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The $32 Trillion Hidden Offshore Needs IRS Attention.
Wanna know where a lot of the money "lost" in the great Bankster Bailout has gone?
Check Out Who's Hiding $32 Trillion in Offshore Tax Haven Accounts
EXCERPT...
Some $32 trillion has been hidden in small island banking hubs which host a bevy of trust funds, shell corporations and other tax havens, the Tax Justice Network estimates.
SNIP...
The information is still being sifted through, even as it's being released to the public, but here's some of what's been found so far:
■American Denise Rich, ex-wife of pardoned tax cheat Marc Rich, has been uncovered as the settlor and beneficiary of two large trusts based in the tiny Cook Islands. The ICIJ found that Denise Rich gave up her American citizenship in 2012. Her citizenship was convenient enough when President Clinton had the authority to pardon her ex-husband.
■French President Francois Hollande, ardent socialist and tireless champion of the 75% marginal tax rate, appears in these documents, mostly by association. His campaign co-treasurer, Jean-Jacques Augier, has been forced to reveal the name of his Chinese business partner in a Caymans-based distribution company. Augier says he used his offshore company to make a large investment in China.
■Australian actor Paul Hogan, of "Crocodile Dundee" fame, has lost about $35.3 million from an account that he used to offshore his "bonza" film royalties. His once-trusted tax adviser Philip Egglishaw ran off with Hogan's sizeable hidden offshore stash.
■French banking scion Elie de Rothschild, of the famous banking family, has been named in the leaks. He was instrumental in setting up some 20 trusts and 10 holding companies in the Cook Islands, all extremely opaque in nature. His heirs have, not surprisingly, refused comment.
■Brigitte Bardot's third ex-husband, Gunter Sachs, a millionaire industrialist, has been revealed as the owner of a huge, obscure wealth-masking machine: trust upon shell company upon holding company, almost ad infinitum, mostly based in the Cook Islands. The ICIJ has constructed an interactive map of Sachs' extensive offshore holdings and business networks. The network is fairly representative of the steps that many on this list have taken to hide their wealth away. You can marvel at its imponderable complexity here.
And these names are barely the tip of the iceberg. The shockwaves have already begun to spread through the corridors of wealth and power all over the world.
How Much is $32 Trillion?
It bears repeating: $32 trillion has been stashed away, off the books, by corporations and wealthy individuals.
CONTINUED...
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article40250.html
Offshore loot also represents money made from trafficking in drugs, guns and people. So...what can we do about it?
On My Mind
Tax Offshore Wealth Sitting In First World Banks
James S. Henry
07.01.10, 09:00 AM EDT
Forbes Magazine dated July 19, 2010
Let's tax offshore private wealth.
How can we get the world's wealthiest scoundrels--arms dealers, dictators, drug barons, tax evaders--to help us pay for the soaring costs of deficits, disaster relief, climate change and development? Simple: Levy a modest withholding tax on untaxed private offshore loot.
Many aboveground economies around the world are struggling, but the economic underground is booming. By my estimate, there is $15 trillion to $20 trillion in private wealth sitting offshore in bank accounts, brokerage accounts and hedge fund portfolios, completely untaxed.
SNIP...
This wealth is concentrated. Nearly half of it is owned by 91,000 people--[font color="green"]0.001% of the world's population[/font color]. Ninety-five percent is owned by the planet's wealthiest 10 million people.
SNIP...
Is it feasible? Yes. The majority of offshore wealth is managed by 50 banks. As of September 2009 these banks accounted for $10.8 trillion of offshore assets--72% of the industry's total. The busiest 10 of them manage 40%.
CONTINUED....
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0719/opinions-taxation-tax-havens-banking-on-my-mind.html
Not only would that money balance the budget, erase the debt and fix the nation and world's problems from hunger and homeless to energy and education; it would free humanity to do better things than make war all the time.
20 replies
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Justice v Just-Us comes down to munee.
Wealth, Income, and Power
by G. William Domhoff
This document presents details on the wealth and income distributions in the United States, and explains how we use these two distributions as power indicators.
