Posted on 01/03/2011 12:18:07 PM PST by SeekAndFind
You and I live in a totally different world than the ultra-rich and the international banking elite do. Many of them live in a world where they simply do not pay income taxes. Today, it is estimated that a third of all the wealth in the world is held in offshore banks. So why is so much of the wealth of the globe located in places such as Monaco, the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, the Bahamas, and the Isle of Man? It isn't because those are fun places to visit. It is to avoid taxes. The super wealthy and the international banking elite think that it is really funny that our paychecks are constantly being drained by federal taxes, state taxes and Social Security taxes while they literally pay nothing at all. These incredibly rich elitists make a ton of money doing business in wealthy western nations and then they transfer virtually all of their profits offshore where they don't have to contribute any of it in taxes. It works out really great for them, but it sucks for the rest of us.
It is estimated that approximately $1.4 trillion is held in offshore banks in the Cayman Islands alone. According to an article in Forbes magazine, there is a total of approximately 15 trillion to 20 trillion dollars in offshore bank accounts, brokerage accounts and hedge fund portfolios.
A recent article in the Guardian stated that a third of all the wealth on the entire globe is held in offshore banks and that the vast majority of international banking transactions take place in these tax havens....
On a conservative estimate, a third of the world's wealth is held offshore, with 80% of international banking transactions taking place there. More than half the capital in the world's stock exchanges is "parked" offshore at some point. All of the biggest banks in the world are involved in playing this game. All of them have big branches in these various tax havens. All of them work very hard to ensure that the tax burdens on their ultra-rich clients are as light as possible.
Nobody knows for sure how much money big governments around the globe are missing out on from all this tax avoidance, but everyone agrees the number is huge. It is at least in the hundreds of billions of dollars every single year.
It is a shadow banking system that most Americans don't know anything about. Most Americans don't have the resources to be able to set up shell companies in half a dozen different countries so that they can "filter" their profits. Most Americans don't know a thing about complicated tax avoidance plans that tax lawyers use such as the "Double Irish" and the "Dutch Sandwich". Most Americans would have no idea how to eventually have most of the money that they make end up in Bermuda so that it can avoid taxes.
No, most Americans just go to work every week and have their hard earned paychecks raped by an oppressive taxation system.
To the ultra-wealthy and the international banking system we are all just a bunch of suckers. In fact, a big portion of our taxes ends up going into their pockets to pay the interest on all of the government debt that they are holding.
When the global elite decide that they want to do some "social engineering" inside the big countries where they operate, they just set up tax-free "charitable trusts" that usually aren't very "charity-oriented" at all. Rather, many of these "charitable trusts" push the various radical political and social agendas that many of these elitists love to promote.
Examples of this include The Rockefeller Foundation and The Ford Foundation. George Soros also loves to use entities like these to push his various agendas.
The wealthy know how to play the game. For most of the rest of us, the game kicks our behinds.
So for those who are constantly screaming "tax the rich", the cold, hard truth of the matter is that those who are truly ultra-rich know how to escape just about any oppressive tax regime you may set up. They are light years ahead of the rest of us in knowing how to play the game.
What are you going to do?
Kick them out of the country?
Yeah, they will be really sad to spend even more time down in Bermuda or in the Cayman Islands.
Are you going to kick out any company that has any stock holders that have offshore bank accounts?
Well, you would have to kick out virtually every single major corporation in the United States.
This is just another example of how deeply flawed our system of income taxation really is.
Do you want to become a master of the tax code?
You might want to set aside some time for reading.
A lot of time.
The income tax code and its associated regulations contain well over 7 million words and are more than seven times longer than the Bible.
The IRS employs more than 90,000 people and it costs more than 11 billion dollars a year to operate.
Talk about a colossal waste of resources.
Meanwhile, the ultra-rich are just parking all of their money in Bermuda and the Caymans and are laughing at all the rest of us.
