Quoted from CICERO

I never argued fairness.  That's your argument.(except when you justify your tax break).

Quoted from Box A Rox

Off shore tax havens are illegal... Tax Breaks for Veterans (or the elderly, or the disabled, or for
what ever reason the municipality authorizes) are legal and transparent.

Quoted from Box A Rox

Off shore tax havens are illegal... Tax Breaks for Veterans (or the elderly, or the disabled, or for
what ever reason the municipality authorizes) are legal and transparent.

Quoted from CICERO

They're not illegal.  If that's the case, then why is Microsoft and Apple traded on the NYSE?  Kick them out of the country and forbid them from trading on the NYSE.  If it is illegal, why isn't the DOJ prosecuting these companies?

Oh yeah, check your portfolio and dump Apple and Microsoft stock.

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According to U.S. tax law, it's illegal for U.S. citizens to take advantage
of offshore tax havens.
If you should ignore these laws, pursue an offshore tax haven and then get caught
by the IRS...you will be prosecuted for tax evasion. U.S. citizens are required to pay
taxes no matter where their income comes from. The only way around that law is
to renounce your citizenship and become a citizen of the offshore tax haven country.

Quoted from Box A Rox

Are Offshore Tax Havens Legal for US Citizens?

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What is the world's largest tax haven?

If you guessed any country in the Caribbean, South Pacific, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Central or South America or Europe, then you would be wrong.

Only the United States can lay claim to that title.

Ever since the French loaned money to the struggling revolutionaries who defeated the British to create the United States, to today where the Chinese are buying U.S. Treasury debt, the United States would not be able to maintain its economy without large inflows of foreign capital.

Foreign investors can invest in the United States virtually tax free — in structures that are legally protected from risks and, currently, with secrecy.

With fairly simple planning, a foreign investor can avoid tax on interest as well as gains from sale of securities — all protected by the legal system and effectively the government guaranteeing the solvency of the financial system.

As for secrecy, Delaware or Nevada are quite accommodating. In these states, a foreign company or individuals can form a limited liability company and open a bank account, but if the investor does its or his business outside the United States, there is no U.S. tax or reporting.

There are no investors — the people who actually create investment capital — who have any complaint against offshore tax-haven financial centers.

The United States is no different, as the United States is off the shore of most every other country in the world.

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Top tax haven got more investment in 2013 than India and Brazil: U.N
By Tom Miles
GENEVA | Tue Jan 28, 2014 2:04pm EST


By Tom Miles

GENEVA (Reuters) - The British Virgin Islands got more foreign direct investment last year than the major emerging economies of India and Brazil combined, a United Nations survey said on Tuesday.

The Caribbean archipelago, a tax haven otherwise dependent on tourism, has jumped up the league table of top investment destinations in the past five years. It welcomed $92 billion of foreign cash in 2013, according to preliminary figures compiled by the U.N. trade and economy thinktank UNCTAD.

That was the fourth biggest haul of investment globally. The world's biggest economy, United States, attracted $159 billion.

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The State Department Has Lost Track of More Than $6 Billion in the Last Six Years
Apr. 4, 2014 6:23pm      Becket Adams
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Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addresses a student conference Clinton Global Initiative University at Arizona State University, Friday, March 21, 2014, in Tempe, Ariz. (AP)
The State Department has lost track of approximately $6 billion used to pay its contractors, according to a report from the department’s Inspector General.

An inability to file paperwork properly and a “lack of internal control at the department has led to billions of unaccounted dollars over the last six years,” State Department Inspector General Steve Linick said in a “management alert” made public Thursday.

Linick was appointed to his current position in 2013 after the State Department went without an IG for nearly five years, the longest that any federal agency has gone without a chief auditor, the Washington Post reported.

“The failure to maintain contract files adequately creates significant financial risk and demonstrates a lack of internal control over the Department’s contract actions,” the alert states.

The department’s mismanagement of contract funds and contract-related files started a little before Hillary Clinton was appointed Secretary of State. It continued throughout her entire tenure at the State Department.

The IG’s alert, which was published on March 20, but only made available this week, comes at a time when the federal government struggles with contracts and payments to private contractors, the Fiscal Times reported.

The government’s continued lack of oversight “exposes the department to significant financial risk,” Linick said. “It creates conditions conducive to fraud, as corrupt individuals may attempt to conceal evidence of illicit behavior by omitting key documents from the contract file. It impairs the ability of the Department to take effective and timely action to protect its interests, and, in turn, those of taxpayers.”

The IG memo continues, listing several examples of “of poor contract file administration.”

For example, the IG found during its investigation of contracts issued in support of U.S. operations in Iraq that 33 of 115 contracts have gone missing. The 33 missing contracts are worth a total of $2.1 billion.

And as for the remaining 82 contracts, auditors say at least 48 are missing the necessary documentation required under federal law, the Fiscal Times reported.

