This week we take you inside the sketchy world of booty hiding, otherwise known as offshore tax havens.
In the music break UK rap crew dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip with “Great Britain.”
Then we continue of our coverage of a revolution that’s taking France by storm and that has spread beyond its borders.
On the 1s and 2s:
Establishing a globally agreed tax body under the auspices of the United Nations and putting an end to dubious tax avoidance activities would bolster government revenues and help finance the provision of essential public services, especially in the Global South.
“A tax haven in the middle of a dense network of havens created for the super rich to avoid the taxes the rest of us must pay.”
The post While You Pay Taxes, the Rich Hide Their Money In This City To Avoid Paying Theirs appeared first on The Anti-Media.
Big capital has constantly decreased its contribution to the state – creating a gap in the state’s coffers which is then filled by more and varied taxes on ordinary people – ultimately shrinking the very market big capital needs to sell its increased production of goods.
Tariffs and Taxes
Before the income tax was imposed on us just 80 years ago, government had no claim to our income. Only sales, excise, and tariff taxes were allowed.
— Alan Keyes
The Panama Papers, a one-year investigation by over 100 reporters worldwide (The International Consortium of Investigative Journalism) of offshore money hiding/laundering/taxation avoidance, is a cause célèbre of underhandedness seldom, if ever, revealed to the world’s public. It is comparable to lifting a rotting log in the woods and finding an active nest of millipedes, red worms, and cockroaches scampering about to escape the bright sunlight. They can’t stand the sunlight because darkness is their life.
The recent revelation resulting from the Panama Papers is nothing new. It just helps to highlight the sheer scale of criminality being perpetrated by those wealthy enough to benefit. What we are witnessing from a tiny island, nestled neatly between North and South America, is a glimpse of a global money laundering fest on a truly oceanic scale.
We all feel the seemingly oppressive impact of the conservative force that has taken over the United States, but feel hard-pressed to identify where it started and the specific entities responsible. Most of us suspect that it was no accident. We can be most certain that it isn’t.
Californians and Russians must think alike. The U.S. state recently considered reinstating a soda tax, and now Russian government officials are thinking of adding soda, potato chips, and palm oil to a list of excisable goods. The measure would be part of a plan to promote a healthier diet for Russians as well as boost tax revenues.
After price-gouging sick Americans for its pharmaceutical drugs, Pfizer plans to slip under the IRS’s radar and dodge an estimated $35 billion tax bill by merging with a foreign company (a $160 billion buyout).
When it comes to The City of London, the term ‘tax haven’ is not describing all that it should. It doesn’t just shield the mega-wealthy from paying their fair dues it goes further and offers a departure from the rule of law as you would know it. Secrecy is its raison d’être. These secrecy laws do not benefit the local people living in its jurisdiction but only those individuals and corporations with enough money and with something to hide.
