jacee

Well ... I seem to have hit a nerve.Yes, the link works fine. No it's not " a fourth year university students blog" It's an information/advertising site called "Shelter Offshore" and it's not about the weather but info like this: There are some countries that haven’t got themselves in quite so much of an economic mess as the UK, and some of them welcome Britons seeking an income tax free lifestyle! As we will also demonstrate, there are nations and havens around the world where there are tax caps and where the likes of high net worth individuals and retirees are given the best deals on taxation. It's just one of any number of such sites trying to attract wealthy people who want to have their citizenship without paying taxes - ie, criminal tax evaders. Why so touchy? Why is a man of the law insisting that illegal tax havens are conducting illegal business as usual ... as if to reassure investors? Curiouser and curiouser ... Especially since a quick google news search tells an entirely different story ... Swiss bank confirms staff indicted in US tax case By Frank Jordans Associated Press / October 12, 2011 GENEVA— One current and one former employee at the Swiss private bank Julius Baer have been indicted in the United States in a $600 million tax evasion case. A Julius Baer AG spokesman, Martin Somogyi, said the Zurich-based bank was cooperating with U.S. authorities in their investigation. He provided no further details. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced the indictment Tuesday of Daniela Casadei and Fabio Frazzetto on charges of conspiring to help American clients hide more than $600 million in offshore accounts and avoid paying taxes on the money. Casadei and Frazzetto allegedly opened and managed accounts for U.S. taxpayers with an institution described in the indictment only as" Swiss Bank No. 1" -- Julius Baer. Some of the accounts were linked to fictional names, others to relatives living abroad or sham companies created to hide the true owner."The defendants also allegedly advised clients not to worry about U.S. law enforcement authorities because Swiss Bank No. 1 no longer had offices on U.S. soil," the U.S. Attorney's office said. ... Swiss media have reported that Julius Baer is among several Swiss banks currently being investigated by U.S. authorities for aiding American tax evaders. Two years ago, Switzerland's biggest bank, UBS AG, was forced to hand over the names of thousands of American account holders and pay a $780 million fine in a landmark case that started a gradual erosion of Switzerland's storied tradition of banking secrecy. Earlier this year Julius Baer paid euro50 million ($68 million) to avoid prosecution in Germany as part of a deal with tax authorities in Switzerland's northern neighbor. ... and so on ... lots and lots of info on tax havens, like this book called TAX HAVENS FOR CANADIANS CHAPTER 10 - Luxembourg: A Traditional Haven for Holding & Finance Companies CHAPTER 11 - Liechtenstein: A Bit of Utopia in Old Europe CHAPTER 12 - Switzerland: Money Haven But Not A Tax Haven CHAPTER 13 - Ireland: Special Haven for Entrepreneurs CHAPTER 14 - The United States as a Tax Haven CHAPTER 15 - Regional Branch Havens: And How You Can Use Them CHAPTER 16 - Miscellaneous Smaller Havens Switzerland seems to be out of the illegal haven business though.

The US and UK are aggressively pursuing illegal offshore funds. There's been some fallout for Switzerland ... Why is Switzerland Cleaning Up its Tax Haven Status? Switzerland is a famous offshore tax haven, renowned for its banking secrecy – but its status has been eroded and now it is having to transform itself to protect its economy Harper may not want to follow this trend, assuming some of his well-heeled supporters might have an interest in illegal tax havens. However he feels, he's got his majority in an era when public opinion takes a dim view of tax cheating Canadian individuals and corporations. We're not doing 'austerity' this time. They are.

Absolutely.And it's good that you can sit on your money so acquired, because inflation loves a sitting duck.

