Offshore 'Tax Havens' of The U.S. Corporate Elite

Who can blame the big corporations?

If you had the choice between zero, ZERO! Income tax and no such thing as capital gains tax OR Excessive taxes and a rip off 40% odd capital gains tax, what would you choose?

You have no one but yourself to blame as a country, too many greedy folk, asking for too much in return for their crappy governence.

Sure the banking cartel is an underlying issue, they have everyone in their web of debt and enjoy rapeing you all for more and more. But the main reason your economy is going belly up is the average joe, has no balls to stand up for his/her country and rights anymore!

Enjoy your fall into the new dark ages America, the world will not really miss you, but will miss your movies maybe ;P.

No American wants this. We have just lost control of our government. No it is not due to fat lazy citizens. Most Americans work too hard 2 jobs, kids, mind staggering gas prices. We , along with businesses are being taxed and fee to death. It does not appear that it will change anytime soon either. It will take a few years and the pain of another depression to finally get everyone to vote most of the crooks out of our government.

There is nothing wrong with what those corporations do. Maximize profit. Are you capitalists or not ? What do you think, the owners of those companies created them for the "benefit of the people" ? Who told you that ? Forget it. See the world as it is not how you want it to be.

Any corporation has a legal obligation (it's in the company laws in most countries) to maximise the return for the shareholders. That usually means dividends, which means that the company has to make sure to pay as little corporation tax as possible.

Large 'American' corporations such as IT consultancy giant Accenture is in fact not American at all. Accenture was first incorporated on the Bahamas and to this day still have their head quarter there. And why not? With exorbitant US corporation taxes of 35% I don't blame them (while European 'tax havens' such as Ireland has 12.5%, Cyprus 10% and Malta slightly less than 5% with the average of all EU countries being somewhere around 25%).

Asking for even higher taxes is not the right way to get those multinationals to become based in the US.

As most of you seem to acknowledge, our lazy hijacked government is at the root of the problems we face today. Our Legislatures and Congress vote on and pass laws that the members never read and don't even try to comprehend in their rush to happy hour. They leave the difficult task of thinking to others who, it turns out, don't have the rest of the nation's members' interests in mind.

Our MSM does not fully and honestly report the problems and thier causes, such as the current financial and mortgage crisis. Most homeowners could and did pay their mortgages on time when their interest rates were in the 5% to 7% range. Then their ARM (adjustable rate mortgage) rate adjustments kicked in. When interest rates went from the 5%-7% range to the 11% to 20% and higher range the crisis came home.

People who were paying $1,000 to $1,300 per month saw their mortgage payment double and in some cases nearly triple. They were persuaded to sign ARMs in the 5%-7% range on the assurance that they could refinance when the typically three year 1st adjustment date arrives. But over the past ten years the refinance rates got higher and higher and people were being charged additional fees of $3,000 to $10,000 and points by their lenders and the mortgage brokers just for the privilege of having their refinance application processed and approved, with the result that their entire principal pay down over the preceding three years was wiped out. Then over time people’s refinance applications were increasingly denied.

I have heard little to nothing about this underlying cause of the mortgage crisis. Yet I continually hear the mantra that it's the fault of the borrowers who got in over their heads and their ability to pay. No, they did not! They were able to and did pay their mortgages until the adjustable rate fraud began coming home.

A fundamental problem is the lack of regulation of the interest rates, late fees, overlimit fees, NSF fees, and other unconscionable sums the monied segment of America is able to extract from those who do productive work. When your bank charges you a $34 NSF fee for a $5.00 overdraft which you cover within days, is that acceptable? When your credit card company charges you a $39 late fee for making a $20 payment one day late, and then adds a $39 overlimit fee because the late fee put your account over the limit, is that acceptable? And when your lender or credit card company increases your interest rate from 7% to 30% because you make one payment late, is that acceptable? It’s legal. But the question is: Is that acceptable?

Every dollar you pay in excessive interest, late fees, over limit fees, NSF charges, and other unconscionable exactions is a dollar removed from the stream of commerce and does not contribute to the productive economy. It doesn't buy shelter, food, clothing, appliances, recreation, entertainment, travel, sports, and transportation, to anything produced by a productive member of society. Those dollars go into the rat hole known as the U.S. banking / financial system and benefit only a few members of the greedy elite.

As a rule Americans do not understand how the monetary / banking / financial system works beyond knowing that to own a car or a house and in many cases even a major appliance, stereo system, or TV they have to become indebted to that system. We must all become educated about how money works in this country and learn to say NO! and GO @!?! YOURSELF to the robber barons when it’s appropriate to do so.

The money system in America has become perverted for the benefit of a very small segment of society, and it doesn’t include most of you. You can thank your state Legislatures and administrations, Congress, and the executive and administrative branches of the federal government for brining the present system to your door. Yes, I know, it has been this way since long before your birth.