Some of the information may come as a surprise to many people. In fact, I know it will be a surprise and then some, because of a recent study (Norton & Ariely, 2010) showing that most Americans (high income or low income, female or male, young or old, Republican or Democrat) have no idea just how concentrated the wealth distribution actually is. More on that a bit later.
As far as the income distribution, the most striking numbers on income inequality will come last, showing the dramatic change in the ratio of the average CEO's paycheck to that of the average factory worker over the past 40 years.
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Historical context
Numerous studies show that the wealth distribution has been concentrated throughout American history, with the top 1% already owning 40-50% in large port cities like Boston, New York, and Charleston in the 1800s. (But it wasn't as bad in the 18th and 19th centuries as it is now, as summarized in a 2012 article in The Atlantic.) The wealth distribution was fairly stable over the course of the 20th century, although there were small declines in the aftermath of the New Deal and World II, when most people were working and could save a little money. There were progressive income tax rates, too, which took some money from the rich to help with government services.
CONTINUED...
http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html
Plutocracy or Police State, what's the difference?
Of course, most of us won't get much once the collapse happens, but we can dream.
Ask Frank "Lumumba n Carlyle Group" Carlucci what he's now selling:
The Really Creepy People Behind the Libertarian-Inspired Billionaire Sea Castles
The stinking rich are planning billion-dollar luxury liners that keep the land-based Americans they've plundered at a safe distance.
AlterNet / By Mark Ames
June 1, 2010
What happens when Americans plunder America and leave it broken, destitute and seething mad? Where do these fabulously wealthy Americans go with their loot, if America isn't a safe, secure, or even desirable place to spend their riches? What if they lose faith in their gated communities, because those plush gated communities are surrounded by millions of pissed-off Americans stripped of their entitlements, and who now want in?
The first such floating castle has been christened the " Utopia"--the South Korean firm Samsung has been contracted to build the $1.1 billion ship, due to be launched in 2013. Already orders are coming in to buy one of the Utopia's 200 or so mansions for sale- -which range in price from about $4 million for the smallest condos to over $26 million for 6,600 square-foot "estates." The largest mansion is a whopping 40,000 square feet, and sells for $160 million.
SNIP...
Both Thiel and Milton Friedman's grandson see democracy as the enemy--last year, Thiel wrote "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible" at about the same time that Milton Friedman's grandson proclaimed, "Democracy is not the answer." Both published their anti-democracy proclamations in the same billionaire-Koch-family-funded outlet, Cato Unbound, one of the oldest billionaire-fed libertarian welfare dispensaries. Friedman's answer for Thiel's democracy problem is to build offshore libertarian pod-fortresses where the libertarian way rules. It's probably better for everyone if Milton Friedman's grandson and Peter Thiel leave us forever for their libertarian ocean lair--Thiel believes that America went down the tubes ever since it gave women the right to vote, and he was outed as the sponsor of accused felon James O'Keefe's smear videos that brought ACORN to ruin.
SNIP...
While neither Bush nor the Bin Ladens are principals in the Frontier Group, its founding director, Frank Carlucci, is a name they know well, and you should too. Carlucci ran the Carlyle Group as its chairman from 1989 through 2005, right around the time that the wars started going undeniably bad, and floating castles started to look like a viable plan. But Carlucci's past is much weirder and scarier than most of us care to know: whether it's his strangely timed appearances in some of the ugliest assassinations and coups in modern history, or serving as Carter's number two man in the CIA, and Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Defense, if Frank Carlucci (nicknamed "Creepy Carlucci" and "Spooky Frank"
is the founding director of a firm that's building floating castles, it's a bad sign for those of us left behind.
I'll get into Carlucci's partners in the Frontier Group in a moment, but first, let's reacquaint ourselves with Frank Carlucci. From an early age, Carlucci learned the importance of getting to know the right people in the right places. He studied at Princeton in the mid-1950s, where as luck should have it, Carlucci roomed with Donald Rumsfeld. Both Carlucci and Rumsfeld shared a passion for Greco-Roman wrestling at Princeton, and both went on to serve in the Navy after Princeton. Their paths would split and merge several times over the next few decades, even as they remained close personal friends throughout their lives. In the late 1950s, Carlucci briefly served as an executive at a lingerie manufacturer, Jantzen (the Victoria's Secret of its day), but quickly left to join the State Department.
