UBS to Meet Canadian Tax Agency to Discuss Accounts, Globe Says – Bloomberg.com.
Swiss banking is falling apart.
Good news.
Now let the international roll out spraed far and wide.
I’ll dance in the streest when Switzerland hands back all the cash it holds that corrupt rulers have deposited there.
Because let’s be clear: these bankers know they have that cash and wilfully withhold it.
And as result they are at the very least guilty of manslaughter. That’s the charge I am really waiting to see.
The Jersey Evening Post has written:
DETAILS of bank accounts in Jersey held by UK residents are to be passed to the UK tax authorities.
A UK tribunal has ordered over 300 banks to hand over details of customers with accounts offshore to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.
The HMRC will not be entitled to come knocking on any doors in Jersey. However, the move is likely to concern people living in the UK who wish to keep their financial details confidential.
Jersey Finance say that the initiative ‚Äòshould not have a major impact on the finance industry’ and that in any event the Island ‚Äòwould never condone any client evading their tax responsibilities’.
I do wonder who they think they are kidding? I estimate that Jersey costs the UK more than £1 billion a year in tax cost – much of it evasion.
And quite frankly – I do not believe them when they say ‚Äòwould never condone any client evading their tax responsibilities’. Day in day out they operate accounts for people who refuse to disclose information on their account to HM Revenue & Customs under the European Union Savings Tax Directive – and the only possible explanation for that refusal is tax evasion. Yet they do not report the tens of thousands involved (at least) as suspected tax evaders.
Why is that?
And why aren’t you enforcing obligations on your banks to report suspected money laundering instead of spinning deliberate misinformation Jersey?
FT.com / Personal Finance – Inheritance tax charges to rise.
No they are not. This is a complete bit of misinformation from the Taxpayer’s Alliance and Mike Warburton from Grant Thornton shows his true colours by supporting their absurd claim – which relates solely to a small and entirely resonable interest charge on tax paid late.
There is an ongoing saga of good versus evil. Valiant governments, with proud leaders at their helms, are devoted to bringing down the wicked tax havens and the conniving men and women who hide money on their shores. One day, we will tell the tale of how these governments reigned victorious, dismantled the shadow financial system, and restored the black money to the rightful people of their nations.
If only.
Banking secrecy is no fairy tale. In the system of international tax evasion, the valiant heroes are just as guilty as the wicked witches. In a report to the UN, for example, Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz notes the worst offenders are not remote island states, but places like Nevada, Delaware, and London.
In Switzerland, bankers are often fully aware their clients are up to no good, but will vow to take their clients’ names to the grave and then exploit their secrecy laws and sovereignty to do so. But promises can be broken. Just this week, for example, Swiss bank UBS has agreed to release the names of 4,450 American clients thought to be sheltering as much as $18 billion from the IRS. Which is why, if you are a shady bank depositor, it is more appealing to not give your name in the first place. This is illegal in Switzerland and most tax havens. It happens to be perfectly legitimate in many American states.
In Delaware, Nevada, and Wyoming, for example, clients can anonymously set up shell corporations (companies that are used exclusively for business transactions and do not have any real assets or operations). Nevada, one of the worst offenders, does not require banks to even request the names of account or company shareholders, nor do they need to share that information with the federal government. This means it’s easier to set up a corporation in Nevada than it is to get a library card. Wicked.
This theory has been proved by Jason Sharman, a professor of political science, who used a small budget and Google to set up shell companies and open anonymous bank accounts in 22 countries – including tax havens and respectable OECD members. Of his 45 attempts, 17 banks provided him with a shell company without checking his identity. Four of these were in the U.S. and seven were in the UK.
In Switzerland and Bermuda, the banks requested a notarized copy of Sharman’s birth certificate. In Wyoming the professor opened a bank account without so much as a Blockbuster card. In Great Britain, he formed an anonymous shell company in 45 minutes. Flat.
This isn’t just about tax evasion. Shell companies are also used for terrorist financing, money laundering, drug trafficking, and to siphon off illicit funds. These entities can absorb, hide and transfer wealth outside the reach of any law enforcement agency. Shell corporations were also the main tools used by executives at Enron to hide losses and fabricate earnings. Enron executives, bloated with their own audacity, gave their subsidiaries snazzy names like “Raptor” and “JEDI”.
The Financial Task Force has proposed that jurisdictions maintain a public list of the beneficial ownership and accounts of companies and trusts. Under this system, banks in Nevada would be required to disclose the information of clients who open corporations and of the persons and entities who are benefiting financially from those accounts.
