Media and Blog Articles Open for Comments – Part 3 of 11 (Year 2016)

2,818 thoughts on “Media and Blog Articles Open for Comments – Part 3 of 11 (Year 2016)”

1. A blistering dispatch about the Panama Papers today by our friend Sovereign Man (Simon Black):

   Sovereign Man
   April 4, 2016
   Santiago, Chile

   The Internet practically exploded this morning after a detailed report was published proving that dozens of corrupt politicians around the world have been stealing public funds and hiding the loot overseas.

   In other news, the Pope is Catholic.

   Not to make light of this, but this hardly comes as a surprise. There’s some Grade A filth in positions of power who routinely funnel public funds into their own pockets.

   Whether they secret the funds offshore, buy expensive flats in London, purchase Bitcoin, or stuff cash under their mattresses seems hardly relevant.

   The real issue is that systems of government routinely put morally bankrupt individuals in control of trillions of dollars of cash.

   Seriously, what do people expect is going to happen?

   Yet this never seems to be concern. The media outcry always seems to focus on the manner in which public officials hide their assets, not the fact that the funds were stolen to begin with.

   This report targets the illicit use of offshore corporations, specifically those set up by a single law firm in Panama.

   In reality, this issue hardly boils down to one firm.

   There are thousands of law firms all around the world, including in the UK and the United States, that register companies for their clients.

   Some of those companies end up being used for nefarious purposes, including fraud and theft.

   But it’s crazy to presume that corrupt officials and con artists are the only ones who would ever need a company in one of these “shady” jurisdictions.

   (Those “shady” jurisdictions, by the way, include Wyoming, South Dakota, and Delaware.)

   Alongside the report is a video with a scantily clad porno actress named Lisa Ann, star of “Who’s Nailin’ Paylin,” a satire in which Ms. Ann spoofs former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin engaged in sexual… congress.

   No I am not making this up.

   In her video, the porn starlet explains that only arms dealers and scumbags set up asset protect vehicles like anonymous shell companies, which can include something like a Delaware LLC.

   Never mind that people in the Land of the Free are living in the most litigious society in human history.

   Or that last year the US government stole more money and private property from its citizens through civil asset forfeiture than all the thieves and felons in the country combined.

   Given such obvious realities, you’d have to be crazy to NOT take steps to protect your savings.

   But if a porn star says that you’re a scumbag who ‘gets in the way of justice’ by setting up a Delaware LLC to safeguard your assets and reduce your legal liability, it must be true.

   So let it be written.

   Look, the anger and disgust of seeing corrupt people getting away with a crime is understandable, particularly when that crime is stealing from taxpayers.

   But nobody ever seems to attack the real problem– that these people are ever put in positions enabling them to steal taxpayer funds to begin with.

   Instead the spotlight is always on how they hide it. That’s like focusing on what color T-shirt the ax murderer was wearing.

   My concern is that is if corrupt officials shift tactics and start buying gold, there will be calls to outlaw gold. Or if they start holding cash, there will be even louder calls to ban cash.

   These reports are incredibly damning for the dozens, even hundreds or thousands of bad actors who abuse the system.

   But at the same time they create a mass hysteria that puts law-abiding taxpayers who value their financial privacy into the same category as some corrupt African dictator.

   Listen in to today’s podcast as we discuss this trend even more, what I call the “New Dark Ages”.

   We’ve entered a time where privacy and personal freedom are trivial inconveniences rather than the bedrock cultural values they used to be.

   For example, I question when our society degenerated to the point that a porn star gets to tell us what we should and should not be able to do with our own private property…

   I’d advise you to turn DOWN the volume. This podcast is probably the most intense I’ve ever done. Listen in here.

   Until tomorrow,

   Simon Black
   Founder, SovereignMan.com

2. It’s legit!

   http://www.taxhavenusa.com/

3. @Bubblebustin

   re: taxhavenusa.com

   The United States is utterly shameless, isn’t it? No wonder Trump is their new figurehead.

4. http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/cases/decision.faces/en/65927/html.bookmark

   Sophie’s world …

5. @sph, thank you very much for following that issue and the extremely dogged and laudable efforts of EU MEP Sophie in’t Veld to hold the Commission to account re FATCA records.

