The Truth about the Tax Evaders

This article was written a little while back. But I found it so interesting. Really fascinating to think what the rich get up to. So here goes :

£13tn hoard hidden from taxman by global elite

• Study estimates staggering size of offshore economy
• Private banks help wealthiest to move cash into havens

A global super-rich elite has exploited gaps in cross-border tax rules to hide an extraordinary £13 trillion ($21tn) of wealth offshore – as much as the American and Japanese GDPs put together – according to research commissioned by the campaign group Tax Justice Network.

James Henry, former chief economist at consultancy McKinsey and an expert on tax havens, has compiled the most detailed estimates yet of the size of the offshore economy in a new report, The Price of Offshore Revisited, released exclusively to the Observer.

He shows that at least £13tn – perhaps up to £20tn – has leaked out of scores of countries into secretive jurisdictions such as Switzerland and the Cayman Islands with the help of private banks, which vie to attract the assets of so-called high net-worth individuals. Their wealth is, as Henry puts it, "protected by a highly paid, industrious bevy of professional enablers in the private banking, legal, accounting and investment industries taking advantage of the increasingly borderless, frictionless global economy". According to Henry's research, the top 10 private banks, which include UBS and Credit Suisse in Switzerland, as well as the US investment bank Goldman Sachs, managed more than £4tn in 2010, a sharp rise from £1.5tn five years earlier.

A spokeswoman for UK Uncut said: "People like Philip Green use public services – they need the streets to be cleaned, people need public transport to get to their shops – but they don't want to pay for it."

www.guardian.co.uk...

Link above.

And i feel guilty for hoarding a few grand lol

reply to post by AmberLeaf


That tenner I once hid, lol

reply to post by FreedomEntered

£13tn hoard hidden from taxman by global elite

Big claims require big proof.
I see none.

Proof? Are you kidding?! Its a well known fact that the rich even will move country to avoid taxes, then move their money to private banks.They have their lawyers, accountants etc who find loopholes. What proof more is needed! They even admit it. I think JK Rowling the Billionaire childrens writer said that she wont move abroad just to avoid taxes although many do. She prefers to keep her extraordinary wealth in the country she was raised. She was a single mother I believe.

Although most Billionaires and Multi millionaires wont do this. Proof?! Eyes and lips closed. Really

reply to post by FreedomEntered

Proof? Are you kidding?!

I'm not kidding at all.
I have a problem with the $12 trillion figure. I feel it's grossly overstated.
Considering the worlds top 50 richest men have a total of 1.14 trillion getting to the 12 trillion
would require you to add everyone down to regular city workers.

Come at if from another angle.
Name the bank that could accept $1 trillion in deposits and guarantee it?
You think rich people put their money into savings accounts. Well they don't, they invest it in properties, businesses and the markets. You don't get rich by collecting .5% in interest payments.
You can't transfer 1 million shares of General Electric stock off shore.

Stories like this are placed to feed on the little mans belief that all his problems are someone elses fault.

your government doesn't care, because that is where the royals and your leaders put their own money into...if they cared, switzerland and the caymans would have been invaded and taken over a long time ago.
even our own mitt romney admitted to having money stashed in the caymans, so he could avoid taxes. the rest of them are smart enough to keep their mouths closed, and practice some discretion.

reply to post by samkent


Did you read the article? No not true the state of property and so forth is up and down. There is no way of garunteeing that money remains safe if you put it into property now a days. Thats called investments. We are speaking here strictly savings and money that is taken out tax free of course, and placed in a safe and so forth. This is the collective estimate globally. Accounting for all the Billionaires for which there are quite a few and multi millionaires of which there are alot. This figure isnt unreasonable.

reply to post by FreedomEntered

Since the top 50 only add up to just over a trillion (and that's their total wealth), you can't believe there's 12 trillion in cash sitting around in safes.
Unless you believe someones out to get you.

1,000 billions in trillion.

1,125 billionaires in the world. There are more than 10 million multi-millionaires in the world.

The total number of millionaires in the world grew 6.5% in 2005. They possess a total of US$33.3 trillions in financial assets.

Facts here.

reply to post by samkent


instead of asking for proof of undisclosed assets ... why don't you step up and prove what you claim is grossly overstated.

how do you figure that undisclosed assets could even be calculated in the 'net worth' of any entity ? they're undisclosed, remember ?

and why would it have to be one bank ??
don't you know these 'savings' are in many forms, not just $$ dollars or whatever the currency of the holding country may be ??

how 'bout you follow ATS protocol and prove your stance rather attack the OP?

That's probably a tad high, maybe sensationalized a bit. Total global output is around $75 trillion dollars. Total unrealized global output is about $550 trillion dollars which includes all unexploited resources. Maybe that figure is around $1-3 trillion. Because with money like that, surely we would have seen at least one trillionaire by now.

Really now..

reply to post by samkent


And you think they accurately report how much money they make do you? There is nothing that forces them to disclose any kind of truthful income or revenue to you..

reply to post by samkent


And you think they accurately report how much money they make do you?

reply to post by VeritasAequitas


You know what strikes me as odd, they will say for example a famous person has a certain networth , take bill gates for example then next in the news, they will say they spent what is a real fortune, in a week. And you think hmm... if its that much , how did they just spend that like water?.. What Im saying is for our networth. We would spend say spend thousands say on a hobby. Maybe 10s of thousands. But for them they spend say 70 mil to 100 mil in seconds on a hobby or for leisure. And their supposed networths are half a billion. Somehow I dont think this would happen. They are rich for a reason.

reply to post by VeritasAequitas

And you think they accurately report how much money they make do you? There is nothing that forces them to disclose any kind of truthful income or revenue to you..

You forget there are two sides to every transaction.

Mr Big may not want the IRS to know how much money they recieved, for tax reasons.
But Mr Small may want the IRS to write off the money they had to spend, for tax reasons.
And if Mr small is a publicly traded company you won't be able to hide big numbers.

Take a look at the US's largest private companies.
Here
To save you some hard searching the US Postal Service is #3 on the list.

You just can't hide $12 trillion. Whether it's dollars, Yen or gold.
Plus . . . .

How hard would it be for some dictator to send it's military to knock off a bank in the Caymen Is. ??? A cool trillion or two??

Another example of how inaccuate these net worths are, take Micheal Jackson a business man and pop star. They said he was poor, didnt they?! By the end of his life, due to his lavish lifestyle and obviously making more enemies than friends. Anyway then they find later - Oh he has the Beatles Catalogue which are worth $1 Billion. So come on now

Here is an infographic of just how big 12 trillion is.

Look halfway down the page next to the Statue of Liberty. That's 15 trillion.
And you think banks have that squirled away?

Bank manager to depositors:
I'm sorry, we had a fire last night $500 billion went up in smoke. Sorry about your loss since we don't have insurance. You are welcome to the ashes.
P.S. I have decided to retire effective today. Don't bother looking for me as I have just purchased a fortified island.

reply to post by FreedomEntered

Oh he has the Beatles Catalogue which are worth $1 Billion. So come on now

And it wasn't in dollar bills stashed under the mattress was it.