor you don't pay much tax at all, so what the hell are you complaining about? You're using the same roads, bridges, schools and hospitals. All for a few hundred bucks a year.
I guess what you don't understand, Dunbal, is the difference between legal/illegal and right/wrong.
Re:SHOCKING (Score:5, Insightful)
Shakespeare had a solution for that.
Re:Hypocrisy (Score:3, Insightful)
Whoa bub, hold up with the WE. I was against every single action that has sent a single pair of boots overseas. I have never asked them for anything, and generally..... don't see how murdering people around the world is serving this country at all.
I may live here, I may have been born here, and I grudgingly pay taxes here, but I have not asked them to do anything. in fact, I wish they would wise up and stop volunteering to go help these rich people make more money.
Re:Political aftermath (Score:5, Insightful)
The biggest question I have, now that the general public is also aware of how the ultra rich "hide" their money (and oftentimes to avoid taxation):
What are the politicians going to do to address these loopholes?
Oh you mean the politicians who are likely using said loopholes? What the fuck do you think will happen?
We'll be reading about this in much the same way we read about justice and change after the financial meltdown of 2008. Not a fucking thing will change, and not a single greedy corrupt bastard will be punished.
Not. One.
Re:SHOCKING (Score:5, Insightful)
As I said, they are cowed. If they accepted the cases could drag on for years, and pursued them against a substantial fraction of super-rich tax evaders, the ultimate effect would to chill the desire to evade taxes. It would cost significant amounts of money to begin with, but we're talking about hundreds of billions of dollars apparently nestled in offshore accounts here, so I think the prize is worth the effort. That some crimes are tough to prosecute doesn't mean they shouldn't be prosecuted.
Re:Translation ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Remember (Score:5, Insightful)
Some people just don't want to pay taxes.
Most people want to pay only the minimum amount of taxes that they are legally required to pay. Jackson/Hewitt and HR Block base their entire businesses on this.
Most people talk a good talk about how taxes do so much for everyone and are such a wonderful thing, but they are usually referring to taxes paid by other people and not themselves. Very few of these people add a few hundred dollars to their tax payments just to help promote the general welfare, etc.
Re:Translation ... (Score:2, Insightful)
So you're saying it's ok for people who have a lot more money to not have to give back more to allow progression of our social system? I find these people who avoid taxes through schemes like this to be hypocrits. They flourish from the same social system and turn their backs on them by no giving back into the system.
Re:Hypocrisy (Score:4, Insightful)
Since these folks enjoy the same public roads, military, police and fire protection, etc as everyone else, then they can help pay for them. Otherwise, they're just mooching off the public good. If it's too much to ask, they can move to some godforsaken island and fend for themselves. Libertarianism cuts both ways --- if you don't want to pay for the FDA, fine, but don't complain when your family members die from tainted medicine.
More succinctly (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Translation ... (Score:2, Insightful)
Intelligent people go to great lengths to avoid having to pay more tax than they are legally obliged to.
and the richer you are, the more lengths you have available to you, including lengths inconceivable to "normal" people and lengths to conceal those lengths because they're intelligent enough to know if everybody knew what lengths they went to, people would take lengths to prohibit those lengths as a matter of fairness and common sense.
But if you're poor you don't pay much tax at all, so what the hell are you complaining about?
that "much tax at all" counts a whole lot when you're poor. a nickel in sales tax may not seem much to you, but try being broke. and since they can't afford those "lengths" that rich people can (tax attorneys, offshore accounts, golf club memberships, politicians, tax-free loopholes masquerading as "incentives") the poor pay in full. Seriously. the more money you have, the more breaks you get handed to you.
Progressive tax or no, it always sucks to be poor. so, a little sympathy/humility, please. work at a food bank. visit a poor neighborhood. shop at an Aldi. volunteer at a hospital. read a book by Dickens. learn something.
Total Story with More to Come! (Score:5, Insightful)
Problem is, you'll need to get money into your account somehow. To do so will take a wire transfer that the IRS will be notified about. Going the other direction would also take a wire transfer, that the IRS will be notified about.
Your "non-story" assertion is a bit short sighted from what I know ... if you divert all your income to Ireland or the Netherlands you can get it there nearly tax free. What you perceive as a hard time getting your money to the states is trivial if you find someone who will accept those accounts as collateral for you to borrow against. Oftentimes, the rate of the loan is lower than what you would lose getting hit with capital gains taxes in the US. On top of that, you can put that money in Ireland into a highly rated international fund to cut that loan rate down. Just because you had enough money, you get to skirt tax law enacted by our democratically elected politicians. Congratulations, you're a dick and I'm sure you can blame the socialists and "the system" for forcing you to do this and I'm sure you'll ask me if I donate extra money when I'm doing my taxes -- I don't. But I sure the hell don't tell my employer that I actually have accounts in Grand Cayman and they'll be moving 75% of my paycheck there for me and I'll take 25% of it here so I get a huge rebate for living below the poverty line while building bigger assets in the Caribbean.
... I can't wait for the bean counters to poor over all this data and find some of the other pieces [businessweek.com]. Either give me and every other equal citizen the same rights to avoid taxes or shut this crap down.
These offshore accounts? This is just one piece of a very large puzzle
Re:Remember (Score:5, Insightful)
And many would like to pay next to nothing and still enjoy all the benefits of a functioning democracy.
We call those people freeloaders.
