Secret Files Expose Offshore's Global Impact

Exposed: Offshore Tax Secrets of the Mega-Rich

www.huffingtonpost.com

Dozens of journalists sifted through millions of leaked records and thousands of names to produce ICIJ’s investigation into offshore secrecy.

A cache of 2.5 million files has cracked open the secrets of more than 120,000 offshore companies and trusts, exposing hidden dealings of politicians, con men and the mega-rich the world over.

(visit the link for the full news article)

(edited to give correct title for article)

The article had two headlines at the source, so I'll list them both here to aid the search engine;

Exposed: Offshore Tax Secrets of the Mega-Rich

Secret Files Expose Offshore's Global Impact

The article is long but barely scratches the surface of what's there.

I haven't seen this mentioned yet on ATS or even the MSM - to me this is another indicator the only ones out there truly fighting for our freedom and protecting our democracy from the plutocrats and oligarchs are the hackers, whistleblowers, and leakers.

www.huffingtonpost.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

ETA: Canadian news are running this:
Massive data leak exposes offshore financial secrets

Up to $32 trillion stashed offshore

reply to post by Blackmarketeer
There are white collar crimes and there are blue collar crimes.

The connected folks milking the system are just as corrupt as regular corporations forcing layoffs of their workers when they really have no need to except to take advantage of the supposedly "shaky" economy while lining their deep pockets every single day. These folks are just the same as the government using loopholes to mitigate paying out unemployment benefits if workers are receiving another form of compensation in lieu of wages.

The rich are robbing the poor. The con men and connected people are milking the system for all its worth. Governments and corporations are raping the public and it never stops.

I sit here with my mouth open as i gaze at the scandal.
But the reality is.
No one really cares, you do not see people up on the streets causing havoc.
This is why the so called 'Mega-Rich' do it. No one really cares.

Do not get me wrong, you and I and probably the rest of the forum cares, but even if so, are we going to do anything about it?

Thanks for the post!

reply to post by Jaellma


Giver a man a gun, he'll rob a bank. Give a man a bank, he'll rob the world.

The major difference is that the person with the gun, most of the time, has no other choice. Wheras the man with the bank, who has all the money - Well he cant justify what he does.

And of course nothing will come of it , governments only want to target low and middle class for tax evasions and any smallest discrepancy , while the governments buddies get away hassle free .


Makes me happy to give 25% of my hard earnings to have these fools evade taxes and have their middle finger waved at the rest of the population , or am I the fool for paying my taxes .

eta

hey hey hey....let's cut this out....it's the lazy, tie-dyed wearing, no job 99%ers that are the the problem...focus, people focus. the top 1% are the civilized, honest, and fair job creators that have absolutely nothing to do with the problems of the knuckle-dragging, slopped-headed, losers in the world.

reply to post by hellzdoms


Yes you do. The Arab Spring was largely driven by political and financial corruption in their countries. The maligned and ridiculed 'Occupy' movement was an attempt to bring attention to this very problem. But rather than get behind it the majority preferred instead to poo-poo it because of the 'fringe' elements that were brought to the fore by the media. The fact is, it's always the 'fringe' that have the nads to do these kinds of things. Look at the anti-war movement of the 60s. Same thing. After the banks hosed us in 2007 how many of you moved your money and business to local, community banks?

Money Fight, lol.

well lets just haircut the cr@p out of it
divide it up for everyone on the earth give every person a paycheck straight out of those accounts
or wipe the worlds debt problem solved

I wonder if citizen journalists here on ATS will look for companies and people in their local area and "bring the heat of sunlight" to the scum in the dark.....

I certainly will look to see if we have any "local" connections......

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


Is anybody really surprised by this?????? This is the worst kept secret EVER. And still nothing will ever come of these "findings" SMH If only the rich had to play by the same rules as the poor.

I don't quite understand why stable nations just don't standardize their tax rules and regulations so that tax sheltering becomes difficult, if not obsolete. Any nation directly benefiting from tax sheltering has to realize the folly in thinking that the short-term financial benefit of allowing tax sheltering won't out way the long-term negative impact that tax sheltering has over the broader market. It seems like its just another way to distort the true cost of anything, which usually ends with horrible market-correcting consequences for everyone involved (including the shelter). But then again, I don't have a Ph.D in Economics nor Finance, so what do I really know? But, it just seems intuitively stupid to me to be the shelter-er for any person, knowing that it will impact you one way or another.

