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Wealthy Americans Targeted by U.S. in Panama Tax-Fraud Probe

bermudapost.com

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Re: Wealthy Americans Targeted by U.S. in Panama Tax-Fraud Probe

#41

Post by danuker »

SCUSKU wrote: post #32
jokoon wrote: post #31

I really believe that tax dodging and evasion are the biggest source of social inequality. Less budget for the state or government means less redistribution and less public services, meaning the poor becomes poorer. What's crazy is that as a european, would I talk about taxes on hacker news or reddit, I will always encounter libertarians who are arguing that taxes are bad.

"Tax = bad" thinking is basically a core pillar of the American way of thinking, unfortunately.

I argue that due to this selfishness, the US has the best local purchasing power in the world:

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/gmaps.jsp?indexToShow=...

Re: Wealthy Americans Targeted by U.S. in Panama Tax-Fraud Probe

#42

Post by ckastner »

vmception wrote: post #24
_trampeltier wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is Switzerland so high on the list? We might have low taxes for companys, but since many years now, other countrys get all information about the customers. So if an us person open an account, they send all information about it to the us. I think this is at least since 15 .. 20 years now.

US FATCA treaty to almost all countries in the world only applies to US citizens trying to open accounts in other countries. That is a one-to-many relationship. The worldwide reality is a many-to-many relationship. Switzerland doesn't snitch on other country's citizens for two reasons: 1) Other countries don't have the resources to enforce a global tax regime. And if they tried, their diplomatic leverage was so weak…

> The worldwide reality is a many-to-many relationship. Switzerland doesn't snitch on other country's citizens for two reasons

That is wrong, see AEOI/CRS as mentioned above. Switzerland exchanges information with dozens of countries and has been doing so since 2017.

And strictly speaking, it's not about citizship, but tax residency. A Danish national living in France will have their Swiss bank account reported to France, not Denmark.

Re: Wealthy Americans Targeted by U.S. in Panama Tax-Fraud Probe

#43

Post by iamben »

Blankenface wrote: post #35
glup wrote: post #3

This was originally reported by Bloomberg and then the Boston Globe, https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/07/29/business/wealthy-amer... To my knowledge, Bermuda Post is not a real journalistic organization in Bermuda (the major paper is the Royal Gazette). Instead, checking their about page reveals: 'BermudaPost is a non-profit, private and self-funded, commonly-created News and info-sharing platform that enables everyb…

I've noticed that HN has a bizarre preference for really strange news outlets and blogs over more credible and reputable outlets. Like..there will be some major news even in tech or science and HN is like "link to a major site? Naaaaah, Joenews.com!"

I've also wondered this - but I assumed it was more because most people post on HN after seeing it elsewhere. As the more 'strange' outlets (often) favour clickbait titles they get more shares/go viral more often (because people love to share without reading the full article). So I figure there's a greater chance someone will see the stranger version on social media over the (perhaps) stuffier/dryer version with the decent reporting from a more credible and less clickbaity outlet.

As an aside, HN is usually pretty good about switching the link for something better when prompted.

Re: Wealthy Americans Targeted by U.S. in Panama Tax-Fraud Probe

#44

Post by approxim8ion »

paul7986 wrote: post #14
pueblito wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I saw it on Drudge Report and hadn’t seen it discussed here. DDG gave it a B+ so I just assumed it was reputable

I think DDG's site scoring is based on how many invasive trackers and advertising it has and not if a site's information is reputable. Though someone please correct me if I'm wrong?

That is correct.

Re: Wealthy Americans Targeted by U.S. in Panama Tax-Fraud Probe

#45

Post by yunohn »

simonh wrote: post #40
jokoon wrote: post #31

I really believe that tax dodging and evasion are the biggest source of social inequality. Less budget for the state or government means less redistribution and less public services, meaning the poor becomes poorer. What's crazy is that as a european, would I talk about taxes on hacker news or reddit, I will always encounter libertarians who are arguing that taxes are bad.

Firstly inequality growth is mainly an American phenomenon, it's not really a factor in the developed world generally. The problem is the Pickety/Zucman analysis didn't fully take into account taxes and transfers, so it overestimated 1%-er incomes and underestimated low wage earner benefits. Within the US, CHIP and Medicaid expansion have made a huge difference. After all it's hard to argue Medicaid expansion has no…

> inequality growth is mainly an American phenomenon

Where do you get this from? It’s quite dismissive, given the large amount of study about wealth inequality increasing globally. This is definitely an issue throughout Europe too and even Asia, in my experience.

