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Hacker Publishes 2TB of Data from Cayman National Bank

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Re: Hacker Publishes 2TB of Data from Cayman National Bank

#391

Post by mercacona »

bouncycastle wrote: post #164
gxqoz wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A recent piece in The Guardian argues that South Dakota and other US states are actually becoming the go-to place to store anonymously your illicit cash and make sure that your heirs can inherit it without taxes forever: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/14/the-great-amer... Partly because the US has compelled other countries to provide more transparency without joining that transparency organization itself.…

> place to store anonymously your illicit cash What if I just want a place to anonymously store my legally gained cash? Unfortunately, it seems the normal people lost their privacy nowadays at the expense of the criminals and the "If you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to fear" argument has taken a stronghold in the financial sector.

Maybe, because you don't own your cash, your cash is a credit that society acknowledges to you, so hiding it from which makes it valuable is nuts.

Can you eat your cash? Can you fly using your cash? Can you build a phone with cash? No, you can't do anything with cash without a public exchange that might be accountable.

Unfortunately, people did buy the idea that ”Markets can work without accountability”, and that's what you do when laundering money in a fiscal paradise. Hopefully, crypto can drive us out of that craziness of money as a good.

Re: Hacker Publishes 2TB of Data from Cayman National Bank

#392

Post by roenxi »

ncallaway wrote: post #284
bouncycastle wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By "legally gained cash" I mean that taxes have already been paid for it.

Then, by definition it's not anonymous because the authorities know that you have it. If you transfer it to someone else (legally) then there's going to be another taxable event, and the IRS will know you no longer have it. If you're trying to store cash anonymously from the public, there are many countries where that's possible. If you're trying to store cash anonymously from the government, there's not really a leg…

> If you're trying to store cash anonymously from the government, there's not really a legal avenue for that.

That is a succinct summary of the initial complaint.

We're moving from a world where a buyer and vendor agreeing means something will happen to a world where buyer, vendor, bank and government all have to agree before something will happen. This is not a world that will cope well with change.

There are big incentives for governments to get involved in every transaction (by definition, they don't agree with anything that they get involved with and block). But we get back to the classic problem that they are only bureaucratic humans and make a lot of mistakes. Also issues of regulatory capture.

Although I'll throw in I'm interested in how much of an impact enforcing tax law has on the small and big pictures. One of China's competitive advantages is they claim a low tax rate as % of GDP, and most of the tax evasion I've seen personally is small businesses recycling money into the local economy. Changes to such dynamics will have far-reaching consequences.

Re: Hacker Publishes 2TB of Data from Cayman National Bank

#393

Post by _pmf_ »

bouncycastle wrote: post #164
gxqoz wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A recent piece in The Guardian argues that South Dakota and other US states are actually becoming the go-to place to store anonymously your illicit cash and make sure that your heirs can inherit it without taxes forever: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/14/the-great-amer... Partly because the US has compelled other countries to provide more transparency without joining that transparency organization itself.…

> place to store anonymously your illicit cash What if I just want a place to anonymously store my legally gained cash? Unfortunately, it seems the normal people lost their privacy nowadays at the expense of the criminals and the "If you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to fear" argument has taken a stronghold in the financial sector.

> What if I just want a place to anonymously store my legally gained cash?

Anonymously storing it makes it illegal. With Europe's negative interest rates, they're currently in the process of making personal storage illegal for large amounts (you're supposed to store it in a bank to pay negative interest).

Re: Hacker Publishes 2TB of Data from Cayman National Bank

#394

Post by squiggleblaz »

sukilot wrote: post #282
woah wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was possible for many empires to tax effectively before modern bookkeeping. Property tax needs very little in the way of financial records to administer.

What if I choose not to spend my wealth on property?

If the only tax in a jurisdiction is an income tax and you choose to make your money through capital gains, you don't pay tax.

If the only tax in a jurisdiction is a land tax and you don't own land, you don't pay tax. This will either be because you ideologically are opposed to paying taxes and you're willing to pay more in foregone profits/opportunity cost, or because there's better more profitable investments elsewhere in the marketplace, in which case land values will grow more slowly till an equilibrium is reached.

But since most transacations are tied to land somehow (because the good was imported at the port, transported by trucks that are stored in a truckyard, and sold to you by a person who lives in a house using mobile phones that connect to transmitter towers) so you won't be engaging in some kind of pure untaxed marketplace.

