America: World’s Leading Tax Haven / Panama Papers brouhaha ignores its epicenter

The Lectric Law Library says “(s)ince the ‘80s, the US has been the largest tax and regulatory haven for non-resident foreign nationals in the world.”

Foreign-based individuals “can buy the newly issued Reg. S stock of a US company at a discount because the company does not have to register those shares with the Securities Exchange Commission.” 

“Foreigners can sell those shares back into the US forty days later without paying any tax on the trading profits to the US government.” 

“They can open bank accounts or buy the debt instruments of government and private borrowers and earn interest in the US tax free.”

The billionaire class has a multitude of options—at home and abroad— to avoid their tax obligations with complete impunity.

[caption id="120725" align="alignnone"]Source : telegraph.co.uk

 According to Lectric Law, the policy attracted trillions of dollars to America, making it the world’s top tax haven. Bloomberg discussed it, saying “Panama and the US have at least one thing in common: Neither has agreed to new international standards to make it harder for tax evaders and money launderers to hide their money.”

Since 2014, nearly 100 countries and jurisdictions imposed disclosure requirements on foreign held wealth, including Switzerland and Bermuda in principle, to crack down on tax evaders.

“(A) handful of countries refused,” notably America along with Panama in the eye of the current “storm over tax evasion…”

Secrecy in global tax havens is well-known. Global Witness exposes corruption and demands accountability for perpetrators of criminal and human rights violations. According to acting US office head Stefanie Ostfeld, “the US is just as big a secrecy jurisdiction as so many of these Caribbean countries and Panama.”

“We should not want to be the playground for the world’s dirty money, which is what we are right now.”

The 2010 Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act requires financial firms to inform the IRS about foreign accounts held by US citizens.

Reporting information on foreign accounts in America to governments abroad isn’t mandated. OECD standards aren’t observed.

International tax and money laundering expert Bruce Zagaris said “(t)he US doesn’t follow a lot of the international standards, and because of its political power,” gets away with it – the only country able to do what it pleases unaccountably.

America welcomes dirty money, trillions in private accounts free from taxes – making it the world’s leading tax haven.

Panama Papers Ignore Massive Corruption and Racketeering in America

America is the epicenter of world public and private corruption and gangsterism – a kleptocracy run by criminals complicit with corporate crooks, headquartered on Wall Street, profiting at the public’s expense. Monied interests transformed the nation into an unprecedented money making racket, scamming ordinary people of their savings, jobs, homes and futures so privileged elites can get richer and more powerful.

From inception, the business of America has always been business – meaning license to pillage, defraud and benefit extralegally, including tax avoidance more than anywhere else worldwide, encouraging high-net-worth foreign individuals to shift funds to the US free from taxation, discussed in a separate article.

Government of, by, and for its privileged few allows grand theft on an unprecedented scale. Markets are manipulated up or down for profit, scamming the unwary.

Authorities permitted the greatest ever wealth shift from ordinary people to its rich and powerful, the grandest of grand theft, facilitated by Fed controlled money, credit and debt – Wall Street owned and operated.

America’s dark legacy is largely concealed from view. Enormous wealth is hidden in tax havens or investments at home and abroad, free from taxation.

Wall Street banks and other giant US financial institutions are at the center of unprecedented criminality, aided by government co-conspirators.

Panama Papers’ leaks were selective, from what’s known so far, ignoring Western wrongdoing, focusing attention elsewhere, including on targets powerful monied interests in the West complicit with Washington want smeared – notably Vladimir Putin, despite no evidence linking him to tax avoidance or hiding ill-gotten wealth in secret offshore accounts.

Western media scoundrels reacted as expected, pointing fingers the wrong way, ignoring what demands featuring.

The New York Times discussed “the Panama Papers’ sprawling web of corruption” without addressing its unrevealed epicenter in America.

The Washington Post asked “where have Russia’s billions gone” instead of demanding accountability for America’s criminal class.

The Wall Street Journal highlighted a “Chinese link to (the) ‘Panama Papers’ widen(ing).” Lots discussed on its top officials, nothing about wrongdoing by Americans.

Crime in high places is a global epidemic. Exposing it demands starting with its epicenter.

It’s deep-rooted in the world’s richest country with nearly a third of global billionaires, more than in all EU countries combined, and government run by its rich and powerful, controlled by monied interests, serving America’s privileged class exclusively at the expense of everyone else.