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

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

#381

Post by tremon »

JorgeGT wrote: post #246
pier25 wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Miguel Arias Cañete, wife of a current Spanish minister and European Commissioner Nope. It's the man himself, not his wife.

Nope. His wife is the only one mentioned in the data according to the reporters: > The third Spaniard to appear in the giant leak is the wife of former Spanish Agriculture Minister Miguel Arias Cañete, Micaela Domecq Solís-Beaumont, who was "empowered to approve transactions of Rinconada Investments Group SA, a Panama company registered in 2005 which was in existence while her husband Miguel Arias Cañete held public…

His wife is not called "Miguel Arias Cañete" though.

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

#382

Post by ThrustVectoring »

bufordsharkley wrote: post #314
StreamBright wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only "fair" tax type is VAT for humans. Buying a SUV -> You pay 10,000 USD in taxes. Buying bread -> You pay 0.01 USD in taxes. We could get rid off income tax at all and just increase the VAT to ~20 - 50% depending on the type of the product. This way it is almost impossible to cheat. Solving taxation for corporations still an issue though.

For what it's worth, it's hard to see a Land Value Tax as being unfair, it's extremely hard to hide your taxable assets, and it works well for people as well as corporations.

Land-value taxation has much better incentives. Income taxes provide an incentive to be "poor", while land-value taxes provide an incentive to not use valuable space.

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

#383

Post by erkkie »

StreamBright wrote: post #310
smsm42 wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eliminating inequality of taxation means flat tax instead of progressive tax. That would require either substantial reduction of the government expenses or substantial raise of the taxes for low incomes. That probably won't be very popular.

The only "fair" tax type is VAT for humans. Buying a SUV -> You pay 10,000 USD in taxes. Buying bread -> You pay 0.01 USD in taxes. We could get rid off income tax at all and just increase the VAT to ~20 - 50% depending on the type of the product. This way it is almost impossible to cheat. Solving taxation for corporations still an issue though.

I agree in theory, but in practice, it's impossible unless the entire world agrees on the same VAT rules, otherwise shopping across country barriers is bound to happen.

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

#384

Post by tremon »

cm2187 wrote: post #319

I am surprised given the audience oh HN that no one seems to consider the technical aspect of this leak. This is yet another failure to protect corporate data. It is obvious that this law firm worked with criminals, but I am sure they also had legitimate clients whose private information is now exposed. Of all the companies, a law firm contains secret that are protected by law (attorney-client privilege) and for very…

I did consider it, in the sense that I think we should be very lucky that corporate digital rights management still isn't ubiquitous.

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

#385

Post by austerity »

How did this become about taxes when it's actually about corruption? New evidence is uncovered of people at the top systematically abusing their power and disregarding the very laws they instill upon everyone else. Yet HN commenters are telling me the problem is that I am not giving these bastards a large enough share of my income.

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

#386

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

ptaipale wrote: post #193
TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia's socialist days are long behind it now, for better or worse.

However, curiously, at least over here (Finland), the old Communist sympathizers seem to still be friends of Russia. Or vice versa: if someone is uncritically repeating Russian propaganda (re Ukraine, Donbass etc) then if he's standing in the election he's most likely with one of fringe communist parties. It somehow goes beyond just hating America and NATO which are good common enemies. It is weird of course, as some…

Yeah, I've noticed that some Communist movements still seem to be fond of Russia, despite everything that made them like it being gone. It's certainly not something exclusive to Finland.

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

#387

Post by alkonaut »

isaacremuant wrote: post #380
alkonaut wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ohh, please stop, do you really believe that western media care a single bit about free elections in Russia? I think any person in the "west" would be delighted to see free elections in Russia. Why wouldn't we? Since it would be a missive influence on our lives, of course western media should care! A government elected by popular vote would be stabilizing to the region (and the world) since it wouldn't have the sam…

> I think any person in the "west" would be delighted to see free elections in Russia. Why wouldn't we? Since it would be a missive influence on our lives, of course western media should care! In practice, that's not true. Take Egypt as an example where the US government tried to keep Mubarak/Suleiman in place [1] until it was unfeasible during the Arab Spring. When it was time for elections, they pretended to be for…

> That was not well received because democracy is only good if people elect who we want them to elect.

Well, there is always the age-old question of whether democracy canbe abandoned with democratic means. (Note I don't know what the MB platform was in these elections, nor what the constiution looked like). Egypt has deep rooted issues with its military being entrenched in all parts of society and politics (A problem which in turn to a large part was created by western intervention /long time subsidies!). Reversing that will take a very long time, and there is always the risk that the people elect a populist government (be it religious populism or some other kind). There is little reason to believe the situation in Egypt will improve any quicker than it has in e.g. Burma. Which is to say, the west will try to meddle in semi-democratic elections for many decades yet.

When I say everyone in the west would be delighted to see free and fair elections in Russia it's because I believe that the Russian people are quite sensible and would elect a decent leadership if given the chance.

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

#388

Post by burkaman »

grecy wrote: post #260
burkaman wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried watching or reading the news at all while you're here? This comment reads like someone imagining what American media might be like.

I've been watching the news and reading newspapers every day for 6 months, across 4 different states.

Alright, well, most news is going to be negative, that's just how news works. You're not going to see the headline "Things at the NHS are going pretty well", because that's not news. Just like you won't see "Medicare has been pretty solid this month" or something. You will see that kind of analysis in editorials and magazines though.

So I can understand if you don't see much positive commentary about other countries, that's just the nature of the news. But if you're not seeing anything negative about America, then I can't believe you're actually reading any news.

I think the expected mindset for the reader is that things in other developed countries are usually going pretty well, and no news is good news. The media will report on ongoing stories, like Brazil's corruption scandal, the European migrant crisis, Israel/Palestine, etc., and on new newsworthy events, which unfortunately are usually negative. Something like "France passes great budget" is just not interesting enough for a general audience newspaper.

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

#389

Post by ju-st »

visarga wrote: post #300
cft wrote: post #290

I like this quote: [1] Fonseca was born 14 on July 1952 in Panama,and studied law and political science at the University of Panama and the London School of Economics. As a young man, "he hoped to save the world". 1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramón_Fonseca_Mora

> "he hoped to save the world" he hoped to save the [money of the richest people in the] world

He is a true believer of trickle down economics!

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

#390

Post by kuschku »

tomp wrote: post #115
kuschku wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On TV some of the journalists involved just said that they wouldn’t know "any western bank or government not involved in this". You should watch the TV debate, btw.

On which channel? BBC?

ARD.
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