General Discussion

[ProjectVRD]

The rich elite are hiding about twenty one thousand billion United States dollars in offshore tax havens. So that is $21 Trillion. Kinda puts things into perspective and makes you wonder why the G20 is not on the verge of declaring war on these tax havens demanding the cash is handed over to nations owed the taxes.

[LordRoss]

Annoying and perhaps true, but for the sake of devil's advocate and a fair portrayal, what's your source?

[Kermit1970]

Heniz

But back on topic. They're not hiding it, they're just not paying tax on it.

[fenian]

why would g20 declare war on their own banks?

[englishgolfer]

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LordRoss wrote:

Annoying and perhaps true, but for the sake of devil's advocate and a fair portrayal, what's your source?

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18944097

Also I found this interesting at the end of the article:

A spokesman for the Treasury said great strides were being made in cracking down on people hiding assets. He said that in 2011-12 HM Revenue & Customs' High Net Worth Unit secured £200m in additional tax through its compliance work with the very wealthy. He said that agreements reached with Liechtenstein and Switzerland will bring in £3bn and between £4bn and £7bn respectively.

[ProjectVRD]

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fenian wrote:
why would g20 declare war on their own banks?

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Declare war on the nations that allow their own banks to not disclose information necessary for the economic machine to function to work properly as opposed to the banks themselves. End tax havens and it is one step closer to ending tax evasion on this level, admittedly it wouldn't end tax evasion from existing.

These are desperate times, every nation from USA to UK to Russia and China need their taxes to make the books balance out.

[Mikal_Drey]

Hey hey

There isnt much difference between the rich sheltering money from the taxman than the poor sheltering money from the taxman. Its just a matter of perspective. In fact the poor generally take more out than they put in so where is the fairness in that ?

[ProjectVRD]

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Mikal_Drey wrote:

Hey hey

There isnt much difference between the rich sheltering money from the taxman than the poor sheltering money from the taxman. Its just a matter of perspective. In fact the poor generally take more out than they put in so where is the fairness in that ?

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The difference is the poor in the western nations are not hidding the equivalent of the USA's and Japans total economic output for an entire year.

[InfiniteStates]

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ProjectVRD wrote:

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Mikal_Drey wrote:

Hey hey

There isnt much difference between the rich sheltering money from the taxman than the poor sheltering money from the taxman. Its just a matter of perspective. In fact the poor generally take more out than they put in so where is the fairness in that ?

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The difference is the poor in the western nations are not hidding the equivalent of the USA's and Japans total economic output for an entire year.

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Until someone tallies up how much cash-in-hand work is done while claiming benefits, we'll never know, but I suspect you might be surprised... Of course, I have no grounds for that suspicion other than people I know or live near.