Donate Bitcoin

Donate Paypal


PeakOil is You

PeakOil is You

Panama Papers: Tax Havens of the Global Elite Exposed!

For discussions of events and conditions not necessarily related to Peak Oil.

Re: Panama Papers: Tax Havens of the Global Elite Exposed!

Unread postby Timo » Tue 05 Apr 2016, 13:47:34

If anyone is interested, the average interest rate on any savings account at any Panamanian bank is around 7%. No shell company required. Just use your own name, and get a 7% return on your invested savings. That sure as hell beats any rate you could get from any CD account you could get from any American bank. It also beats what i'm losing on my ETFs right now, too! Panama also uses dollars as their currency, and i do assume US taxes on interest gained does still apply. Sorry. You'll have to set up a shell company in the Virgin Islands if you want to avoid paying any taxes. Either that, or spend a night in bed with Vladimir Putin.
Timo
 

Re: Panama Papers: Tax Havens of the Global Elite Exposed!

Unread postby vtsnowedin » Tue 05 Apr 2016, 14:36:18

Timo wrote:If anyone is interested, the average interest rate on any savings account at any Panamanian bank is around 7%. No shell company required. Just use your own name, and get a 7% return on your invested savings. That sure as hell beats any rate you could get from any CD account you could get from any American bank. It also beats what i'm losing on my ETFs right now, too! Panama also uses dollars as their currency, and i do assume US taxes on interest gained does still apply. Sorry. You'll have to set up a shell company in the Virgin Islands if you want to avoid paying any taxes. Either that, or spend a night in bed with Vladimir Putin.

I'm interested in knowing what the Panama banks are doing with those deposits that generates seven percent interest plus the banks profit? The expansion of the Panama canal comes to mind but that is a recent project and won't cover the time frame they are talking about here. It will be interesting watching all this get shook out and then see what different governments do to stem their tax losses.
User avatar
vtsnowedin
Fusion
Fusion
 
Posts: 14897
Joined: Fri 11 Jul 2008, 03:00:00

Re: Panama Papers: Tax Havens of the Global Elite Exposed!

Unread postby AgentR11 » Tue 05 Apr 2016, 16:21:44

re: it is a real law firm; yes there are Americans in the file. The pot I'm referring to is the pot of folks using this law firm to hide money. Bob Smith, investing in a bakery in Panama City, will need the services of such a firm, just as much as Assad.
Yes we are, as we are,
And so shall we remain,
Until the end.
AgentR11
Light Sweet Crude
Light Sweet Crude
 
Posts: 6357
Joined: Tue 22 Mar 2011, 09:15:51
Location: East Texas

Re: Panama Papers: Tax Havens of the Global Elite Exposed!

Unread postby Plantagenet » Tue 05 Apr 2016, 16:39:19

Bernie Sanders denounced the Free Trade Treaty that Hillary negotiated with Panama in 2011 ---- saying it would allow wealthy US citizens to evade US taxes by accessing phony tax accounts in Panama

“It turns out, Mr. President, that Panama is a world leader when it comes to allowing large corporations and wealthy Americans to evade U.S. taxes, by stashing their cash in offshore tax havens. And the Panama free trade agreement would make this bad situation much worse,” Sanders said in 2011.

sanders-predicted-panama-papers-in-2011

Once again Sanders told the truth while Hillary and the Obama administration and the rest of the DC establishment lied.

We've got to elect Bernie President----he's the last honest man in DC!!!

FEEL THE BERN!
Never underestimate the ability of Joe Biden to f#@% things up---Barack Obama
-----------------------------------------------------------
Keep running between the raindrops.
User avatar
Plantagenet
Expert
Expert
 
Posts: 26616
Joined: Mon 09 Apr 2007, 03:00:00
Location: Alaska (its much bigger than Texas).

Re: Panama Papers: Tax Havens of the Global Elite Exposed!

Unread postby Plantagenet » Tue 05 Apr 2016, 20:14:07

NOW Wikileaks has criticized the ICIJ for not actually releasing the Panama bank documents, and for selectively naming only certain people and not others. IN particular, none of the 411 Americans with questionable accounts in Panama are named.

wikileaks-accuses-panama-papers-leaker-being-soros-funded-soft-power

Wikileaks suggests the data is being selectively released by the ICIJ in response to some kind of political agenda set by George Soros, one of the richest people in the world and the person who funds the ICIJ.

