'Panama Papers' Group Strikes Again with 'Paradise Papers' (theguardian.com)

Long-time Slashdot reader Freshly Exhumed tipped us off to a new document leak that's just revealed massive tax havens used by the world's most wealthy and powerful people. An anonymous reader quotes the Guardian: The material, which has come from two offshore service providers and the company registries of 19 tax havens, was obtained by the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung and shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists with partners including the Guardian, the BBC and the New York Times. The project has been called the Paradise Papers.
It's the same group responsible for the Panama Papers, and the Guardian reports that in these 13.4 million new files, journalists have discovered:

• "How Twitter and Facebook received hundreds of millions of dollars in investments that can be traced back to Russian state financial institutions."

• "Aggressive tax avoidance by multinational corporations, including Nike and Apple."

• "Extensive offshore dealings by Donald Trump's cabinet members, advisers and donors, including substantial payments from a firm co-owned by Vladimir Putin's son-in-law to the shipping group of the US commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross."

• "The tax-avoiding Cayman Islands trust managed by the Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau's chief moneyman."

"The publication of this investigation, for which more than 380 journalists have spent a year combing through data that stretches back 70 years, comes at a time of growing global income inequality," reports the Guardian. "Meanwhile, multinational companies are shifting a growing share of profits offshore -- €600 billion in the last year alone -- the leading economist Gabriel Zucman will reveal in a study to be published later this week. "Tax havens are one of the key engines of the rise in global inequality," he said."

Comments

This is why America needs VATs not Corp. Tax

[WindBourne]

China charges 20% vat on everything, along with hefty tariffs on Western imports. Mexico charges 17% tariffs and then gives 100 % tax break to most local companies, which includes the vat. Most of Europe has 15-20% vats , combined with corporate taxes, even if companies operate outside of the nation. America needs to do a 0 corporate tax on American made goods/services (start at 50% and raise to 80% by 5 each year ). Keep 35% corporate tax on.foreign goods and apply a 20% vat on everything esp imported goods/parts/services. This will put a stop to this BS.

Re: This is why America needs VATs not Corp. Tax

[Anonymous Coward]

Imagine if the US put hefty tariffs on everything that was imported to "even" the playing field...many of the world's economies would suffer. Taxes aren't a one-size fits all. Ever wonder how many jobs would be eliminated if everything was simplified? Complexity==jobs

Re: This is why America needs VATs not Corp. Tax

[pots]

apply a 20% vat on everything esp imported goods/parts/services

You're describing a universal tariff right here, and we have tons of tariffs already. Ever wonder why cheese is so expensive in the US? 100% tariff on foreign cheese, to "protect" the American cheese industry. The new steel tariffs are killing automobile production in the US and making all the cars that we buy significantly more expensive.

The universal tariff that you're suggesting is a little different than these per-product tariffs, easier to manage and less abusable. So that's something. But it would still raise the cost of goods and make us poorer in aggregate. It's also a regressive tax, just like all consumption taxes.

Re:Another wing of the White House under indictmen

[Anonymous Coward]

Nobody cares. He's gonna be reelected anyway, along with over 95% of congress. The country's fallen! And it can't get up!

380 journalists

[Anonymous Coward]

Are they going to release the source material to the public so that we can find anything that the 380 journalists "accidentally" missed or forgot to report in their zeal to be completely unbiased and impartial while on the payroll of major news organizations?

Re:Meanwhile

[Anonymous Coward]

Hillary is irrelevant. Nobody gives a shit.

Meanwhile, yet another member of President Traitor's cabinet is found to be directly connected to Russia.

Clinton as President and war with Russia

[thesjaakspoiler]

Or did I miss the real purpose of these revelations?

Obligatory cherry picking.

[Anonymous Coward]

1. Find everything that could be linked in any way, however vague, indirect, and ridicluous, to Russia or its vassals.
2. Don't speak about anything, that could be linked in any way, however relevant, direct and serious, to the US or its vassals.
3. If anyone complains, he must be loving Putin and hating Murica. It can't be that he does it precisely because he wants to protect the US from the agenda of those doing the hate-mongering, and precisely because they are of the same kind as Putin.

(And since I've seen fucking morons, managing to STILL "misunderstand" that to mean I like Putin or something... PROTIP: “precisely because they are of the same kind as Putin" implies that I think Putin is an evil piece of shit, and am additionally saying he is, because he is like those hate-mongerers. But I'm sure somebody will find an excuse to spin doctor this around anyway. --.-- ... Or just conveniently ignore this half the comment.)

Russia and other strawmen

[Tom]

Here's the thing that most people don't get:

The modern elites are not nation-bound anymore. They live on yachts in international waters, fly around the world in private planes (or state-owned ones) and have their money in several different tax heavens and jurisdictions so that no amount of sanctions or other problems can shut them down.

If you honestly think any of them care about your country or my country or whatever todays "axis of evil" is, you are a complete idiot. The only thing they care about is money and power, which is why they have it. If you focus your entire life around the question of "how do I get more money?" then you have a much higher chance of making it than us normal people who are burdened with ethics, friends (real friends, not just useful contacts) and a soul or whatever you want to call that piece of humanity inside of you.

We have a brilliant example in my home country, which has been ruled for over a decade now by a person whose only demonstrated skill is how to get and keep power.

Really, all of this is so clear to anyone with three working brain cells, as they're not even trying to hide anything anymore. The only question we all should be asking ourselves is how to shut down this global robbery.