Super rich hold $32 trillion in offshore havens

Rooters ^ | 22 Jul 2012

[shove_it]

(Reuters) - Rich individuals and their families have as much as $32 trillion of hidden financial assets in offshore tax havens, representing up to $280 billion in lost income tax revenues, according to research published on Sunday.

The study estimating the extent of global private financial wealth held in offshore accounts - excluding non-financial assets such as real estate, gold, yachts and racehorses - puts the sum at between $21 and $32 trillion.

The research was carried out for pressure group Tax Justice Network, which campaigns against tax havens, by James Henry, former chief economist at consultants McKinsey & Co.

[...]

[theBuckwheat]

International Tax Competition
A 21st-Century Restraint on Government

by Chris Edwards and Veronique de Rugy

Chris Edwards is director of fiscal policy studies and Veronique de Rugy is
a policy analyst at the Cato Institute.

Executive Summary

Globalization is knitting separate national economies into a single world
economy. That is occurring as a result of rising trade and investment flows,
greater labor mobility, and rapid transfers of technology.

As economic integration increases, individuals and businesses gain greater
freedom to take advantage of foreign economic opportunities. That, in turn,
increases the sensitivity of investment and location decisions to taxation.
Countries feel pressure to reduce tax rates to avoid driving away their tax
bases. International “tax competition” is increasing as capital and labor
mobility rises.

Most industrial countries have pursued tax reforms to ensure that their
economies remain attractive for investment. The average top personal income
tax rate in the major industrial countries of the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development has fallen 20 percentage points since 1980. The
average top corporate income tax rate has fallen 6 percentage points in just
the past six years.

Rising tax competition has caused governments to also adopt defensive rules
to prevent residents and businesses from enjoying lower tax rates abroad. In
the United States, such tax rules are hugely complex and affect the ability
of U.S. companies to compete in world markets. Other defensive responses to
tax competition include proposals to harmonize taxes across countries and to
restrict countries from offering tax climates that are too hospitable to
foreign investment inflows.

Those defensive responses to tax competition are a dead end. They do nothing
to promote economic growth or reform inefficient tax systems. A more
constructive response to tax competition would be to learn from foreign
reforms and adopt pro-growth tax policies at home. The United States should
be a leader but has fallen behind on tax reform. For example, the United
States now has one of the highest corporate tax rates among major nations.
The chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, Glenn Hubbard, believes that “from an income tax perspective, the United States has become one of the least attractive industrial countries in which to locate the headquarters of a multinational corporation.”

As international capital and labor mobility rises, the risks associated with not having an efficient federal tax structure increase. This country should respond to rising tax competition by moving toward a low-rate consumption-based system.

http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-431es.html

[silverleaf]

$280 Billion would fund the US govt for about 2 months

Then the spending pigs would be back at the trough for more

[facedown]

...have as much as $32 trillion...

So you know you can safely divide by ten. Sort of like "...a street value of...".

[Flintlock]

Geeeee.................

Rich folks like to HANG ON TO THEIR $$$$$$$$$$$$$!!

Shocker. Whooda thunk it?

[from occupied ga]

the article acts like this is a bad thing. The fewer of peoples’ assts governments can get at the better

[babble-on]

A huge percentage of that money, I would bet, is either funds stolen by third-world dictators from their own citizens, or profits from illegal enterprises.

[cripplecreek]

Yup. There’s plenty of money for constitutional government. Its all the other zero restraint spending that’s gone on for decades.

Just ignore the big things for a moment (Welfare, social security etc) and look at the thousands of little things we blow money on. Look at public transportation, bike paths that a tiny faction of us use but we all pay for. Even the little public gun range outside my little town got several thousand in stimulus funds. We spend money to promote industries that should be spending their own money to promote themselves. How much does it cost to operate the TSA, EPA, OSHA, the department of education and department of energy?

[Mamzelle]

What good will it do the oligarchs, even the Soros types, if all currencies become worthless?

What good to own real estate, if it is nationalized?

Or even gold, when the coffers are raided and the gold carried off...?

[yldstrk]

Considering that there is no legal framework to hang the federal income tax on, the government is lucky anyone pays.

[InvisibleChurch]

$32,000,000,000,000? Why not just make up a bigger number? Maybe a gazoolion dollars? Where do rich people get 32 trill? Really?

[Opinionated Blowhard]

$32 trillion of hidden financial assets

Note the use of the word "hidden", and yet the article goes on to describe real estate and foreign stocks as some of those assets. God forbid a rich person own real estate in another country. He or she must be trying to "hide" his assets by buying a house or other real property overseas. Or God Forbid he or she buy foreign stocks. Cleary he is tryign to avoid taxes. This story is utter BS. I suspect that the employees of Reuters hold a larger percentage of their assets outside the US than the US "rich."

[MrB]

And there is no way the commies in this gov’t will ever lay a finger on one penny of it.

It’s a great class warfare talking point, though.

[Aevery_Freeman]

You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.”

Obunga would consider this, the tenth commandment, a negative right as it prevents the redistribution of wealth.

This simple law, however, is what allows progress and prevents us from simply joining together and raiding the huts of our neighbors.

That, in a nutshell, is the difference between (the late) America and Africa.

[SpaceBar]

You can almost hear the looters salivating.

[Wolfie]

They should post that on the door of every military recruiting office in the country. Just so the troops know what they’re fighting for.

[sten]

so the world’s private wealth is doing what it can to stay out of the hands of commies

*shrug*

if you want that wealth to move into your country... what could you possibly do??

maybe... juuuuust maybe... you could drop taxes on corporate monies not distributed and drop overall tax rates on all income.

govt is in all transactions anyhow.. ALL money flows through the govt.. raises taxes just makes the cycle shorter

[Lets Roll NOW]

Government stealing is still stealing, even if they vote on it.

[napscoordinator]

Holy Cow!!! I wish they would take 15 trillion and pay off the debt. Can you imagine how great that would be....man to bad they don’t donate it. lol. Yeah right only in the movies would that happen.

[shove_it]

But don’t let them touch yours or mine.