Ya? So your customers owe you $500b for product already delivered, but they've taken their money out of the country where you can't collect it, and you're paying banksters $50b a year to service the debt you incurred in production. Still think it's funny? We're all shareholders in Canada, all taxpayers who are on the hook to make up the taxes for the cheats. So Canada is incurring a huge business loss - and the criminals and wannabes think it's funny - and Canada can't claim it as a loss against taxes owing, get a tax reduction, declare bankruptcy and morph into a new company name debt free, etc. What do you do? Oh and by the way, if our/Canada's employees aren't working we still have to pay them anyway (ei, welfare) while the infrastructure and services for business are cut. Austerity in the public service is business cutting off its own legs. But at least we'll have lots of jail space as that's an 'investment' that business welcomes ... apparently ... If I sound confused it's because I am. I really don't get your sense of humour, blueblood. Are you Canadian? Do you not take an interest in the wellbeing of Canada as a shareholder? Do you only think of ways to rip off Canada? Don't you think we/Canada should be just a bit annoyed at people ripping us off? As shareholders?

I agree with Shady. And I think we have to take the bullying out of politics. It's such a bad example for kids. The Hudak "Good boy" ad was outrageous(ly funny) and deadly. One shot over the bow at Bay Street. (We can take you down ... did. ) A bully move against the usual bullies ... because we can. But that's enough. We are all in the business of educating the young, setting an example. Right now the millennial young in Zuccotti Park can teach us all that cooperation is much more efficient than competition, with its intrinsic duplication of effort and cost. And economic and political and police bullying are soooo 20th century.

You are absolutely right.And that corporate influence is evident in increasing accumulation of our wealth by the wealthiEST Canadians, a trend that is destroying the middle class and our economic futures. It's a destructive greed influence that endangers us all. The corporate and/or personal influence on politicians (lawmakers) and/or bureaucrats (policymakers) ... and perhaps on law enforcement ... and the judiciary? ... has the result of increasing the income gap between the richest and the rest of us that has led to the current civil unrest. The current economic situation is the driver of change. Ending corporate/personal influence is necessary because it's driving 99% of us into an economic ditch. Taxation is part of the picture. Hoarding wealth instead of providing jobs is another. Environmental destruction via influencing regulation is another, and the costs of cleanup are often assumed by the taxpayers but not included in costs of production: We're producing less of net value than the GDP shows so our economic outlook is no longer predictable except that it will be worse than the GDP suggests. No it isn't all about taxation it's true but we do need to ensure fairness there because we need the economy functioning and the G20 "austerity" strategy is an economic killer. It's about self preservation, for all of us.

You really think tax cheating and influence peddling info is out there for all to see? You underestimate the predators.But the first order of business is offshore tax havens and taxes outstanding. I've been wading around in this data I retrieved from StatsCan so I'll share it for general interest. CANSIM > Financial and taxation statistics for enterprises, by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), (dollars unless otherwise noted)

Neither one of these videos supports what you say, Bob. The young man says "Socialism is not a bad thing but socialism is not an answer in itself." OccupyTogether (everywhere) is not a socialist or communist movement, though tax cheaters will try to paint it this way to discredit it. What we're trying to do is to rid capitalism of predators who are takers and don't pay their own way: monopolistic predators, corporatist predators who buy up and shut down competition, tax cheats who don't pay their fair share for the public infrastructure they use, predatory fake companies who jack up their share value with meaningless or fake 'announcements' and cash in before the phantom stock tanks ... and of course the wealthiEST and most powerful who 'influence' politicians and tax laws to their advantage (ie, corruption of government). That's but a sample of the serious problems with the current perverted system. It's the perversion we address.

Gee, that accounts for fewer than 1000 people in the US. http://www.boundless.org/2000/features/a0000225.htmlYa, that's a huge problem. And most of them work in women's services.