We have all been conditioned to accept the existing financial system as “the way it is”, as part of the environment in which we live, like the air we breathe. We are conditioned and brainwashed to accept it and work within it, to believe that is as unchangeable as the stars in the sky.

How did something as fundamental as having a home to live in become the vehicle for the lifetime financial enslavement of so many in America?

It’s time to wake up and change our awareness, our understanding, and then our cooperation with “the way things are”.

I don’t have the answers. I’m in the waking stages of this.

Where do we go from here? Is there a path we can take collectively to change the financial environment? It will require collective action by the people because the people’s representatives do not seem to be interested or they feel as powerless as the rest of the population does.

[edit on 1/17/2009 by dubiousone]

I am for the total disappearence of money. My post above was meant to be sarcastic. Indeed people losing their homes because of numbers on paper is crazy. There are enough homes and enough food or everyone

Do you all know why they do it?

Because they can. Simple as that.

Small business owners and the simple folks pay the bills that kill.

Think about it who is the easier target to go after for collecting taxes from?

The problem here is the precedent it sets. Citizens (doesn't matter where you live) are expected to pay taxes on what they earn, so it stands to reason and is only fair that the business community pay taxes too on what they earn.
Another problem is burgeoning government which requires feeding as it increases in size each and every year. The only way to feed the monster is to collect more and more money from the citizenry. We even have the situation where private businesses receive £Billions in public subsidy (taxpayers money) to keep them operating but the profit they make is used to pay big returns to the major shareholders and big bonuses for the management, and even then they get tax breaks on top.

To say the system is unfair would be a major understatement.

I am all for paying taxes to pay for free national education and health care etc but there has to be public oversight to prevent all the corruption, nepotism and obscene waste of money in government, both at the local and national level. Cut all that and we'd all be paying less tax to start with.

Originally posted by pai mei


There is nothing wrong with what those corporations do. Maximize profit. Are you capitalists or not ? What do you think, the owners of those companies created them for the "benefit of the people" ? Who told you that ? Forget it. See the world as it is not how you want it to be.

Seriously. And I might add that every one of us that has a retirement plan of some sort benefits from these companies. Our money that we put into a 401K for example is invested in them whether we know it or not. So... do we want them to make the best profit they can or not? Get over it people... this is not new...

Originally posted by Britguy
The problem here is the precedent it sets. Citizens (doesn't matter where you live) are expected to pay taxes on what they earn, so it stands to reason and is only fair that the business community pay taxes too on what they earn.

Yes, most individuals think that but most individuals don't have scores of lawyers searching through the reams of tax code to find legal loopholes. Most citizens don't do their homework.

Another problem is burgeoning government which requires feeding as it increases in size each and every year. The only way to feed the monster is to collect more and more money from the citizenry.

I totally agree but I'd say this is the WHOLE problem... the problem does not lie in the corporations it lies in the huge government.

We even have the situation where private businesses receive £Billions in public subsidy (taxpayers money) to keep them operating but the profit they make is used to pay big returns to the major shareholders and big bonuses for the management, and even then they get tax breaks on top.

And of course... us... the everyday working stiff who has a retirement plan which is invested in stocks...

To say the system is unfair would be a major understatement.

Grow up.. life is not fair and has never been. This is exactly why the corporations are so far ahead of everyday people. You have to get past the "oh, it's not fair" stage before you can get to the "how can I mitigate this" stage.

reply to post by DimensionalDetective


I've always thought, if somebody drives a 1/4 Mil car and has a
Multi-Million Dollar house, then they are doing something illegal.
Be it, Drugs,Tax Scams, Crook, Money Laundry etc.....

There probably isn't a single honest Corporation out there, they
just havn't been caught yet. What is amazing is the biggest
corporations are not honest with their staff or the government and
yet they still can't their bills on time without a handout.

So what will the government do...., same as it's always done
ignore it. If the gov asks for the money owed they just claim
bankrupcy and losing thousands of jobs, So it won't happen.

reply to post by Leo Strauss


You complain so much when a company leaves your country, when your country cripples them with huge taxes?

reply to post by Iamonlyhuman


You seem to be missing a few issues in you answers.

We, the ordinary citizens, do not get the opportunity, unlike corporations or the rich, to withhold taxes and have expensive lawyers look at creative ways to avoid payment. We pay or we get penalised or, in some cases, sent to jail.

As for the corporate world paying our retirement plans via pension schemes and investment, not everyone can afford a private pension and rely on their taxes and, in the UK, national insurance, to pay a state pension. Your answer that privately owned, but heavily subsidized, corporations pay our pensions is unreal. It's more a case of private profits, public debt. Why should I, as a hard working taxpayer, subsidize a private company, when I don't even use their services? They put their profits offshore and DO NOT contribute to the overall economy.