Image
Funded and influenced by George Soros?
User avatar
Plantagenet
Expert
Expert
 
Posts: 26616
Joined: Mon 09 Apr 2007, 03:00:00
Location: Alaska (its much bigger than Texas).

Re: Panama Papers: Tax Havens of the Global Elite Exposed!

Unread postby Cid_Yama » Fri 08 Apr 2016, 08:40:32

Someone on Twitter claimed that and ZeroHedge posted what the twitter poster said. Some anonymous person on the internet or on twitter makes an unsubstantiated claim. That doesn't make it true.

All you are doing is promoting unsubstantiated nonsense said by an unknown someone. :roll:

Pointing to a blog repeating an unsubstantiated claim by an unknown person does not confirm it.

As for the article itself, the accusation is ridiculous. The Data is the archives of a law firm who acted as a shell but also as a Law Firm for the past 40 years. Much of that data has nothing to do with hiding assets or laundering money and is just the normal activity of a law firm, who's innocent clients have a legal right to protection of their data.

A data dump would result in law suits for sure and perhaps criminal actions against those that released it. Thus it will take a long time to sort through it all.

No vast liberal conspiracy. No matter how much you would like there to be.
"For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and provide for it." - Patrick Henry

The level of injustice and wrong you endure is directly determined by how much you quietly submit to. Even to the point of extinction.
User avatar
Cid_Yama
Light Sweet Crude
Light Sweet Crude
 
Posts: 7169
Joined: Sun 27 May 2007, 03:00:00
Location: The Post Peak Oil Historian

Re: Panama Papers: Tax Havens of the Global Elite Exposed!

Unread postby Cid_Yama » Fri 08 Apr 2016, 09:28:59

We should all be able to agree: no one should be poor in a nation as wealthy as the US. Yet nearly 15% of Americans live below the poverty line. Perhaps one of the best solutions is also one of the oldest and simplest ideas: everyone should be guaranteed a small income, free from conditions.

Called a universal basic income by supporters, the idea has has attracted support throughout American history, from Thomas Paine to Martin Luther King Jr. But it has also faced unending criticism for one particular reason: the advocates of “austerity” say we simply can’t afford it – or any other dramatic spending on social security.

That argument dissolved this week
with the release of the Panama Papers, which reveal the elaborate methods used by the wealthy to avoid paying back the societies that helped them to gain their wealth in the first place.

Roads and transportation infrastructure. Educated workforces. Courts and legal systems. Innovations sparked by government funding, such as the internet. No one – no matter how smart or hard working – joins the American or global elite without making use of these shared resources.

But while working and middle-class families pay their taxes or face consequences, the Panama Papers remind us that the worst of the 1% have, for years, essentially been stealing access to Americans’ common birthright, and to the benefits of our shared endeavors.

Worse, many of those same global elite have argued that we cannot afford to provide education, healthcare or a basic standard of living for all, much less eradicate poverty or dramatically enhance the social safety net by guaranteeing every American a subsistence-level income.

Because the truth is that we have all been robbed, systematically, by the world’s wealthiest people, for decades. They have used those stolen dollars to build yet more wealth for themselves, and all the while we have been arguing with ourselves over what to do with the leftover pennies.

Enough. We have the money to solve our problems. The first step is to stop the global elite from hoarding and hiding it. Cracking down on tax evasion alone will not fund all our priorities, but the Panama Papers do put the lie to the politics of austerity.

link

I would propose punitive tax rates on the wealthy and on corporations to recoup our nation's losses. Yes there are many wealthy, like myself, who have done nothing illegal, but have still benefited from the actions of the criminal elite, and the policies they put in place.

They want to leave the country, don't let them back in. Corporations that claim to be multinational, if they want to do business in or with the US will have to isolate their US operations from the rest and pay their taxes on those operations.

We will need to greatly enhance enforcement. Including paramilitary branches of the Treasury and Commerce Departments. And new laws providing greater powers of oversight and enforcement. And massive hiring to provide those functions, and Internal Affairs to root out corruption within those agencies.

This means making the Government more powerful than the entities they are entrusted to deal with. To take back for the American people, that which has been stolen from them.

There can be no amount of compensation to make up for the lifetimes ruined, the misery inflicted, upon the American people, but we can make a start at righting the wrongs.
"For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and provide for it." - Patrick Henry

The level of injustice and wrong you endure is directly determined by how much you quietly submit to. Even to the point of extinction.
User avatar
Cid_Yama
Light Sweet Crude
Light Sweet Crude
 
Posts: 7169
Joined: Sun 27 May 2007, 03:00:00
Location: The Post Peak Oil Historian

Re: Panama Papers: Tax Havens of the Global Elite Exposed!

