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Massive Data Leak Reveals How the Ultra Rich Hide Their Wealth
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."
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
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.
The files contain information on over 120,000 offshore entities — including shell corporations and legal structures known as trusts — involving people in over 170 countries.
Oh, no no no, tax evasion for the ultra rich that can play international games isn't the reason the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. No! From Forbes' response to the viral video "Wealth Inequality in America" they say:
Look — we’re moving into the opening years of an economic revolution. The floods of Big Data pouring from the Internet and related technologies are washing away the foundational reasons for the existence of several of our most critical – and comforting – societal structures, potentially changing forever the very notion of what a company is, what a job is, what a brand is, what an educational degree means, and how we’ll work and govern and care for ourselves while attempting to live long and prosper. Almost every part of our existence is being restructured, and quickly, by the stunning power of nearly infinite information.
Don't you see? It's not tax evasion or unfair taxation, it's just the magical power of the internet. Stop asking questions and demanding an equal opportunity to skirt income laws! It's "Big Data" that's changing things rapidly and excitingly. Stop fighting the Economic Revolution!
What an absolute crock of shit.
My work here is dung.
Free society is incompatible with individuals wielding thousands or millions of times more unchecked power than others.
Nice and all to see the info come out but seriously, with that much money and that many wealthy, influential people involved, what is going to happen with this information? Nothing. A couple of hippies are going to protest against the 1% thingy while texting from their iPhone 5, be discredited, a couple of journalists are going to get vanished, the whole thing will get swept under the rug of the media coverage of an imminent war with North Korea. Problem solved. Damned i'm too young to be this jadded
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.
The story on the CBC national news last night suggested that it was snail-mailed anonymously on a portable hard drive to a DC based journalist. This doesn't explain where the data ultimately came from, but does explain how the ICIJ came to have it.
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?
Move their money elsewhere.
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.
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.
According to the report I just heard on the BBC World News, estimates place the total value of these hidden assets around $32 trillion.
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
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.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Call them simply what they are: Leeches. Taking everything civilized society has to offer (such as no roving hordes stringing up the filthy rich), but give nothing back but excrement.
It's almost as if there's an enormous amount of the population between the super rich and the poor. It might even be an important group. Maybe the middle class or something?
I hear they're working on that problem, and it should be taken care of in the next few years.
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. 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
My work here is dung.
I put all my money in an offshore account in Cyprus. I am pretty sure it is all tucked away and safe there.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
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.
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.
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.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Absolute rubbish, and here is why. People like you are complacent, and believe yourself to be a tool for the people abusing you. Not only do you have that belief, but you are advocating this belief to others. That complacency, and willingness is normal, but sad behavior.
The answer to the dilemma does come in time. Every so often, citizens behead the king and redistribute the wealth. Historically this is true, and the founding of the USA was an extreme example of this happening.
The USA was built to have peaceful mechanisms in place to make this transition. What it could not do however, is make people become active in forcing changes. Fifty years of brain washing has people like you believing that you have no power, no voice, and no choices. We still have the power in the Constitution to make changes peacefully, but people like you have to stop being complacent and advocating complacency.
Fortunately, there are people demanding changes and they will come eventually. I'm sure that you will be riding their coat tails when it happens to try and get a slice of the pie. Until that time you will sit on the coat tails of those currently abusing society happy to get their crumbs.
Study "The Republic" and learn some history and you will realize that I'm correct on all accounts.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.