   I note so far this very interesting excerpt;
   “….40. Regarding (b), based on a careful reading of the Commission’s reply of 23 July 2015, it is clear that the failure of the United States of America to respond to the Commission’s consultation did not ‘automatically’ lead to the latter’s refusal to give access to these documents, as the complainant suggests. In fact, the Commission referred to the statement of the US authorities in the consultation prior to the decision of 28 August 2012,

   , in which the US authorities had clearly withheld their consent to the disclosure of documents emanating from them. That refusal however was followed by the Commission’s own assessment after which it decided to refuse access to the documents in question.”…..

   from;

   Decision in case 1398/2013/ANA on the European Commission’s refusal to give access to documents relating to the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (‘FATCA’)
   Available languages: en
   Tweet

   Case: 1398/2013/ANA
   Opened on 13 Aug 2013 – Recommendation on 03 Dec 2014 – Decision on 31 Mar 2016
   Institution(s) concerned: European Commission
   Field(s) of law: General, financial and institutional matters,External relations
   Types of maladministration alleged – (i) breach of, or (ii) breach of duties relating to: Requests for public access to documents [Article 23 ECGAB]
   Subject matter(s): Dealing with requests for information and access to documents (Transparency)
   http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/cases/decision.faces/en/65927/html.bookmark

   I suggest everyone read through all this as best you can and ask themselves why the US has SO VERY MUCH TO HIDE RE FATCA IF TRANSPARENCY IS WHAT IT SAYS IT SEEKS FROM EVERYONE ELSE? And, re the reference to business submissions/commentaries, and lobbying strategies, why is the citizen consumer taxpayers’ interests to be subordinated to business, and to the interests of a foreign nation (the US) located ABROAD, OUTSIDE of the EU?

   Please also consider writing/emailing EU MEP Sophie in’t Veld http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/28266/SOPHIA_IN+'T+VELD_home.html no matter where you are actually located, in order to show appreciation for what she has done over YEARS pursuing this FATCA issue with such determination and dedication – and what many of our own politicians sinfully and WILLFULLY omitted to do vis a vis FATCA and the US.

   I wish MEP in’t Veld was my representative. In a heartbeat, I’d trade in my Canadian CON MP and our useless Canadian Liberal goverment with its backstabbing flipflopping ministers (who previously opposed FATCA when they were in opposition – yet now defend the IGA against us) – and waste our own taxpayer dollars to do so, in aid of their US masters).

6. http://www.accountingtoday.com/blogs/debits-credits/news/fatca-deadlines-coming-up-77697-1.html
   ‘FATCA Deadlines Coming Up’
   By Michael Cohn
   April 4, 2016

   Also contains interesting mention of problems with recalcitrant account holders, problems with differing definitions of tax residency, and scary speculation that the CRS might use the FATCA portals (because of US design and data protection in/security issues) etc. …..

7. @Badger

   What a complete clusterf**k we’re in for once CRS kicks-in, on top of FATCA:

   Hintzke likens FATCA to a wheel-and-spoke model, while the Common Reporting Standard is more like a spider web. “With FATCA, you’ve got the U.S. government in the middle and it goes out to all of these countries, and the countries are coming back into them,” she said. “Here this is a spider web because it is 96 different countries that are coming up with their own rules and will be deciding who they will be sharing with and how to treat different entities.”

8. Too bad the page does not allow any Brockers to express their opinions, but do read these letters in the Toronto Star:

   http://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editors/2016/04/04/liberals-flip-flopped-on-privacy.html

9. Lack of Americans in Panama Papers down to secretive tax havens within the U.S. according to experts. Actually, there were about 3,000 companies but that is a third that of Britain which has 1/5 the population.
   http://fusion.net/story/287671/americans-panama-papers-trove/

10. Our friend Mr Dusseault gets a mention in this Canadian Panama Papers article:

    “NDP MP Pierre-Luc Dusseault (Sherbrooke) said the federal agency needs more resources but said the secrecy of some foreign jurisdictions complicates efforts by federal officials.

    He said there needs to be co-operation on the international front to make those countries “less opaque, more transparent.” That lack of information allows some taxpayers to cheat the system.
    “Right now there is too much secrecy in those jurisdictions so people don’t feel they are obliged to tell the revenue agency,” he said in an interview.

    Unless action is taken, there will be a two-tier tax system that favours those with the expertise and resources to shelter income abroad, Dusseault said.”

    http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/04/04/canada-tells-tax-collectors-to-get-hold-of-panama-papers-info.html

11. http://reason.com/blog/2016/04/04/panama-papers-previews-what-donald-trump

    Panama Papers Previews What Donald Trump’s Jacksonian Economics Would Look Like
    When the biggest economy on the block gets to write the global rules, foreigners and regular Americans get screwed, elites skate, and hypocrisy rules the day.

    For years we have been warning you about the odious 2010 Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which has been driving Americans to renounce their citizenship in record numbers because of the law’s incredibly onerous disclosure requirements on U.S. citizens who have the bad manners to maintain financial accounts abroad, and because foreign banks in most halfway decent countries no longer want the hassle of serving any of the estimated 7.6 million American expatriates, since doing so essentially gives the IRS carte blanche to investigate the bank’s innards and seize assets. For the dubious prize of shaking a paltry $1 billion extra in annual tax receipts, the United States has been systematically destroying the notion of international financial privacy.