The IG recommended in its report that the State Department establish a system to maintain and organize all contracts and contract-related documentation. The State Department responded by agreeing with the auditor’s suggestion, saying that it will address its “vulnerability” in awarding and maintaining information on contracts.

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Published by Sammy Said
7/23/13
In 2009, the governments of the 20 wealthiest countries in the world vowed that they will tighten the regulations that enabled rampant tax evasions in their own nation and territories. The major problem that these countries faced was the high level of secrecy when it comes to withholding the financial assets of clients from the authorities. However, two years later, despite the increase in such regulations, people were still left with a great number of countries to choose from that will allow them to evade their taxes through the use of offshore accounts. This was according to a report made by the Tax Justice Network.

The report, which the Tax Justice Network referred to as the Financial Secrecy Index, assessed 73 different jurisdictions around the world that allowed billions of foreign currency to be stored in offshore accounts. The money that was deposited into these accounts were also left untaxed. The report found that governments worldwide lose approximately $250 billion in revenue every year because of these offshore accounts.

This list is comprised of the 10 biggest tax havens in the world – countries that allow the highest level of client financial secrecy, tax evasion, and offshore accounts.

10. Bahrain
Bahrain, situated near the Persian Gulf’s western shores, is a small island-country. The archipelago’s largest island is Bahrain Island. While there are plenty of financial institutions offering offshore banking services and bank accounts in the island, its client financial secrecy is the lowest of all the other nations included in this list. Bahrain gets tenth place because it has the lowest level of Financial Secrecy Index value based from the Tax Justice Network’s report, which is at 660.3. It also has a Secrecy Score of 78.

9. Germany
Germany makes it easy for people to open offshore bank accounts. However, this has also resulted in the increasing number of individuals opening such accounts so they can evade their taxes. The good news is that the country is trying to control this problem through the implementation of stricter and much more stringent policies. In the report, Germany got a score of 669.8 for its Financial Secrecy Index value, and a Secrecy Score of 57.

8. Japan
JAPAN Many of the offshore banks in Japan do not subject the deposits made by their clients to interest rate standards and regulations. Fortunately, with the offshore banking center that has been established in Tokyo, the country’s law enforcement authorities would at least be able to monitor and control any developments in these financial institutions.

7. Jersey
Jersey is a British Crown Dependency that houses a great number of banks offering offshore accounts to foreign clients. Offshore banking and investments has been a part of the bailiwick’s underground economy. In the Tax Justice Network report, Jersey got a Financial Secrecy Index value of 750.1 and a Secrecy Score of 78.

6. Singapore
Singapore, an island city-state in Southeast Asia, is considered by many as one of their best choices for opening offshore bank accounts. Almost anyone can open such a bank account without experiencing any hassle. This is one of the major reasons why Singapore was graded with a Financial Secrecy Index value of 1,118 and a Secrecy Score of 71 by the Tax Justice Network.

5. U.S.A.
The states of Nevada and Wyoming are two of the major contributing factors to the country’s increasing problems in terms of tax evasion. In Nevada, there are no capital gains, gift tax, personal income tax, and inheritance tax. In Wyoming, there are no corporate taxes, inventory taxes, unitary taxes, gift taxes, estate taxes, personal income taxes, franchise taxes, and inheritance taxes.

4. Hong Kong
In the People’s Republic of China, there are two Special Administrative Regions, with Hong Kong being one of them. It is located at the south coast of China and is surrounded by the South China Sea and the Pearl River Delta. Seven million people live in the region. Aside from being a popular tourist hot spot, Hong Kong is also a haven for people who do not want to pay their taxes and deposit large amounts of money in offshore accounts. Here, clients do not have to pay for sales taxes, capital gains, and payroll taxes. They also do not have to worry about personal tax being deducted from their money.

3. Luxembourg
One of the members of the European Union, the United Nations, Benelux, OECD, and Nato, Luxembourg is a country that reflects political consensus as it is in favor of economic, military, and political integration. The country’s capital city, which is also the largest, is the city of Luxembourg. In the Tax Justice Network report, the country got a Financial Secrecy Index value of 1,621.2 and a Secrecy Score of 68, which renders it at third place on our list.

2. The Cayman Islands
The Cayman Islands, a British Overseas Territory situated in the western part of the Caribbean Sea, is comprised of three different islands. There is the Grand Cayman, the Cayman Brac, and the Little Cayman. These islands are located northwest of Jamaica and to the south of Cuba. In the Cayman Islands, people who are looking to evade their taxes get the full package. They do not have to pay for personal income taxes, capital gains, corporate taxes, and payroll taxes. The country does not even withhold tax on foreign clients.

1. Switzerland
Switzerland takes the number one spot in this list of the 10 biggest tax havens in the world for several reasons. One of these is because the country implements an extremely high level of secrecy when it comes to the financial assets of its clients. While it is true that there are other jurisdictions that allow for even greater secrecy such as the Bahamas and Bermuda, Switzerland beats them because the country operates on a much larger scale. It is also because of the fact that the bank accounts managed in the country are also operated on a massive scale. The offshore accounts here have partial or full tax exemptions, depending on the private bank.

