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Panama Papers: Mossack Fonseca leak reveals elite's tax havens

bbc.com

141–150 of 452 posts

Re: Panama Papers: Mossack Fonseca leak reveals elite's tax havens

#141
post #127
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's your opinion. I think taxation is extortion. Who's to say I'm not entitled to my point of view?

Ignoring fairness of certain taxes and issues with tax laws in general, taxes are the rent one has to pay for living in a place. If you don't have income you usually won't pay most taxes at all. It's arguable how much of the tax system works and what parts are just plain broken and favor certain interest groups, but that's an implementation detail. If you visit places where much of the population evades taxes, you'll…

> If there were no taxes, you'd probably have to buy tickets to walk and drive on roads, stroll in the park, swim in a sea

Do you have to insert coins into your smartphone every time you call someone these days? And yet it's almost impossible to live without a smartphone today, so people buy them and pay for the plans. But, but, they do have a choice of which operator to use (and, frankly, US is the worst example here, Europe/Asia is much less regulated in this respect, so it's cheaper and simpler there). Do you see where I'm going with this example?

Yes, I only want to pay for things which I use. And have a choice of, for example, which school to send my kids to (if any) without having to pay the same price. I want things provided on the market, which generally makes them cheaper, not more expensive. Almost any example of a market you take, where government once heavily regulated or provided a product or service, but then deregulated it and invited private companies to fill in - you will find that the price fell and quality rose, giving more people (not less) access to the said service or product.

I don't want to pay for: 1) wars 2) torture 3) police abuse 4) government mismanagement 5) that guy who has no job and has a gambling addiction 6) that guy who smokes 3 packs a day and demands free healthcare 7) politicians flying big jets and employing goons with guns to protect them.

Re: Panama Papers: Mossack Fonseca leak reveals elite's tax havens

#143
post #21

Panama just passed compliance with FATF (February 2016) and it's a message that their political leader/law firm owner/world's largest money launderer (his name is in the OP's title) is no longer open for business after decades of being the go-to place for hidden $$$. http://www.fatf-gafi.org/countries/#Panama "The FATF recognised that Algeria, Angola and Panama have made significant progress in improving their regime…

> Real leaks don't have fancy websites with responsive vectorized portraits and a full on content /social media structure.

Yes they do and you're welcome.

Sincerely, somebody who worked on this for way too long and practically hasn't left the office this entire weekend.

Re: Panama Papers: Mossack Fonseca leak reveals elite's tax havens

#144
post #133
post #8

Holy moly, something tells me this will blow up. Any torrent available?

exactly, not so much as a leak as a release. The presumption that the press (even 100 odd institutions) need to be gatekeepers for this inforamation is offensive. Especially since the mostly sham of an excuse of the snowden documents does not hold in this case.

Sure, let’s leak passports, bank account data, etc of all shareholders of 214'000 companies...

That would get the media immediately closed.

Re: Panama Papers: Mossack Fonseca leak reveals elite's tax havens

#145

Hilarious that BBC, a broadcaster paid for by British tax payers, has a subheading in that article titled "Russian connection" describing various dealings of Russian characters who are "close associates" of Putin and an equally sordid "Iceland connection" but not even a mention of David Cameron's father's tax evading schemes listed in the documents which the people of Great Britain should be vastly more interested in…

> paid for by British tax payers, While that is mostly true, (it's the same people obviously) I'm pretty sure the BBC isn't funded by taxes . If they were, they would be under political control. Which would be silly.

It's funded by the license fee. You don't have to pay but then you can't watch live TV.

Re: Panama Papers: Mossack Fonseca leak reveals elite's tax havens

#148
post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did not say anything about my beliefs and it is not important WHY do they care about Russia. The only thing that is important, is the result - whether these critics are justified, whether they serve Russian interests or not. They do serve. If this was not someone's goal, shame on that guy, he failed. If it was, thanks to him, he did his job well.

> whether they serve Russian interests or not. They do serve. You're assuming that free elections would benefit common Russians. They wouldn't. You're right about one thing, though: it wouldn't be Putin and his cronies siphoning all of Russia's wealth (resourceful citizens, natural resources, ...). It would be the western conglomerates.

I do not know who "common Russians" are. However, I am Russian and I would like free elections, thank you.

Re: Panama Papers: Mossack Fonseca leak reveals elite's tax havens

#149
post #42
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One article claims there is $20 trillion hidden in tax havens.[1] That sounds like a lot, but considering that this is money that has accumulated over the course of decades (say 30 years), and only a portion of it would be taxable (say 20%), that would give an annual revenue stream of $133 billion per year. If that all went to the US, that would be about 7 times more than is collected by the estate tax, which is less…

$133 billion per year! That would buy us one F-35 fighter jet per year!

You are off only for about a factor of 1000.

Re: Panama Papers: Mossack Fonseca leak reveals elite's tax havens

#150

Hilarious that BBC, a broadcaster paid for by British tax payers, has a subheading in that article titled "Russian connection" describing various dealings of Russian characters who are "close associates" of Putin and an equally sordid "Iceland connection" but not even a mention of David Cameron's father's tax evading schemes listed in the documents which the people of Great Britain should be vastly more interested in…

I believe they are withholding details regarding any British connections until the BBC Panorama show which airs tomorrow. As before, this leak is coordinated across different media organisations and the whole news cache is released iteratively.

That might be the case, we will have to see. But surely it is strange to single out Russia in this way.
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