In tax evasion sentencing, a question of character SARASOTA – Before sentencing a Sarasota psychiatrist in a $15 million tax fraud case today, a federal judge will consider attorneys’ contrasting depictions of her character. Facts Court documents Click here to read court documents in the Hough case. Patricia Lynn Hough’s… – Continue reading
The world’s wealthiest people have long relied on Swiss bank accounts and international shell corporations headquartered in tax haven countries, but the total amount of money they’re hiding from the world’s tax officials has always been hard to pin down. One economist thinks he’s figured it out: Rich families are hiding at… – Continue reading
When it comes to tax, things are not always what they seem to be, as the recent news of Starbucks and Amazon shows. In a world where multinational corporations shift taxable profits to favourable jurisdictions, and sovereign nations use tax rates to improve their global competitiveness, things are not always… – Continue reading
You pay your fair share of taxes. Small businesses do too. It’s the price we pay to educate our kids, protect our communities and have some security in retirement. Why shouldn’t some of America’s largest corporations pay their fair share too? Corporations are making record profits. But 111 profitable Fortune 500… – Continue reading
It may be tax day for most Americans, but it’s still a tax holiday for those who use offshore accounts to avoid paying levies on as much as $109 billion annually back to Uncle Sam, according to Quartz. Many of the monied types keep their dollars in offshore accounts specifically to… – Continue reading
Here come the tax acronyms; FATCA, AEOI, specified US persons & the potential for a tax residence licence in your wallet alongside your driver’s licence Posted in Personal Finance April 15, 2014 – 07:22am, By Gareth Vaughan First we get FATCA then we’ll get AEOI. Apologies for the acronyms. FATCA… – Continue reading
To put it mildly, I’m not a fan of the so-called Tax Justice Network. In a moment of typical understatement, I referred to the U.K.-based group as “…a bunch of crazy Euro-socialists.” And to give you an idea of why I don’t like them, here’s some of what I wrote… – Continue reading
As much as six per cent of all world wealth is hidden in tax shelters, according to a new study ‘One per centers’ earned an average of $1.2million in 2012, the most recent year data is available for, but the top 0.01 per cent earned over $30million One per centers’… – Continue reading
I had lunch with Gabriel Zucman today, co-author of the startling new paper (pdf) showing that the concentration of wealth at the very top — the 0.1% — is fully back to Gilded Age levels.And he pointed me to another paper that flew under my, and I suspect other peoples’,… – Continue reading
In November of 2008, America was sold on the “Hopey, Changey, Yes We Can” promise of Barack Obama. Well America, your hope has been shot since you elected him into office. Now, here comes more of the change Obama was really talking about. Are you ready? On July 1, America… – Continue reading
Abstract The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) represents a powerful response by the United States to flagrant offshore tax evasion. Although the new reporting regime has been criticized as unilateral and extraterritorial, this short article, prepared for a symposium hosted by Pepperdine Law Review, shows that multilateralism and cooperation… – Continue reading
In round-tripping, U.S. investors move funds to offshore tax havens, then invest in U.S. equity and debt markets with these “foreign” funds. In essence, the U.S. investors are disguising themselves as foreign investors, who are not subject to the same tax rates on capital gains and interest income. The money… – Continue reading
To anyone who even casually monitors international agencies — such as the UN, the OECD, and the IMF — it will come as no surprise that those agencies have long wanted stable sources of funding that they could count on, rather than relying on handouts from governments around the world…. – Continue reading
Where do you stand on the issue of taxing profits earned overseas by American companies? I ask because Caterpillar (CAT) found itself on the U.S. Senate hot seat last week. There, what should have been an information-gathering hearing about offshore earnings turned into a full-blown attack on Caterpillar and its… – Continue reading
Irish Corporate Tax 2014: The Government today issued what it calls a technical paper on effective corporation tax rates to effectively confuse the public by avoiding the key issues about its facilitation of corporate tax avoidance. It’s irrelevant to the core issues as it is simply trying to divert attention… – Continue reading
Starting July 1, every international business and investment in the world is going to feel the full weight of U.S. tax law directly or indirectly. It is all part of the Congress’s long-time policy of making international business — referred to derogatorily as offshore — the scapegoat in order to… – Continue reading
If there is a demand for a good or service, whether legal or not, it will be supplied by someone. This basic fact of life is understood by most people, except for those who believe in utopia or are so power-possessed that they deny reality. All too often, attempts by… – Continue reading
A correspondent told me that last week’s column on Caribbean response to the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) was puzzling. Why didn’t the column expose those wimps – Caribbean ministers of finance and governments? How could they accept this bullying US imposition? My response was that I expressed… – Continue reading
Caterpillar channeled 85 percent of its international parts profits into what amounts to a tax shelter. The dictionary defines the caterpillar as a “wormlike larva” and a “crawler.” Also, that “pillar” part of the word is derived from a French verb that means to “pillage, abuse, mistreat.” Good to know…. – Continue reading
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Imagine you have the choice between buying your electricity from a company that has a certificate proving that it pays its UK corporation tax in a fair and transparent manner, and a company that does not have that certificate. All else being equal, which would… – Continue reading
