IS THE PROCESS OF LAW MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE COLLECTION OF TAX?

the answer MUST be yes.

Tax is only a concept because of law otherwise no one pays it.
Break the law and you break all notion of tax.

That is quite aside from the plethora of horrendous long term side effects of setting that precedent in the first place.

The point here is how you serious tax evasion is and more importantly to what lengths we are prepaed to go to to completely eradicate it.

You seem to view it as almost in the top three most hideous crimes in society. I happen to think ( along I would say with most normal people) that although WRONG, it is simply not worth the comprises that the germans have made.

The fact is that the tax system in the western world works pretty well. WE COLLECT LOTS OF TAX. We can get more but in reality, the system of collection is good and is getting better. Now lets look at some really major crime against society ( your words ) against society and what we are prepared to do to eradicate it.

We are still as a society deliberating over a DNA database which would probably solve untold hideous crimes but WE ARE NOT PREPARED TO PAY THE PRICE because it has consequences . Rapes, child abuse. murders, etc are a lot more seriois than tax evasion. AND STILL WE DELIBERATE OVER A DNA DATABASE. This is just one example.

germany’s actions has SERIOUS consequences. It sets a horrendous precedent which is simply not worth the short term pleasure of nabbing a few quid of some rich blokes ( and its not even that much money AND its only one bank and a very small number of people)

Which goes back to my original point about this site. Tax is part of life. Factually the ste is excellent but it has serious serious limitations when tax and its issues start to encroach on life issues.

Its serious and obviously the be all end all of mr murphy’s life, but its not that serious.

ps

The UK with its non doms is arguably in a similar boat to Lichtenstein. The Russians want Abramovich’s money. Should they use polonium to get what they want????

You’re right and wrong (but you don’t recognise grey)

1) Doctors don’t over-perscribe, of course. What they legally prescribe does hasten death.

2) Wrong - there is no option with Liechtensteion which will not cooperate

3) Tax evasion is a major crime against society

4) It was Liechtenstein who declared economic war, not Germany

5) Wrong - Liechstenstein refuses to recognise international law

I accept you right to differ.

But tell me, how will they be defunct if action is not ataken?

Richard

2 germany had a lot of other options before resorting to a crime.

3 tax evasion is wrong. but so are a lot of things. to fix a wrong , there is a legal process which overides virtually anything let alone tax evasion. We are still debating DNA databases to protect a way of life ( by the way thanks to the past behaviour of germany!!!) let alone resorting to this to collect a bit of tax.

4 i wasn’t aware that germany had declared economic war on lichtenstein ( i’m not sure there is even such a thing). Even war has a legal precedent ie Iraq war.

5 there is and has been a concerted legal pathway to sorting out these issues and no one had reached the point of no return. germany simply broke rank when it fancied it.

Simple: The rule of law MUST override all else. two wrongs don’t make a right without exception. we are otherwise morally defunct and society cannot progress further morally.

there is and will be a heavy price to pay for this behaviour in the future which is not worth the tax due. Risk reward, paying for information to a criminal (and a very large sum at that) is not worth the risk of anarchy.

It really is sooooo simple. In time, these tax havens will eventually be defunct. Maybe not in murphy’s lifetime but they will. We could all then retain our credibility and society can move on and learn from its previous mistakes.

I think you’re right - a climate of fear pervades all tax havens.

And of course it will get harder to break these places from inside. That’s why we’ll have to break them from elsewhere.

Richard

Adding to this…I would guess that the Liechtenstein bank officals have called in special security personnel…and are basically reading the riot act to all employees…”a hunt to the ends of the earth if you betray our trust”…and it wouldn’t surprise me if some Russian security folks show up in the coming months to ensure no one else sells data.

But here is the pivot of this deal. There are thousands upon thousands of Germans who bank outside of the country. This little episode now turns into a learning experience…and the Germans will have to go to another entire level of investigation in the future to find these folks. Every bank will double their efforts and employees will be under constant watch.

And the employee who dumped the data? He is pretty much finished in the banking sector and almost every business that he might be interested in. Rumor has it that he wants German protection and to be resettle somewhere else. The Germans are acting like the deal is finished and they owe nothing else to the guy.