CONTINUED...
http://www.alternet.org/story/147058/the_really_creepy_people_behind_the_libertarian-inspired_billionaire_sea_castles
America is becoming like a Love Boat called the SS Tyrannic.
...didn't they?
If the sheer immorality of wealth inequality isn't enough to motivate 'the ruling class' to "...and fix the nation and world's problems from hunger and homeless to energy and education;" perhaps a stern admonishment from one of their most prominent lackeys will change their ways.
You know I'm a big fan so please excuse my early morning sarcasm/cynicism.
.
Finders keepers, see.
Don't bring this up in committee, see.
Pete Brewton's book, “George Bush, the CIA and the Mafia,” is a must-own for those interested in the workings of the Bush Organized Crime Family. Written by a former Houston Post reporter, the book documents, literally, the way the Mafia, the CIA and those connected and related to George Poppy Bush looted more than 1,000 of the nation’s Savings and Loans institutions — and pretty much got away with it, scot-free.
http://www.ringnebula.com/project-censored/1976-1992/1990/1990-story3.htm
NSA spying is a, uh, venture, see. 
Pruneface's budget guru David Stockman must've added up all the GDP and estimated the stuff from the middle ages. Whatever. His real point is that most of THAT has ended up in the pockets of the greedhead plutocrats' pockets.
In 1985, the top five percent of the households – the wealthiest five percent – had net worth of $8 trillion – which is a lot. Today, after serial bubble after serial bubble, the top five per cent have net worth of $40 trillion. The top five per cent have gained more wealth than the whole human race had created prior to 1980.” -- David Stockman, Ronald Reagan's budget director
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7009217n&tag=related;photovideo
"In 1985, the top five percent of the households, wealthiest five percent, had net worth of $8 trillion, which is a lot. Today, after serial bubble after serial bubble, the top five percent have net worth of $40 trillion," he explained. "The top five percent have gained more wealth than the whole human race had created prior to 1980." -- David Stockman
SOURCE: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/10/28/60minutes/main6999906_page4.shtml
And to think there are kids in America who would go to bed hungry every night if they had one.
[font size="2"]Sold Glory[/font size]
New Study: 82 of Top 100 Companies Used Tax Havens in 2012
Companies Hold $1.2 Trillion Offshore, Untaxed by U.S.
WASHINGTON - July 31 - With Congress considering big cuts to public programs, U.S. PIRG released fresh evidence that the vast majority of large companies are dodging taxes by stashing money in offshore tax havens. In a study of the top 100 publicly traded companies, as measured by revenue, the study reveals that 82 maintain subsidiaries in offshore tax havens. Collectively, the companies report holding nearly $1.2 trillion offshore, with 15 companies accounting for two-thirds of the offshore cash.
Download the report, “Offshore Shell Games,” here.
"When corporations use tax havens to dodge the taxes they owe, the rest of us pay the price, either through higher taxes, cuts to important programs, or a bigger deficit," said Dan Smith, U.S. PIRG Tax and Budget Advocate and report author. "It also puts small businesses without expensive tax attorneys at a big competitive disadvantage. It's time for Congress to put an end to offshore tax dodging," he added.
Every year, U.S. corporations avoid paying an estimated $90 billion in federal taxes by stashing profits in offshore tax havens. U.S. PIRG's new study shows that while most large companies use tax havens, the benefits of offshore tax loopholes are especially concentrated among a narrow set of companies.
Key findings of the report include:
Companies highlighted by the study include:
"These companies benefit from America's infrastructure, educated workforce, security, and access to the largest consumer market in the world. They should not be able to use loopholes to get out of paying for it," concluded Smith.
The report concludes that to end tax haven abuse, Congress should end incentives for companies to shift profits offshore, close the most egregious offshore loopholes, strengthen tax enforcement, and increase transparency. Such measures are included in Senator Levin's CUT Loopholes Act (S.268).