It would be hard to understate just how much influence and power all of this offshore money has. The ultra-wealthy and the elite international bankers own many of our largest corporations, they exert influence over central banks, they control big media outlets and they "contribute money" (bribes) to political campaigns.
The elite are always two steps ahead of any new laws that get passed. They are masters at moving money around. They will quickly find a half dozen ways around any new law that you could possibly dream up.
Most of us never even get to meet any of these incredibly wealthy individuals. They don't attend the local church or go shopping down at the local shopping mall.
No, the global elite generally live in very exclusive gated estates or hang out at the most expensive private resorts. They don't spend a lot of time mixing with the rabble.
It turns out that life is pretty good when you have a ton of money coming in and you pay next to nothing in taxes.
So the next time you get your paycheck and you see that a half a dozen things have been taken out of it, take a few moments to think of the global elite that don't pay any taxes at all and see how that makes you feel.
Hopefully when enough Americans get mad enough and start demanding change, the current income tax system will be scrapped for good and something much more equitable will be put in place instead.
The USA was able to bully Switzerland into revealing the names and accounts of thiusands of Wealthy Americans who put their money in Swiss Banks.
What’s to stop Uncle Sam from doing the same to these other places?
The title then says, essentially that 66% of the World's Wealth is in the US Banking system? I find that a little hard to believe.
“Offshore” is still part of this world. Weird title.
According to Glenn Beck and other sources, 1% of the wealthiest people pay 40% of all monies the government gathers from taxation. Who are you going to believe?
There's a lesson in here. Leave it to the geniuses at The Guardian to miss it completely.
According to this Forbes article :
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0719/opinions-taxation-tax-havens-banking-on-my-mind.html
“there is $15 trillion to $20 trillion in private wealth sitting offshore in bank accounts, brokerage accounts and hedge fund portfolios, completely untaxed.”
This Guardian Article :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/28/protests-tax-havens
states:
“On a conservative estimate, a third of the world’s wealth is held offshore, with 80% of international banking transactions taking place there. More than half the capital in the world’s stock exchanges is “parked” offshore at some point”.
This article :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/05/offshore-tax-havens
States:
“offshore capitalism ate our economies – and itself”
What concerns me is when all those millionaires filter hundreds of thousands of $199 donations to a one Vera Baker, sitting pretty in the Cayman Islands / Martinique.
To Obama.
The wealthy you refer to do not have a cumulative net worth exceeding federal revenue.
As the article indicates, before any such pressure tactics could be implemented, the money would already be gone.
“What’s to stop Uncle Sam from doing the same to these other places?”
Probably the money they donated to obama/barney frank/chris dodd and the rest of his minions is my guess.
I like Glen Beck but...
Middle Class—Not the Rich or the Poor—Pay Majority of Federal Taxes, Says CBO Data
http://www.cnsnews.com/node/68094
But I am sure they pay far more than their share in political campaign bribes.
But now the AMT mainly hits the middle class.
All class-warfare is ultimately directed at the middle class.
Exactly!
The idiots.
Of course companies and individuals park money in tax haven countries. You would too if you were wealthy enough.
The problem with the U.S. taxing the funds is that they have no legal right to do so any more than, say, the Russians or Chinese, have to impose their taxes on income earned by Americans in the United States.
Cut tax rates to more reasonable levels and you will see more repatriated earnings.
The sole purpose of bullying Switzerland was to get them to devalue their currency. The island banks are accountec in dollars and a completely different situation. One banks in Switzerland to keep the value of one’s money stable over decades. In island banks, it’s mostly carry trade and other speculation, all short term.
This is just a beginning of a propaganda campaign to convince epople that confiscating the wealth of these account holders is justfied.
Me too. The article also seems to consider wealth to solely consist of cash in bank accounts. Completely ignoring non-cash assets.
And it seems to assume that all large corporations and rich individuals manage to complete avoid paying any tax at all. While there are tax dodges available to the rich, I doubt that most can complete avoid tax year after year.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.