Swiss Banks Making Concessions On Secrecy

Aryabhata writes in with news that should chill the hearts of evil dictators and tax cheats everywhere: one of the last bastions of strong banking secrecy, Switzerland, is bowing to international pressure and agreeing to cooperate with some foreign investigations of wrongdoing. "...the Swiss government announced on Friday that it would cooperate in international tax investigations, breaking with its long-standing tradition of protecting wealthy foreigners accused of hiding billions of dollars. Austria and Luxembourg also said they would help. ... The famed 'numbered accounts' that do not bear the owner's name will still be available for clients willing to pay for added anonymity. ... Over the past month, leaders have made similar promises in Singapore, Liechtenstein, Bermuda, the British islands of Jersey and Guernsey, and tiny Andorra... other 'offshore' banking centers are still available in the Caribbean, Panama, Dubai and elsewhere."

Comments

Re:Tax Cheats?

[darjen]

I guess people wouldn't want to build roads unless they're forced to by the government (who does a terrible job of maintaing roads anyway)

Nobody would help out the permanently disabled without the government (who does a terrible of it)

Nobody would be able to teach their kids school or pay for health card without the government (who does a terrible job at both of those)

Nobody would want to extinguish any fires without the government (who does a terrible job of it)

Nobody would want to catch criminals without the government (how often does your local law public law enforcement catch them?)

And finally, nobody would care about people who can't help themselves without the government.

In summary... the government does a terrible job at all the things you mention, and assuming none of them would be available wihtout the government is ridiculous and intellectually lazy.

Re:Tax Cheats?

[Atario]

Funny how someone who has "enough wealth behind me" to game the system would consider paying one's rightful share into the system that allowed him to get that wealth in the first place to be the activity of "useful idiots" who are also "disciples of authoritarianism".

You got rich in this system, and now you want to hoard your riches away from that same system. I say, pay the fuck up or get the fuck out, freeloader.