    Except in the United States itself.

12. Is Panama the OECD’s Switzerland? The release of the the Panama Papers coincides with the frustration the OECD is experiencing with their effort to get Panama to fully commit to an automatic exchange of information under CRS:

    “Panama in September 2015 wrote a letter through their US based lawyers that they did not believe the CRS was an international binding law and hence would not apply it.

    Obviously under OECD pressure, Panama relunctantly committed to the CRS in November 2015. Facing domestic backlash, Panama published its official position on the Common Reporting Standard on 4th December 2015 giving six conditions before a Competent Authority Agreement would be signed. OECD warns Panama.”

    Read more about this from one of the big players who’s also behind the effort to sanction (“mini FATCA”) the US for not cooperating under its FATCA agreements:

    http://www.the-best-of-both-worlds.com/panama-aei.html

13. How the OECD plans to “mini-FATCA” the US for not cooperating under its FATCA agreements:

    http://www.the-best-of-both-worlds.com/us-banks.html

14. FATCA is just the best thing since sliced bread with only some minor problems they don’t talk about:

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/04/05/republican-doom-talk-helps-enable-big-time-tax-evaders.html

15. @Deckard1138, yup, and love the spider web metaphor, with the US sitting like a great big spider in the middle – catching up the world’s data and financial institutions in its web. Do they not realize what using the FATCA portal would mean for the CRS info? The US already believes the internet is theirs, and is already in conflict with the EU over data protection. The OECD countries (with the US leveraging its outsized power there, plus its yes men countries) are subverting the interests and rights of their own citizens and ceding all autonomy and control if they allow the US to own and control the CRS portal. And that means the US has the data of everyone – not just the UStaxablepersons it might manage to ferret out via FATCA.

16. Anyone happen to catch Allison Christian being interviewed on the CBC financial show “The Exchange” yesterday (April 4,2016)? Her segment appears from about 6:00 to 11:00 min. She was commenting on the breaking Panama Papers story. Towards the end of her comments, she slammed FATCA for being an example of the useless massive collection of private financial data of ordinary people in the name of preventing tax evasion, while producing virtually nothing in the way of tangible results. Meanwhile the elite continue with their complicated financial structures and have long since figured out how to dodge FATCA and any other enforcement mechanisms. She basically says that governments need to forget about the minnows and instead concentrate on going after the big fish.

17. From the Globe and Mail:

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-commentary/executive-insight/the-innocent-victims-of-tax-crackdowns/article29516522/?service=mobile

    “The crackdown has forced thousands of Americans living in Canada to spend small fortunes to come out of the shadows, even though they owe little or no taxes. They include so-called accidental Americans, whose only crime was being born in a U.S. hospital.”

    Barrie McKenna gets it.

18. @Maz57

    Thanks for the head’s up. Here it is during the first news segment covering the Panama Papers. Allison is interviewed at about 6:00. Does a great job, as usual.

    http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2686280012

19. @BC Doc

    Thanks for the link. Good to see McKenna pan CBT as “arcane”. For those who can’t access your link, here it is in Press Reader:

    http://www.pressreader.com/canada/the-globe-and-mail-metro-ontario-edition/20160405/281878707521109/textview

20. I don’t want to delve too deeply into the Panama Papers Leak except to add that the reason not all participants in this scheme are being named in the media is because what is being released is controlled by a committee funded by people like George Soros (you know, the guy who likes to fund colour revolutions in targeted countries). So again, it’s a case of “Cui bono?” and most likely a “limited hangout”.
    http://www.fort-russ.com/2016/04/geopolitics-of-corruption-george-soros.html

    The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists is a project of the American liberal Non-Governmental Organization Center for Public Integrity. It is the largest American non-profit organization that is dedicated to investigative journalism. In 1996, it launched a campaign against paleo-conservative US presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan, which was performed by Soros to force his withdrawal from the electoral campaign. Among the official sponsors of independent journalists: “Open Society” Foundation (Soros Foundation), Sunlight Foundation (receives most of their funding from Soros), the MacArthur Foundation, Knight Foundation, Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Carnegie Endowment, Omidyar Network of the founder of eBay – ultra-liberal and globalist Pierre Omidyar etc.

21. @Bubblebustin

    *How the OECD plans to “mini-FATCA” the US for not cooperating under its FATCA agreements*

    Not to sound mean… tit for tat works for me… watch the US start crying… Unfair… unfair…

22. The tax agencies of governments around the world are licking their chops in anticipation of the wonderful revelations in the “Panama Papers”. But I guarantee you those very same governments would be screaming bloody murder if the International Consortium for Investigative Journalism had instead released leaked (a nice word for stolen), embarrassing government documents. Instead of being hailed as heroes the ICOIJ people would be hunted down and jailed.

