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Evidence from leaked account data on how elites use offshore banking [pdf]

brookings.edu

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Re: Evidence from leaked account data on how elites use offshore banking [pdf]

#181

Post by tiborsaas »

aantix wrote: post #168
odiroot wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being a software engineer in a EU country, you're definitely not a classically rich person. In USA, maybe? In EU not so much. There's so many professions (quite common at that) that earn more, or even much more than us.

Why aren’t software engineers valued more in EU?

Most people accept it's just another job which pays a bit (somewhere a lot more) better compared to alternatives.

Also the companies who employ these engineers aren't making that much money to burn. That's just my hunch, I haven't done a thorough research.

Re: Evidence from leaked account data on how elites use offshore banking [pdf]

#182

Post by jandrewrogers »

rhacker wrote: post #125
lend000 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that there are people making 10,000 times as much as the highest bracket in a single year suggests whoever is proposing these tax laws does not actually want to solve the problem. There should be brackets going up to a billion dollars, adjusted every time someone makes an order of magnitude more than the highest bracket. Also, making 400K does not make you rich. In California, you are actually bringing home…

Are you serious? 400K definitely makes you rich. As if you do that for 10 years you have 4M dollars, 20 years? $8M I get that COL lowers that, but if you are making 400K you're not renting.

If you are making $400k in California, in places where you are likely to make that much, quite a lot of that is going to taxes and expenses. Sure, you might be able to save $2M over a decade, which makes you well off for sure, but "rich" is a bit of a stretch when all it affords you is paying a mortgage on a mid-century formerly middle-class house vaguely within commuting distance.

Calling that lifestyle "rich" just serves to muddy the water. This is soundly in the category of upper-middle class and decades away from being financially independent.

Re: Evidence from leaked account data on how elites use offshore banking [pdf]

#183

Post by trentnix »

tigershark wrote: post #93
trentnix wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the taxes they take from you get spent as poorly as possible. And the solution is always more taxes.

Better that spending them golfing in your golf courts while grifting tens of millions per year by forcing the secret service to stay there paying an exorbitant price...

If you’re arguing our elected officials receive exorbitant benefits on the taxpayer dime, you’ve got a friend in me. But unfortunately that is but a drop in the bucket of the grift involved in entitlement fraud, tax fraud, foreign aid fraud, military-industrial hustle, and the Trillions of other ways our “representatives” by favor and votes with other people's money.

Re: Evidence from leaked account data on how elites use offshore banking [pdf]

#184

Post by vmception »

ABCLAW wrote: post #158
vmception wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have noticed nothing "pejorative" in the language used in the document. First page after the abstract "It is this information asymmetry that gives rise to a host of problems" as opposed to benefits? This study is fairly balanced but chooses to only focus on illegal tax evasion by the wealthy and corrupt behavior of public officials. Instead of legal tax deferment or avoidance.

Because legal tax avoidance isn't an issue and is a topic for another paper. Why is every second reply in this comment thread trying to deflect away from the documented widespread, commonplace fraud that constitutes a wealth transfer away from common taxpayers?

Because it fails to distinguish. This paper would be more productive talking about the cybersecurity failings of the bank in the Isle of Man and how the country's data legislation can be improved.

The history of state revenue sources has been much broader than the last 100 years of worrying about whether everyone is getting hosed equally. High tax jurisdictions who will never balance their budget are in a quagmire of their own design, and they lack the consensus mechanisms to do anything about it. They are failed states in this regard and that has nothing to do with rest of the world.

Re: Evidence from leaked account data on how elites use offshore banking [pdf]

#185

Post by CPLX »

brianwawok wrote: post #173
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great, but there are many more mid-six-figure earners who don't have >$10M in household net worth. And if you tax mid-six-figure earners, you get them, too. If you want to target wealth over $10M, tax wealth over $10M .

Are you excluding primary residence? A lot of paper millionaires due to lucky real estate

> paper millionaires

Is there some other kind of millionaire?