Quoted from Box A Rox

Off shore tax havens are illegal... Tax Breaks for Veterans (or the elderly, or the disabled, or for
what ever reason the municipality authorizes) are legal and transparent.

Quoted Text

The Elephant In The Room: Deutsche Bank's $75 Trillion In Derivatives Is 20 Times Greater Than German GDP
Tyler Durden's pictureSubmitted by Tyler Durden on 04/28/2014 14:56 -0400

CDS Deutsche Bank European Central Bank Germany Gross Domestic Product Realit


It is perhaps supremely ironic that the last time we did an in depth analysis of Deutsche Bank's financial situation was precisely a year ago, when the largest bank in Europe (and according to some, the world), stunned its investors with a 10% equity dilution. Why the capital raise if everything was as peachy as the ECB promised it had been? It turned out, nothing was peachy, and in fact DB would proceed to undergo a massive balance sheet deleveraging campaign over the next year, in which it would quietly dispose of all the ugly stuff on its balance sheet during the relentless Fed and BOJ-inspired "dash for trash" rally in a way not to spook investors about everything else that may be beneath the Deutsche covers.

We note this because moments ago, Deutsche Bank did the same again when it announced that it would issue yet another €1.5 billion in Tier 1 capital.

The issuance will be the third step in a co-ordinated series of measures, announced on 29 April 2013, to further strengthen the Bank’s capital structure and follows a EUR 3 billion equity capital raise in April 2013 and the issuance of USD 1.5 billion CRD4 compliant Tier 2 securities in May 2013. Today’s announced transaction is the first step towards reaching the overall targeted volume of approximately EUR 5 billion of CRD4 compliant Additional Tier 1 capital which the Bank plans to issue by the end of 2015
Ok, so in retrospect nothing is peachy in Frankfurt, and for all the constant lies about improving NPLs and rising cash flows, banks - especially those which not even the ECB can bailout when push comes to shove - Deutsche is as bad as it was a year ago.

So, just like last year when we decided to take a look inside the company's financials to understand why DB was scrambling to dilute its shareholders and raise a few paltry billion in cash, so this year too, we had the pleasure of perusing the European megabank's annual report.

What we found, while hardly surprising for those who read out post from also a year ago, "At $72.8 Trillion, Presenting The Bank With The Biggest Derivative Exposure In The World (Hint: Not JPMorgan)", is just as jarring.

Because while America's largest bank by assets, and certainly ego of its CEO, that would be JPMorgan of course, had a whopping $70.4 trillion in total notional of derivative holdings (across futures, options, forwards, swaps, CDS, FX, and so on), Deutsche Bank once again put it well in the dust.

The number in question? €54,652,083,000,000 which, converted into USD at the current exchange rate, amounts to $75,718,274,913,180. Which is over $5 trillion more than JPM's total derivative holdings.



As we explained last year, the good news for Deutsche Bank's accountants and shareholders, and for Germany's spinmasters, is that through the magic of netting, this number collapses to €504.6 billion in positive market value exposure (assets), and €483.4 billion in negative market value exposure (liabilities), both of which are the single largest asset and liability line item in the firm's €1.6 trillion balance sheet mind you (and down from €2 trillion a year ago: a 20% deleveraging which according to DB "was predominantly driven by interest-rate derivatives and shifts in U.S. dollar, euro and  pound sterling yield curves during the year, foreign exchange rate movements as well as trade restructuring to  reduce mark-to-market, improved netting and increased clearing"), and subsequently collapses even further into a "tidy little package" number of just €21.2 in titak derivative "assets."

And as we further explained both last year and every other time we have the displeasure of having to explain the reality of gross vs net, this accounting gimmick works in theory, however in practice the theory falls apart the second there is discontinuity in the collateral chain as we have shown repeatedly in the past (and certainly when shadow funding conduits freeze up), and not only does the €21.2 billion number promptly cease to represent anything real, but the netted derivative exposure even promptlier become the gross number, somewhere north of $75 trillion.

The conclusion of this story has not changed one bit from last year: this epic derivative exposure is the primary reason why Germany, theatrically kicking and screaming for the past five years, has done everything in its power, even "yielding" to the ECB, to make sure there is no domino-like collapse of European banks, which would most certainly precipitate just the kind of collateral chain breakage and net-to-gross conversion that is what causes Anshu Jain, and every other bank CEO, to wake up drenched in sweat every night.

Finally, just to keep it all in perspective, below is a chart showing the GDP of both Germany and Europe compared to Deutsche Bank's total derivative exposure. If nothing else, it should make clear, once and for all, just who is truly calling the Mutually Assured Destruction shots in Europe.

Quoted from senders

income inequality is a moot point when there is no value