It's not "your own money" until all of the costs of doing business are paid, including all taxes - ie, the cost of public infrastructure and services that YOU NEED to do business.You don't pay for infrastructure and services up front: Canadian taxpayers do. (We are all equal shareholders in the Corporation of Canada). AFTER you've used the public infrastructure to earn UNTAXED revenues, you are assessed for the cost of your use, based on your revenues minus costs, and you pay income tax on that. Anyone whose income is a paycheque knows that gross income doesn't mean much: It's net pay (take home) that you live on and since the taxes are already taken off, you don't miss them because your mental calculations are based on net pay. For the self-employed/corporations, however, gross revenues are king and taxes are taken off later. That's a serious problem, in my opinion, because those people do mental calculations based on before tax income , and then feel 'betrayed' that they have to pay taxes out of what they were thinking was their "own" money. Smart people with untaxed income pay taxes upfront/quarterly so there are no surprises or huge obligations at tax time. Those who leave all payment for the costs of public infrastructure and services to tax time cause their own grief, and they whine a lot. Tough. You caused your own pain by failing to have an adequate business plan that included the costs you pay for services and infrastructure paid for by the people of Canada. I have less than zero sympathy for those who fail to include public costs in their business planning and then whine about it being their "own money". That's just lousy business planning. It's not "your own money" until you've paid the taxpayers for their investment in your business. If you don't pay the full cost of doing business, you are on government 'welfare', a parasite living off the taxpayers. If you can't make a reasonable profit while paying ALL of your business costs, you may as well go collect welfare and live the 'good life' off the taxpayers that way. It would be cheaper for us all. I believe that taxes should be collected upfront, as they are for wage earners, to prevent the mental miscalculations of the self-employed/companies who mistakenly think public costs are somehow a free 'donation' to their success: They are not charity for business. We all pay the cost of public infrastructure according to the revenues we make from using them. Your cost-per-unit/service should include public costs. If it doesn't, you are just a lousy businessperson imo. Aside from this, I think we need to get more astute about businesses that aren't really businesses but perhaps just expensive hobbies used as tax writeoffs for the costs they generate. Perhaps that's another topic ... but would I give a receipt for an item purchased by someone for their hobby? Not a snowball's chance in hell!

They don't.

Showdown day! http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCATRE79905B20111012

$2.6b per year in direct corporate subsidies, 35% tax breaks for the wealthiest, tax evasion estimated at $300b in lost revenues. Data from a variety of sources. I do my own math.

See? Plenty of jobs doing decent work, other than working on Wall Street.

The link you provided earlier contained no data-ie it looked like the graph had been removed.The link you now provide doesn't support the statement you posted. Try again.

http://m.rollingstone.com/?redirurl=/politics/news/my-advice-to-the-occupy-wall-street-protesters-20111012 How does law enforcement address the crimes of Bay Street? How can they do it more thoroughly? How can they do it completely? It would seem to me that safeguarding the economic system of Canada from theft, fraud and especially from corruption of government should be a primary function of our law enforcers. Why aren't they doing their jobs? Why has law enforcement in Canada allowed our economy and our government to be co-opted by criminals?

That's Canadian politics as played by Libs and Cons since Canada began. They publicly challenge each other, but privately go about doing things the same way - using public money and contracts to payoff their political financers. They are the enablers of the 1%.

This has Harper's hand all over it ...

What 'entitlements' are dispensable in your opinion?

There are lots of other careers ... auditing thetaxes of the wealthy, for example.

It's about them too, and the rest of us because the wealth is flowing to the 1% from all of us. The donation$ are coming from all ages and all walks of life, except perhaps the wealthiEST.

Get some data, a link, anything, but a title with a blank graph and your words? Not good enough. Oh, and make sure it's about the wealthiest 1%. Not the top income earners. They're different.

Irrelevant.

Those are big name universities. Never underestimate the power of peer disapproval. These generations of students will put a dent in the 'sexiness' of financial careers and predatory wealth.

Yes media polls are "non-scientific" but fun. However I'd bet this one's close to accurate from what I've see of left-right sensibilities. You have to remember ... left wing or right wing, everybody thinks economic problems are somebody else's fault (unions/bosses). However, there seems to be more agreement that banksters/tradsters/ceosters are a problem for everyone. Doesn't matter whether you are employed by the public or private sector, union or non-union, if you have a mortgage, loan or credit card you know the banksters are making a lot of money off you. You also know they don't give a damn about you: They pander to the BIG money. The only ones saying "No" are some private sector bossters and the banksters and their lawyers. Nobody wants the financial system to fail. That would hurt every one of us. We want it to improve. It has to improve. It's doing a really lousy job for 99% of us.