Originally posted by freedomSlave...
or am I the fool for paying my taxes.

You're the fool.

Well, not a fool but you are onto something.

Instead of demanding that these scapegoats hand over more of their money to a corrupt, wasteful system, how about we pay less???

A LOT less.

"Countries have discussed ways to stem the tax drain to offshore havens for years, but so far have been unable, or unwilling, to fully plug the leak."

NO WONDER, THE POLITICIANS ARE THE TAX DODGERS!

Originally posted by ForwardDrift
I don't quite understand why stable nations just don't standardize their tax rules and regulations so that tax sheltering becomes difficult, if not obsolete. Any nation directly benefiting from tax sheltering has to realize the folly in thinking that the short-term financial benefit of allowing tax sheltering won't out way the long-term negative impact that tax sheltering has over the broader market. It seems like its just another way to distort the true cost of anything, which usually ends with horrible market-correcting consequences for everyone involved (including the shelter). But then again, I don't have a Ph.D in Economics nor Finance, so what do I really know? But, it just seems intuitively stupid to me to be the shelter-er for any person, knowing that it will impact you one way or another.

Absolutely and its very very simple
1. Flat tax rate for every citizen of x% of GROSS income, no exceptions.
2. Post tax state allowance, flat amount for every citizen, this replaces ALL welfare ALL state pensions etc
3. Optional 1/100th top up. where you can increase 2 by 1/100th of NET RPI adjusted tax paid.

work it out !! and apply known gross incomes and compare to current net incomes.

You can also do a variant of this for company tax:
1. Flat tax rate of the top line of Grossmargin (gross margin is a very difficult number to fiddle. In fact it is counter productive to report a lower value than reality due to stock market valuations)
2. Post tax rebate based on the ratio of highest earner to lowest earner. This encourages more equitable pay rates.

Originally posted by gladtobehere

Originally posted by freedomSlave...
or am I the fool for paying my taxes.

You're the fool.

Well, not a fool but you are onto something.

Instead of demanding that these scapegoats hand over more of their money to a corrupt, wasteful system, how about we pay less???

A LOT less.

If the rtax avoiding rich and tax avoiding multinationals paid what they are supposed to YOUR tax bill would be far lower. But hey continue targetting the wrong thing if you so wish.......

Originally posted by dean007
well lets just haircut the cr@p out of it
divide it up for everyone on the earth give every person a paycheck straight out of those accounts
or wipe the worlds debt problem solved

There are around 7 billion people on Earth. If we divided this up, each one of us would receive about $4000. This is no where close to paying off my college loans.

Originally posted by yorkshirelad

Originally posted by ForwardDrift
I don't quite understand why stable nations just don't standardize their tax rules and regulations so that tax sheltering becomes difficult, if not obsolete. Any nation directly benefiting from tax sheltering has to realize the folly in thinking that the short-term financial benefit of allowing tax sheltering won't out way the long-term negative impact that tax sheltering has over the broader market. It seems like its just another way to distort the true cost of anything, which usually ends with horrible market-correcting consequences for everyone involved (including the shelter). But then again, I don't have a Ph.D in Economics nor Finance, so what do I really know? But, it just seems intuitively stupid to me to be the shelter-er for any person, knowing that it will impact you one way or another.

Absolutely and its very very simple
1. Flat tax rate for every citizen of x% of GROSS income, no exceptions.
2. Post tax state allowance, flat amount for every citizen, this replaces ALL welfare ALL state pensions etc
3. Optional 1/100th top up. where you can increase 2 by 1/100th of NET RPI adjusted tax paid.

work it out !! and apply known gross incomes and compare to current net incomes.

You can also do a variant of this for company tax:
1. Flat tax rate of the top line of Grossmargin (gross margin is a very difficult number to fiddle. In fact it is counter productive to report a lower value than reality due to stock market valuations)
2. Post tax rebate based on the ratio of highest earner to lowest earner. This encourages more equitable pay rates.

Heck, that actually makes some sense. Though you would probably be inclined to disagree with me about keeping subsidies and exemptions for some corporate endeavors (say a company researching solar panel technology that is having a hard time getting investment, but is making worth-while progress). In general this could work. The hard part would be getting international actors to agree and then the coordinating the enforcement of said policy.

I think this is one of the most important pieces of news I've read in a long time. Just the fact that so many people have seen this and have been involved minimizes the chances of it being swept under the rug.

Now it's up to the lawyers to follow up and file lawsuits against any and all of these criminals.