Unread postby Cid_Yama » Fri 08 Apr 2016, 11:13:20

Plant, your climbing on the Bernie Sanders bandwagon is as disturbing as Sixstrings.

This battle between Clinton and Sanders is highlighting the differences between Liberals and Progressives and shows how there CAN be Progressive Republicans as there were in Eisenhower's time.

They may have to be Progressives first, as there is no place for them right now in the Republican party, And many prove to be a third force, one that is neither Democrat nor Republican, but just Progressive. It has become clear that the establishment Democrats don't want them any more than Republicans do.

If Bernie doesn't get the nomination, it may just be time for Progressives to reach across the aisle and come together for and independent run. It looks like people on both sides are getting the message, and we would be free to dump both the Liberal and Conservative baggage and be able to forge a new way.

Are you with me?
"For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and provide for it." - Patrick Henry

The level of injustice and wrong you endure is directly determined by how much you quietly submit to. Even to the point of extinction.
User avatar
Cid_Yama
Light Sweet Crude
Light Sweet Crude
 
Posts: 7169
Joined: Sun 27 May 2007, 03:00:00
Location: The Post Peak Oil Historian

Re: Panama Papers: Tax Havens of the Global Elite Exposed!

Unread postby onlooker » Fri 08 Apr 2016, 17:14:04

For sure with you. The stale and utterly corrupt US political system needs a total overhaul. If a new Progressive party with the commensurate righteous platform can be formed perhaps it can garner the power and votes to install a truly populist government.
"We are mortal beings doomed to die
User avatar
onlooker
Fission
Fission
 
Posts: 10957
Joined: Sun 10 Nov 2013, 13:49:04
Location: NY, USA

Re: Panama Papers: Tax Havens of the Global Elite Exposed!

Unread postby ralfy » Fri 08 Apr 2016, 20:31:43

Cid_Yama wrote:Someone on Twitter claimed that and ZeroHedge posted what the twitter poster said. Some anonymous person on the internet or on twitter makes an unsubstantiated claim. That doesn't make it true.

All you are doing is promoting unsubstantiated nonsense said by an unknown someone. :roll:

Pointing to a blog repeating an unsubstantiated claim by an unknown person does not confirm it.

As for the article itself, the accusation is ridiculous. The Data is the archives of a law firm who acted as a shell but also as a Law Firm for the past 40 years. Much of that data has nothing to do with hiding assets or laundering money and is just the normal activity of a law firm, who's innocent clients have a legal right to protection of their data.

A data dump would result in law suits for sure and perhaps criminal actions against those that released it. Thus it will take a long time to sort through it all.

No vast liberal conspiracy. No matter how much you would like there to be.


When politicians are able to earn billions of dollars, then there is obviously something going on beyond what is legal.

There is nothing illegal concerning tax havens, but for the poor and the middle class that make up the bulk of the world population but have to see a significant fraction of their income paid in taxes, there probably is. Also, even a fraction of what is hidden is likely enough to provide basic health care and education for everyone on the planet. This is an ironic point because it also benefits the rich through increased sales in goods and services.
User avatar
ralfy
Light Sweet Crude
Light Sweet Crude
 
Posts: 5569
Joined: Sat 28 Mar 2009, 11:36:38
Location: The Wasteland

Re: Panama Papers: Tax Havens of the Global Elite Exposed!

Unread postby onlooker » Sat 09 Apr 2016, 02:33:53

"There is nothing illegal concerning tax havens, but for the poor and the middle class that make up the bulk of the world population but have to see a significant fraction of their income paid in taxes, there probably is. Also, even a fraction of what is hidden is likely enough to provide basic health care and education for everyone on the planet. This is an ironic point because it also benefits the rich through increased sales in goods and services." Perhaps nothing is explicitly illegal about tax havens but the principle of the matter is what counts here. When the rich do not have to pay taxes commensurate with their wealth than that is a sign of a system that has lost all sense of cohesion and fairness and is just unfettered capitalism marked by the rule of money. Not very different than primitive times when might made right.
"We are mortal beings doomed to die
User avatar
onlooker
Fission
Fission
 
Posts: 10957
Joined: Sun 10 Nov 2013, 13:49:04
Location: NY, USA

Previous

Return to Geopolitics & Global Economics

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 18 guests