It's certainly not a case of envy but more a case of fair play and a level playing field for us all, instead of the corporate world and the rich getting richer at the expense of the rest of us.

reply to post by ll__raine__ll


there is a story here but people are so indulging in their own lives that things like these go unnoticed. Believe me I am not shocked. I had an older and wiser man say to me once. If you are shocked it is because you placed too much stock in the good of humanity and setting yourself up for disappointment. When you watch the news around the world and pay attention to the workplace and the public arena that you are in and the thoughts that come across your mind each day puts a little speck in the theory of the innate goodness of man. And than, stories like these are not such a shock. But if you believe that people are generally good than the outrage and disbelief you would have because it shatters you're preconceived idea's.

You people don't know. Have you ever ask yourself why all the celebs were gung-ho for Obama who is planning on taxing the sh*t out of the top 2%, which includes them? Because a lot of the big celebrities aren't even American citizens. I used to work in an area where I got to see a lot of celeb passports. I can't tell you how many "all American" celebrities I saw with foreign nationalities. They become citizens of other countries so the can avoid paying American taxes.

the higher up you are in the food chain, the less the law applies to you. it has been this way for along time... no shock here, business as usual, move along now.

instead of beieng in disbeilief you need to get off your asses and do something about it. You all get what you deserve becuz you DO NOTHING ABOUT IT. Andthere will be more becuz YOU DO NOTHING ABOUT IT.

Originally posted by Iamonlyhuman

Originally posted by pai mei


There is nothing wrong with what those corporations do. Maximize profit. Are you capitalists or not ? What do you think, the owners of those companies created them for the "benefit of the people" ? Who told you that ? Forget it. See the world as it is not how you want it to be.

Seriously. And I might add that every one of us that has a retirement plan of some sort benefits from these companies. Our money that we put into a 401K for example is invested in them whether we know it or not. So... do we want them to make the best profit they can or not? Get over it people... this is not new...

You guys are sooooo wrong. These tax shelter compaines only take the profits from you. You just don't get it. Try to buy stock in an offshore company.

The profit you see in the 401k's and such is just what stays in the main company. These offshore one's, most of the stock is owned by the rich elite, not the main company. What, did you really think that these profits where for all to enjoy? hahahaha

That's why this practice needs to stop. The take the profits offshore, leave the main company in a wreck, we bail that main company out, while they are still pulling profits to the offshore companies.

The only way is from the ground up!
It's got to start with local govt. and passed up to the state. Once you get the state on the right track, they have more powers to change things than they ever use. They have to get off of the Federal govt. payroll and trying to get all that earmark money.
If state by state, Senator by Senator, then things can truely change. I won't be looking at either West or East to do anything soon though. It's got to start in the middle. East and West are so caught up in Greed and Social issues that they really don't have thier eye on the ball at all.
Who really gives a crap about gays, abortion, etc. when you don't have a home or food?!
Changing "the way" corporations make profit is the answer to the original post. Profit is good, it makes the world turn in a Republic like ours. But, when things get this twisted, it will come to a head like it is now.
If a company can make 3000% profit, so be it. But they need to share in the load of all at the same time. There was a day a long time ago, that if you worked at a company for a long time, you bought stock in it. This was a good investment. But when the top dogs started taking all the profits outside and you didn't get a share, it turned bad quick!

Wake up America!
You left the back door open and they are loading the truck up with your cash!!!

Originally posted by Leo Strauss
reply to post by DimensionalDetective

 

I for one am fighting this globalist agenda. If your corporation does not want to pay US taxes then move to Dubai ala Haliburton. Then the American people need to start our own corporations with the rights and responsibilities bestowed by the US government including taxes!

We must restore tariffs and support fair trade agreements for American workers! If these corporations don't like it then pay the tariffs for the goods they want to sell in the US. We must reinvigorate unions as a power that US corporations must bargain collectively for the betterment of our nation. Not chase cheap labor around the globe in a race to the bottom. Wages must rise for the middle class if our country is to prosper!

I think the American public is finally catching on to who the REAL thieves are! Since Reagan it has been one paper pushing scam after the other with no REAL WEALTH being created. Real wealth is created with an active and vital manufacturing sector nothing else. Not tech bubbles, not stock market bubbles, not housing bubbles! I hope all of you who supported this "new economy" are finally able to admit your mistake and join us in rebuilding a new America based on tangible assets not the latest Wall St scheme!

Aren't you pissed off yet. They had their party and have handed you and your children and grandchildren the bill!

looking at a big picture in a corrupt system...wouldn't it make sense to LOWER THE CORPORATE TAX rate and make it comparitable to other country's rates so that coroporation would have less incentive to keep manufacturing overseas and leave the U.s dependent on Bubble economics and a hollowed out economy................