It'll probably create a stockmarket bubble though. Best to tax shares as well as land.

Re: Hacker Publishes 2TB of Data from Cayman National Bank

#395

Post by NeedMoreTea »

cm2187 wrote: post #369
NeedMoreTea wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haven, not heaven. :) The city has had the deserved reputation for being a tax haven for well over a century. https://www.newstatesman.com/economy/2011/02/london-corporat...

Thanks. Got caught exactly by what this website describes [1]. “Heaven” was logical from French. [1] https://jakubmarian.com/is-it-tax-haven-or-tax-heaven-in-eng...

Interesting - didn't know most other languages had it as paradise.

Re: Hacker Publishes 2TB of Data from Cayman National Bank

#396

Post by squiggleblaz »

appleshore wrote: post #199
bouncycastle wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> place to store anonymously your illicit cash What if I just want a place to anonymously store my legally gained cash? Unfortunately, it seems the normal people lost their privacy nowadays at the expense of the criminals and the "If you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to fear" argument has taken a stronghold in the financial sector.

I live next to a bank who paid an $8.9 billion fine for money laundering. Another bank, Italy’s largest, laundered money for 10-years for Iran, Cuba and Libya in the United States. They paid a $1.3 billion fine, pled to conspiracy and received deferred prosecution. One of the executives in that bank is the older brother to a star witness in the Presidential impeachment inquiry. Yet no one really cares about crimes co…

A great many people care about crimes committed by the corporations. But, unlike Rupert Murdoch, we have no ability to influence the prosecutors.

Re: Hacker Publishes 2TB of Data from Cayman National Bank

#397

Post by epanchin »

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #360
cm2187 wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not aware of any tax that is specific to the City of London. How is it a tax heaven? And half of finance in London is not even located in the City (West End and Canary Wharf). The UK is certainly not a tax heaven.

Haven, not heaven. :) The city has had the deserved reputation for being a tax haven for well over a century. https://www.newstatesman.com/economy/2011/02/london-corporat...

The title is the only part of that page suggesting the City itself is a tax haven.

Re: Hacker Publishes 2TB of Data from Cayman National Bank

#398

Post by lolc »

newyankee wrote: post #330
microtherion wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Swiss, in a way it was sobering to see one of our dominant industries brought to heel so quickly. On the other hand, it was very satisfying to see those banks, who for decades had hid behind their hand tailored secrecy laws to do business with Nazis, dictators, and drug dealers, and were domestically untouchable, finally clean up their acts. As for "culturally and morally values privacy", I would find that a lot…

Sincere question: Do the Swiss have any moral debates about the source of wealth from third world countries' dictators, politicians etc and the impact on these countries of their action of enabling the 'theft' ? Or is the Swiss view generally more like what it has been historically, that they are neutral and provide a service that others can't.

The traditional view is indeed that we shouldn't legislate things happening in other countries. As an example for what is going on though, we're set to have a vote on the Responsible Business Initiative[0] under which "companies will be legally obliged to incorporate respect for human rights and the environment in all their business activities [...] abroad".

While initiatives usually fail the popular vote, it is not so certain for this one. It has very broad support. All parties have to argue their position regarding initiatives that will get voted on. So yes certainly there is a debate on such issues.

[0] https://corporatejustice.ch/about-the-initiative/

Re: Hacker Publishes 2TB of Data from Cayman National Bank

#400

Post by raverbashing »

thinkloop wrote: post #107
gxqoz wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A recent piece in The Guardian argues that South Dakota and other US states are actually becoming the go-to place to store anonymously your illicit cash and make sure that your heirs can inherit it without taxes forever: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/14/the-great-amer... Partly because the US has compelled other countries to provide more transparency without joining that transparency organization itself.…

> forcing foreign financial institutions to tell the US government about any American-owned assets on their books This is another interesting part. How can the US "force" a sophisticated wealthy sovereign nation that culturally and morally values banking privacy (not only for the profits), like Switzerland? It cannot be understated how much power, control and ownership the US has of the world financial system. If Swi…

> This is another interesting part. How can the US "force" a sophisticated wealthy sovereign nation that culturally and morally values banking privacy (not only for the profits), like Switzerland?

By taxing in 30% any money coming from institutions in countries not adhering to FATCA

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