Re: Evidence from leaked account data on how elites use offshore banking [pdf]

#186

Post by SantalBlush »

bpodgursky wrote: post #140
tarsinge wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The ultra rich/wealthy are a red herring, there’s only a few 10k of them of them. Only 614 people are billionaires. Have a look at what inconveniencing just 400 of them would do (they would still be billionaire after) https://mkorostoff.github.io/1-pixel-wealth/

To save other people time, this is nothing but a gimmicky html box showing what a stack of money looks like compared to other stacks of money.

Do you mean data visualization?

Re: Evidence from leaked account data on how elites use offshore banking [pdf]

#187

Post by jahewson »

Swizec wrote: post #51
ajsnigrutin wrote: post #38

That's why i'm against high taxes. We get a bunch of random political parties, promising to "tax the rich" and stuff, we get new laws... and what happens? - The poor already pay very little tax - no change there - The rich avoid the tax by doing shady stuff (who remembers the panama papers.. or this.. or many other stories like these) - I, the middle class engineer get fucked by the taxes, and I get fucked hard, and…

> I, the middle class engineer get fucked by the taxes Fwiw we feel like middle class but we’re really in the top 5% or higher. We’re the rich people these taxes and politicians talk about. The ultra rich/wealthy are a red herring, there’s only a few 10k of them of them. Only 614 people are billionaires. 7 figure income (salary) puts you in top 0.35% ... that’s 1,120,000 Americans. Not a whole lot. edit: top 10% star…

No, no, earning a salary is for poor people. Real rich people own things. They also happen to own most of the things.

Re: Evidence from leaked account data on how elites use offshore banking [pdf]

#188

Post by missedthecue »

DSingularity wrote: post #12
Trias11 wrote: post #3

>> the customers of offshore banks are likely to be from the wealthiest segment of whichever society they come from. What a surprising discovery. Governments with the most abusive tax policies still cannot realize that they cannot tax their way to prosperity. Most creative and productive people, entities and businessed did, do and will use any tools at their disposal to escape barbaric tax racket and turn their atten…

Come on. The ultra-rich don’t pay their fair share. You know this and everyone knows this. Wealth inequality is obscene. Full stop.

In America, the top 1% has 20% of the income, but pays almost 40% of the taxes. What is their 'fair share'? What is your fair share of someone else's income?

Countries like Norway or Sweden, which have more billionaires per capita than the USA have much less progressive tax codes.

Re: Evidence from leaked account data on how elites use offshore banking [pdf]

#189

Post by prestigious »

gzer0 wrote: post #58
ajsnigrutin wrote: post #38

That's why i'm against high taxes. We get a bunch of random political parties, promising to "tax the rich" and stuff, we get new laws... and what happens? - The poor already pay very little tax - no change there - The rich avoid the tax by doing shady stuff (who remembers the panama papers.. or this.. or many other stories like these) - I, the middle class engineer get fucked by the taxes, and I get fucked hard, and…

Unless you are making more than $400,000, the new tax proposals would not affect you. What is your definition of "middle class"? Someone making $400k is most certainly in the top 1%. What tax changes have occurred so far in the past few decades that are significantly affecting you? I would genuinely like to know

Canadian here can’t really comment on US taxes but our PM Justin Trudeau elected on demonizing the 1% but then promptly cut tax credits on children sports, public transit, child credits, etc while doing nothing to his billionaire buddies so certainly sounds familiar from up here.

Re: Evidence from leaked account data on how elites use offshore banking [pdf]

#190

Post by CPLX »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #182
rhacker wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you serious? 400K definitely makes you rich. As if you do that for 10 years you have 4M dollars, 20 years? $8M I get that COL lowers that, but if you are making 400K you're not renting.

If you are making $400k in California, in places where you are likely to make that much, quite a lot of that is going to taxes and expenses. Sure, you might be able to save $2M over a decade, which makes you well off for sure, but "rich" is a bit of a stretch when all it affords you is paying a mortgage on a mid-century formerly middle-class house vaguely within commuting distance. Calling that lifestyle "rich" just…

This is a staggering lack of perspective. The average American takes around ten years to make that amount of money.

Tell them at the end of the year you’re going to give them the next nine years of paychecks as a Christmas bonus and then ask them if they feel financially independent.

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