Tonight Iceland's prime minister stepped down from office after being exposed of tax evasion through the leak of 11.5 million confidential documents known as the Panama Papers. News organizations around the world are still pouring though the millions of documents searching for incriminating evidence. Many high profile people are implicated so far with many more to come. This leak could expose corruption among high level government officials and upper class citizens in dozens of countries. Will more world leaders be exposed through this leak? Will there more protests like those in Iceland asking for government officials to step down from office?
Hilariously, NZ's international reputation as incorruptible is falling because a few of the funds were processed by NZ lawyers and stored here (because NZ is a Tax Haven, apparently), and our PM's past history as some kind of moneyman is making things look deliberate. Particularly as the government has been pushing for non-regulation and non-taxation of international trusts for a while, while also going on about how the Govt needs more money so they have to cut social programs.
So it turns out that Iceland's PM did not in fact resign and is taking an unspecified amount of time off and will continue to chair Iceland's progressive party. [link]
"Didn't resign" in that way that means they are hoping he can quietly step away while no-one is looking later.
This will cause some anarchy.
It's interesting that (from my understanding) not many americans seem to be involved - it's unclear why. (I suspect it is probably 'American tax laws are super easy to bypass')
It's interesting that (from my understanding) not many americans seem to be involved - it's unclear why. (I suspect it is probably 'American tax laws are super easy to bypass')
I've heard that it's extremely easy to set up shell companies in certain US states such as Delaware. Americans don't need to go outside for their "offshore needs". Heck, the US is a tax haven for people from other countries.
It's interesting that (from my understanding) not many americans seem to be involved - it's unclear why. (I suspect it is probably 'American tax laws are super easy to bypass')
Yeah, just make less than $10,300, and you don't owe a cent!
Really, though, rich people here definitely do make use of offshore tax havens. I suspect they simply use other law firms than Mossack Fonseca. Different firms have different client bases.
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Vive, vale. Siquid novisti rectius istis,
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
The thing about this is that none of this is illegal because the people writing the rules are the same people doing this. But, it's clearly unethical.
Tax evasion standards vary by nation. In America if you sell business assets you get a tax cut if you reinvest the gains. If you reinvest in a phony company to make it look like you reinvested, which is what is going on in Panama, then that is tax evasion pure and simple.
You also can't afford a lot of stuff... hopefully that facetious "teachy face" wasn't some insinuation that the poor shouldn't get a pass on taxes because their sucking at the udder or some sort of other conservative nonsense. Because, I can't figure out why a statistic on poor people's tax obligations has to do with the extremely wealthy dodging taxes, when their empires are built on the backs of the government and the poor.
Tame that knee-jerk outrage, and you might have gotten the joke. Your loss.
Probably; Although GB's prim minister has now been demonstrated to have connections; it's probably a matter of time until some American gets named. Maybe Mossack Fonseca just decided not to do business with Americans... or maybe there's so much data it's going to take a while.
I'm sure there are some Americans in there. But given how wealthy America is, it's still noteworthy how few have come up.
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Vive, vale. Siquid novisti rectius istis,
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
I was going for "Recommending to hypothetical rich people a method of 'tax evasion' they're extremely unlikely to take, creating humor through the incongruity of the image".
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Vive, vale. Siquid novisti rectius istis,
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
Okay so is it shocking that the revelation that Putin basically bought places in government for his mates didn't really surprise me?
Corruption in the Russian High command. Extremely surprising
/sarcasm
Honestly I am just glad so few Americans have been implicated to be honest.
It's like Spirit said: they've got their own questionably-legal money hax and tax havens, probably.
EDIT: lol, rip in peace the dream
summary for non-Kiwis: John Key (the prime-minister of NZ) has money stored in one of these tax evasion firms, despite being a NZ citizen who really should be paying tax seeing as he's one of the richest people on the islands.
The IRS issued a statement a few days ago asking that Americans fess up before they read the panama papers. This coming as new investigation reveals more US involvement with the tax scheme than we first thought. I am really curious to see if anyone actually goes down with this ship.
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Art is life itself.
This will cause some anarchy.
It's interesting that (from my understanding) not many americans seem to be involved - it's unclear why. (I suspect it is probably 'American tax laws are super easy to bypass')
I've heard that it's extremely easy to set up shell companies in certain US states such as Delaware. Americans don't need to go outside for their "offshore needs". Heck, the US is a tax haven for people from other countries.
Really, though, rich people here definitely do make use of offshore tax havens. I suspect they simply use other law firms than Mossack Fonseca. Different firms have different client bases.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
Tax evasion standards vary by nation. In America if you sell business assets you get a tax cut if you reinvest the gains. If you reinvest in a phony company to make it look like you reinvested, which is what is going on in Panama, then that is tax evasion pure and simple.
I'm sure there are some Americans in there. But given how wealthy America is, it's still noteworthy how few have come up.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
Art is life itself.
/sarcasm
Honestly I am just glad so few Americans have been implicated to be honest.
EDIT: lol, rip in peace the dream
summary for non-Kiwis: John Key (the prime-minister of NZ) has money stored in one of these tax evasion firms, despite being a NZ citizen who really should be paying tax seeing as he's one of the richest people on the islands.
Art is life itself.