Most of you have probably seen this news one place or another. The Guardian has been at the forefront:
Millions of internal records have leaked from Britain’s offshore financial industry, exposing for the first time the identities of thousands of holders of anonymous wealth from around the world, from presidents to plutocrats, the daughter of a notorious dictator and a British millionaire accused of concealing assets from his ex-wife.
More at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/apr/03/offshore-secrets-offshore-tax-haven
Here is the Financial Times:
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/7ca55c98-9d49-11e2-88e9-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2PWwSdno4
“Jimmy: run another line on that haven thing again”–“make sure it’s ready for the afternoon edition — I wanna make sure that every father in America reads it at the dinner table tonight”
Are any of those names on the list from Wyoming or Delaware?
Why don’t they just put the name of every registered ship on the planet? Ships that work locally are registered in the most favorite nations. Same thing for corps and their money. They don’t have roots.
Sweden now has one of the lowest corp tax rates around. I guess it is therefore a tax haven, and it should also be on the list.
@Just me, it’s this one:
Offshore-Leaks: Der seltsame “Medienscoop”
http://derstandard.at/1363710736073/Offshore-Leaks-Der-seltsame-Medienscoop
Another scandal brewing in France.
http://lci.tf1.fr/economie/conjoncture/compte-en-suisse-un-ex-banquier-suisse-evoque-15-grands-noms-francais-8027409.html
And the link with Google Translate:
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Flci.tf1.fr%2Feconomie%2Fconjoncture%2Fcompte-en-suisse-un-ex-banquier-suisse-evoque-15-grands-noms-francais-8027409.html
A French ex-swiss banker claims he has a list of 15 political celebrities, better known than Cahuzac, having secret Swiss bank accounts. The article says he’s working on securing his family before leaking the names. Stuff like that just can’t be good for the normal expat having a Swiss bank account because he works there. Soon, Swiss banks are going to decline French people too.
and here is the Australian response.
Target the facilitators without creating a global AuATCA
ATO declares war
The Tax Office has declared war on the top end of town accountants and lawyers who have helped Australians avoid tax by setting up secretive offshore companies and trusts.
”I am going to target the facilitators,” warned the deputy commissioner of serious non-compliance, Greg Williams.
”I am a pretty simple bloke but I don’t wake up in the morning and say, ‘You know what, I am going to restructure my business around a secrecy jurisdiction’,” Mr Williams said. ”Someone is putting those ideas into people’s heads.”
He said the Tax Office, the federal police and the Australian Crime Commission planned to use the extraordinary powers available under Project Wickenby to focus on the firms.
The comments come after a huge leak of secret offshore data to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and to tax authorities in Britain, the US and Australia.
@SwissPinoy
BTW, thanks for that link. I will mark it better so I don’t lose track of it! 🙂
The Bavarian “Süddeutsche Zeitung” was part of the Offshore Leaks group and started its series of articles in April with Gunter Sachs, a deceased automotive industry heir and playboy, who had set up offshore trusts. Gunter Sachs lived in Gstaad, Switzerland and was taxable there. The Swiss tax authorities launched an investigation based on this new information and concluded several days ago that there were no violation of tax laws:
http://nachrichten.ch.msn.com/gunter-sachs-steuerdaten-sind-offenbar-in-ordnung
Original article in Süddeutsche Zeitung:
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/wirtschaft/playboy-im-steuerparadies-so-funktioniert-das-system-sachs-1.1639812