Re: Wealthy Americans Targeted by U.S. in Panama Tax-Fraud Probe

#46

Post by pembrook »

vmception wrote: post #26

We all assume they're avoiding taxes but the funny thing about this is that you can treat this stuff like Roth IRAs, just pay your taxes one year and then just use the post-tax money to create entities offshore and hold assets indefinitely. The IRS doesn't care what you do with post-tax money! There is no prohibition on doing stuff outside the country, there are no capital controls for US citizens. The main differenc…

> The IRS doesn't care what you do with post-tax money! There is no prohibition on doing stuff outside the country

No, the IRS absolutely does care what you do with your money abroad.

If you create a foreign bank account (anywhere) they literally require said foreign bank to send a report every year of your assets. And the bank always complies, because the US treasury can restrict its ability to transact in US dollars.

Also, as an American, having a foreign investment account is possibly the dumbest thing you can do. There’s extremely punitive taxes on foreign controlled investment accounts to the point it doesn’t make sense to hold any money abroad.

Your advice may have been true pre-2000s but it is no longer the case in a post-FATCA world.

Re: Wealthy Americans Targeted by U.S. in Panama Tax-Fraud Probe

#47

Post by meragrin_ »

Blankenface wrote: post #35
glup wrote: post #3

This was originally reported by Bloomberg and then the Boston Globe, https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/07/29/business/wealthy-amer... To my knowledge, Bermuda Post is not a real journalistic organization in Bermuda (the major paper is the Royal Gazette). Instead, checking their about page reveals: 'BermudaPost is a non-profit, private and self-funded, commonly-created News and info-sharing platform that enables everyb…

I've noticed that HN has a bizarre preference for really strange news outlets and blogs over more credible and reputable outlets. Like..there will be some major news even in tech or science and HN is like "link to a major site? Naaaaah, Joenews.com!"

I wonder whether it is more a timing issue. Mainstream sites are submitted first, but overlooked. Subsequent submissions have to use other sites and those are the ones which finally gain traction.

Re: Wealthy Americans Targeted by U.S. in Panama Tax-Fraud Probe

#48

Post by oefrha »

Blankenface wrote: post #35
glup wrote: post #3

This was originally reported by Bloomberg and then the Boston Globe, https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/07/29/business/wealthy-amer... To my knowledge, Bermuda Post is not a real journalistic organization in Bermuda (the major paper is the Royal Gazette). Instead, checking their about page reveals: 'BermudaPost is a non-profit, private and self-funded, commonly-created News and info-sharing platform that enables everyb…

I've noticed that HN has a bizarre preference for really strange news outlets and blogs over more credible and reputable outlets. Like..there will be some major news even in tech or science and HN is like "link to a major site? Naaaaah, Joenews.com!"

Major news outlets carry a small ranking penalty on HN (it's in the software), since loads of uninteresting articles from major news outlets are constantly submitted.

The URL can always be changed if there's a better source. Just email them.

Re: Wealthy Americans Targeted by U.S. in Panama Tax-Fraud Probe

#50

Post by simonh »

yunohn wrote: post #45
simonh wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firstly inequality growth is mainly an American phenomenon, it's not really a factor in the developed world generally. The problem is the Pickety/Zucman analysis didn't fully take into account taxes and transfers, so it overestimated 1%-er incomes and underestimated low wage earner benefits. Within the US, CHIP and Medicaid expansion have made a huge difference. After all it's hard to argue Medicaid expansion has no…

> inequality growth is mainly an American phenomenon Where do you get this from? It’s quite dismissive, given the large amount of study about wealth inequality increasing globally. This is definitely an issue throughout Europe too and even Asia, in my experience.

The P/Z figures estimate pre-tax income for the top 1% in the US has more than doubled. Pre-tax though, that's always been a gaping hole in their analysis. As I pointed out what really matters is post-tax and transfers.

That's one reason the Obama era health care reforms are so significant, it doesn't show up as a headline economic or wealth figure and now it's just become the new normal, but taking health care provision off the table as a critical risk for tens of millions of low income Americans was a huge game changer. More of that please.

I don't have figures for the top 1% in Europe, but for the top 10% it's gone up by a few percent (except Eastern Europe which is much higher). The World Inequality Lab at the Paris School or Economics published a report on this in 2020.

https://wid.world/document/bcg2019-full-paper/

Inequality in Asia, particularly China is definitely up but then it's just gone through a massive program of industrialisation. There's little point comparing inequality in China now to what it was in the 1970s. What would you even be measuring? Similarly for Eastern Europe, their whole economic system has changed so you're not comparing like for like.

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