Re:Hypocrisy (Score:1, Insightful)
Respect those who fought so that you could grudgingly be a citizen. Honor those who died for your ability to even write this post.
Re:Translation ... (Score:5, Insightful)
You're using the same roads, bridges, schools and hospitals.
No, I'm not:
- A lot of the very rich people don't use roads and bridges very much. For example, Paul Krugman relates driving in for a meeting in New York with some banker types, and making small talk commented on how bad the traffic was. The bankers were confused, because they'd gotten to the meeting by helicopter. If they do use the road, it's a good guess that they have a chauffeur doing the driving.
- They absolutely don't use the public school system. Their kids are likely to attend exclusive and expensive boarding schools.
- They may be in the same hospital building, but they get very different treatment from what you or I get. That's because your average Joe is as valuable to a hospital as his insurance policy, but a rich guy is worth far more.
Re:It is as if there is no law (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure it can! If anything, it will end far, far worse.
You forget, laws don't apply to the upper caste the same way as with us proles. With this many upper caste members looking bad, this will either get swept under a rug and never spoken of again (this is the outcome you WANT to happen), or new laws will be written making what they're doing perfectly legal.
But don't worry, we will MAYBE see one or two people who take the fall, so that all of us peons can think that "the system works", and that justice is being done. Whichever of the 1% is the least in favour with the rest of the 1% will likely be the ones who 'take a bullet for the team'. Those few who go down will naturally live in the cushiest, most opulent of conditions for their "prison", if they even get that. After that's over, we will hear nothing more of this, and the system will not change even slightly.
Safe bet that there WILL be laws written in the future to protect the upper caste against problems occuring again though. So you're right... this cannot end well. For the 99%. Bad things don't happen to the vast, vast, vast majority of the upper caste, unless they need a sacraficial lamb (such as the few who will take the fall above). Bad things are for the peasants.
Re:Translation ... (Score:5, Insightful)
People who took risks generally prefer to be rewarded when those risks pay off.
And if they are a bank circa 2008, they prefer to push the losses on the taxpayer when the risks don't pay off.
Re:Translation ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Ever watch CNBC hosts talk about this? (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course it is. They are avoiding theft of their property.
Oh, please. You do realize that without the "theft" of taxes, the only property you could own is that which could personally defend, which in the case of civilization's truly wealthy means virtually all of it. I don't like taxation any more than the next guy, but the idea that the uber-wealthy are "avoiding theft" by evading the taxes that ultimately enable and protect their ability to accumulate disproportionate wealth is pure nonsense.
Re:Hypocrisy (Score:1, Insightful)
FTFY. It's still a crime, but let's not be Obamas and Warrens, claiming that the government owns everything and you only have wealth because they let you.
Re:Translation ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Remember (Score:4, Insightful)
If you are taking in 40% of the income of the entire nation, you should expect to pay 40% of the tax of that entire nation.
From here [ntu.org], for 2009 the top 1% by percentile paid 36.73% of the income taxes. The top 50% paid 97.75%.
That's not exactly what you said, so let's look here [taxfoundation.org] for 2010. From table 1, we see that the top 10% of filers earned 45% of the total income collectively and paid 71% of the income taxes. That's much more than your 40%/40% ratio.
The top 1% paid an average rate of 23.39%. Not 0%, not 15%. They had 18.9% of the total income but paid 37.4% of the income tax revenues. Almost double what a flat tax would have cost them. And even though they didn't make 40% of the wealth, they paid almost 40% of the taxes.
Re:Translation ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Do their employees also take a helicopter to work? Do businessmen have to train their employees from scratch in basic reading, writing, and arithmetic skills? Does each company have to have its own set of on-staff doctors to avoid having the entire company out sick with the Plague?
Even if the owners don't personally use the services, they benefit immensely from having them available to the general public, who ultimately become their employees and customers.
Ah but (Score:5, Insightful)
When I report my income, do I really report all my income or is much of the real income available to me hidden in deferrals, tax free municipals, etc? I'm not rich, but I can assure you even my reported income is very different from the real income with the difference mostly in the ability to defer income on investments (iBonds, IRA, 401K, etc.)
Every businessman I know writes off things which personally benefit him be it the yacht (qualifies as a second home), the vacation place, the golf club, the charity deduction (designed to provide positive exposure for his business), the gas for his truck, the company car he commutes in, etc.
The poor have no such investments or write-offs. So their reported matches the real.
I filed my taxes the other day, I was shocked at the low % amount of tax relative to even reported income.
So I question the stats of tax paid versus income percentages because if one of those figures isn't the same (real) for all the strata being compared, you get a very false picture.
Re:It is as if there is no law (Score:5, Insightful)
this. The wealthy have freedom to keep their money and generally do with it as they wish. Same as they have school choice, can avoid the TSA, stay out of prison, etc. Different rules for them.
The middle and lower classes live under an oppressive regime that largely keeps them this way, to the benefit of the wealthy. Both the wealthy and the politcal classes are quite satisfied with this state of affairs.
Re:More succinctly (Score:4, Insightful)
Ownership is not a productive act. Labor is productive. What you are describing is rent seeking.
Re:It is as if there is no law (Score:2, Insightful)
LOL.
No, seriously. You are the only one in this conversation that is brainwashed enough to believe that a magical parchment gives you any power against the people who interpret the parchment. Constitution schmonstitution, if they want you in a cage, that's where you'll find yourself waving your fist at a cloud while you get penetrated by Bubba. You know this, and you hate it, because it's the truth.