###
U.S. PIRG, the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs), stands up to powerful special interests on behalf of the American public, working to win concrete results for our health and our well-being. With a strong network of researchers, advocates, organizers and students in state capitols across the country, we take on the special interests on issues, such as product safety,political corruption, prescription drugs and voting rights,where these interests stand in the way of reform and progress.
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2013/07/31-2
New Study: 82 of Top 100 Companies Used Tax Havens in 2012
Companies Hold $1.2 Trillion Offshore, Untaxed by U.S.
WASHINGTON - July 31 - With Congress considering big cuts to public programs, U.S. PIRG released fresh evidence that the vast majority of large companies are dodging taxes by stashing money in offshore tax havens. In a study of the top 100 publicly traded companies, as measured by revenue, the study reveals that 82 maintain subsidiaries in offshore tax havens. Collectively, the companies report holding nearly $1.2 trillion offshore, with 15 companies accounting for two-thirds of the offshore cash.
Download the report, “Offshore Shell Games,” here.
"When corporations use tax havens to dodge the taxes they owe, the rest of us pay the price, either through higher taxes, cuts to important programs, or a bigger deficit," said Dan Smith, U.S. PIRG Tax and Budget Advocate and report author. "It also puts small businesses without expensive tax attorneys at a big competitive disadvantage. It's time for Congress to put an end to offshore tax dodging," he added.
Every year, U.S. corporations avoid paying an estimated $90 billion in federal taxes by stashing profits in offshore tax havens. U.S. PIRG's new study shows that while most large companies use tax havens, the benefits of offshore tax loopholes are especially concentrated among a narrow set of companies.
Key findings of the report include:
* 82 of the top 100 publicly traded U.S. companies operate subsidiaries in tax haven jurisdictions, as of 2012. All told, these 82 companies maintain 2,686 tax haven subsidiaries. The 15 companies with the most money held offshore collectively operate 1,897 tax haven subsidiaries.
* The 15 companies with the most money offshore hold a combined $776 billion overseas. That is 66 percent of the nearly $1.2 trillion that the top 100 companies report holding offshore.
* Only 21 of the top 100 publicly traded companies disclose the amount they would expect to pay in U.S. taxes if they didn't keep profits offshore. All told, these 21 companies would collectively owe more than $93 billion in additional federal taxes, which is close to the entire state budget of California. The average tax rate the 21 companies currently pay to other countries on this income is a mere 6.9 percent.
Companies highlighted by the study include:
* Bank of America: The bank reports having 316 subsidiaries in offshore tax havens – more than any other company. The bank, which was kept afloat by taxpayers during the 2008 financial meltdown, now keeps $17.2 billion offshore, on which it would otherwise owe $4.5 billion in U.S. taxes.
* Oracle: The tech giant reports having $20.9 billion stored offshore and maintaining five subsidiaries in offshore tax havens. The company disclosed that it would owe $7.3 billion in U.S. taxes on those profits if they were not offshore. Oracle currently pays a tax rate of less than one percent to foreign governments on its offshore cash, suggesting that most of the money is kept in tax havens.
* Google: The company reported operating 25 subsidiaries in tax havens in 2009, but since 2010 only discloses two, both in Ireland. During that period, it increased the amount of cash it had reported offshore from $7.7 billion to $33.3 billion. An academic analysis found that, as of 2012, the 23 no-longer-disclosed tax haven subsidiaries were still operating but that Google was choosing not to include them in its annual filings.
"These companies benefit from America's infrastructure, educated workforce, security, and access to the largest consumer market in the world. They should not be able to use loopholes to get out of paying for it," concluded Smith.
The report concludes that to end tax haven abuse, Congress should end incentives for companies to shift profits offshore, close the most egregious offshore loopholes, strengthen tax enforcement, and increase transparency. Such measures are included in Senator Levin's CUT Loopholes Act (S.268).
###
U.S. PIRG, the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs), stands up to powerful special interests on behalf of the American public, working to win concrete results for our health and our well-being. With a strong network of researchers, advocates, organizers and students in state capitols across the country, we take on the special interests on issues, such as product safety,political corruption, prescription drugs and voting rights,where these interests stand in the way of reform and progress.
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2013/07/31-2