    I have no doubt that there are some tax evaders in the large group of people whose personal financial data has been exposed but I’d be willing to bet that most of those accounts are perfectly legal. Its the same old myth that is continually perpetrated about expats, i.e., you have foreign accounts therefore you must be a criminal tax evader. A.C. points out in her segment that in today’s global financial world there are many legitimate reasons to have foreign accounts, not the least of which is that they are absolutely necessary to do any sort of international business. All these revelations are nothing but allegations until they are actually prosecuted and proven in a court of law.

    I remember a year or two ago, the CBC ran a story (also from the ICOIJ) about wealthy Canadians who had offshore accounts. The CBC went so far as to actually reveal people’s names even though the only real “fact” was that they had some kind of a foreign account. After a couple of days the CBC went completely silent on the story and has remained silent ever since. I have a hunch the CBC got a bunch of calls from lawyers who threatened the CBC with libel suits and worse if they didn’t cease and desist.

    Don’t get me wrong, I’m no fan of tax evasion, but at the end of the day the ICOIJ is guilty of receiving, possessing, and releasing stolen property, namely the personal financial data of thousands of people. Rather than turning in that stolen data as they should have, they chose instead to release it very publicly, undoubtedly harming many innocents in the process. There will probably be a few high profile casualties but I expect this story will soon die down as well. This was a tactical weapon in the ongoing World War on individual privacy.

    I think the problem of wealthy people who evade tax is never going to be solved because the wealthy will always have access to better, smarter, and more highly paid lawyers and accountants than any government on the planet will ever be able to afford. Heck, many of these people ARE the government. So what does this all prove? Its better to be rich than to be poor.

23. Following a link on Bubblebustin’s “Best of Both Worlds” link we get this …
    http://www.taxjustice.net/2016/01/22/europe-must-impose-withholding-taxes-on-payments-to-target-u-s-and-other-tax-havens/

    The worst recalcitrant by far is the United States. Its own transparency scheme, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA,) robustly cracks down on U.S. offshore tax cheats. But it is far less willing to share information in the other direction, to help others. This makes it the haven of choice for the world’s criminals and tax evaders. As a top U.S. tax lawyer put it recently:

    “That ‘giant sucking sound’ you hear? It is the sound of money rushing to the USA . . . welcome to the new Switzerland.”

24. And interestingly;
    ‘Panama Papers: Obama, Clinton Pushed Trade Deal Amid Warnings It Would Make Money Laundering, Tax Evasion Worse’
    By Clark Mindock @clarkmindock AND David Sirota @davidsirota On 04/04/16 AT 1:50 PM

    “…The Panama FTA pushed for by Obama and Clinton, watchdog groups said, effectively barred the United States from cracking down on questionable activities. Instead of requiring concessions of the Panamanian government on banking rules and regulations, combating tax haven abuse in Panama could violate the agreement. Should the U.S. embark on such an endeavor, it could be exposed to fines from international authorities.

    “The FTA would undermine existing U.S. policy tools against tax haven activity,” warned consumer watchdog group Public Citizen at the time, saying the agreement would encourage corporations to thwart any U.S. efforts to combat financial secrecy. The group also noted that U.S. government contractors, as well as major financial firms supported by taxpayer bailouts, stood to gain from the trade deal’s provisions that could make it harder to crack down on financial secrecy.
    Despite the warnings from watchdog groups, some Democratic lawmakers urged the Obama administration to aggressively push for the Panama agreement. According to a 2009 email sent to Clinton by her top State Department aide, high-ranking then-Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., was pushing for passage of the Panama and Colombia free trade pacts, and Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said “the president had to lend his star power to pushing them through.” Obama ultimately did just that, hosting Panama’s president at a 2011 Oval Office event touting the proposed trade pact.”…….

    Some familiar names there too.

    And tell me, what does Obama really think about offshore trusts since he chose a Commerce Secretary with a personal and family history of sheltering wealth in offshore trusts;
    “……..Pritzker and her family have dealt with questions over their finances for decades.

    The Internal Revenue Service sued her family to collect taxes from the estate of Abram Pritzker, Penny’s grandfather, after his 1986 death when heirs claimed an estate worth $25,000. The case centered on hundreds of trust funds he’d set up in the Caribbean with the assistance of Chicago attorney Burton W. Kanter, to avoid taxes. The IRS sought $53 million in taxes, before the two sides settled in 1994 for $9.5 million.”……..
    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-05-20/pritzker-yields-party-role-reversal-on-offshore-trusts

    Canada gets FATCA’d, and the well connected living in the US with offshore trusts get made Commerce and Treasury Secretary.

25. Things are getting too crazy. Like the Donald saying that he was going to pay for the wall by withholding Mexican remittances. Everyone seems to be walking straight into a tax war.

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