Well, actually, they need to collect the information first.
Note: This blog was written by Ann Hollingshead, a research associate at Global Financial Integrity and has been reproduced with permission and because I think it signals another of the ‚Äònext stages’ that are essential post UBS.
TJN USA issued the following on UBS, and given that they are being increasingly called on to comment there I thought it appropriate to give the comment a wider audience here:
Tax Justice Network USA on the Agreement between UBS, the Swiss Government and the IRS August 20, 2009
Contact: Sarah Lewis, sarah.lewis@taxjusticenetworkusa.org, +1 202 550-6504
The agreement between UBS, the Swiss Government and the IRS is a good first step toward putting banks out of the business of selling to wealthy Americans tax evasion assistance under the guise of "wealth management." But it is only a first step.
And, while the agreement is a reasonable resolution of a particularly egregious case it will not put Switzerland and its banks out of the cross-border tax evasion business for good. That should be the objective of national and international policy.
"The UBS settlement should be seen as the opening round in a long fight, " said Sarah Lewis, Executive Director of Tax Justice Network USA. "The key to success will be vigorous follow-through at the national and international level."
"Because of the UBS and Liechtenstein disclosures, we now know that foreign banks in bank secrecy jurisdictions have been routinely selling tax evasion services to Americans and to other wealthy people around the world. As the result of voluntary disclosures over the last several months it is now obvious that there is an entire offshore industry busy soliciting this tax evasion business. The industry is illegal and illegitimate and must be put out of business. This is the first major IRS offshore banking enforcement action in years, the first against a major Swiss bank, and no ordinary Swiss bank, but the world’s largest player in international private banking." she continued.
Tax Justice Network USA takes the position that continued vigorous action at the national and international level is essential.
The US government should do the following:
The impact of the tax evasion business is worldwide. UBS is offering the same tax evasion services in dozens of other countries. Other banks were and are doing the same thing. Other governments should join in the effort to open UBS’s books and expose its global role in supporting tax evasion.
Tax Justice Network USA applauds the forward progress represented by the agreement in this case, the question of follow through is critical.
Secret Swiss Bank Accounts Are A Good Thing – Financials * US * News * Story – CNBC.com.
Those who excuse crimem in the name of right wing politics are still out there.
The following comes from Greenpeace:
We have exposed a secret oil industry plan to organise fake rallies against US climate legislation, and to exaggerate concern over the cost of action on climate change. The plan, stated in a leaked internal memo from the API (American Petroleum Institute) shows that they are reverting back to old tricks – spreading misinformation about climate change and pressing politicians towards inaction.
While Shell Oil have said they won’t participate in this plan – they still give money to the API which continues to lobby the US Government using deceptive tactics.
Climate protection policy is needed urgently. Politicians should listen to climate scientists and the people – not big corporations with vested interests. The API is threatening our future, and our children’s future with their lies.
We need you to tell the oil industry to come clean and support real climate action.
The following letter will be sent to the CEOs of: BHP Billiton, BP, Chevron, Conoco, Exxon, General Electric, Halliburton, Shell and Petrobras.
Dear CEO,
Greenpeace recently obtained an email memo, addressed to you as a member of the American Petroleum Institute (API), calling for help organising a series of "Astroturf" (fake grass-roots protests) rallies to oppose urgently needed climate legislation in the United States. The memo outlined a campaign to use oil industry employees posing as "Energy Citizens" to rally against climate change action. This campaign would promote misleading and outdated information, to scare the US politicians into acting against OUR best interests, in defense of your profits.
Twenty one years ago, the API used a very similar tactic when it set up the Global Climate Coalition to undermine the science around global climate change, and to create doubt through generating "news" stories. Eleven years ago, they were exposed, and discredited, resulting in many of the members withdrawing support for this project. The debate has now moved on in terms of the weight of scientific evidence available, and the shift in public opinion. But, some corporations remain entrenched in their old ways.
Some API members now claim that they acknowledge the scientific evidence of climate change and its dire implications. The recent API ‚ÄòEnergy Citizen’ campaign was not supposed to publicly ‘oppose’ legislation, but the memo to API membership shows that killing the Waxman Markey Clean Energy Bill or slowing political momentum on climate action is clearly their intent.
As a member of the API, your membership fees are funding this deceptive project. Already this year US corporations have spent US$ 82 million lobbying the US Congress. Catastrophic climate change threatens to; wipe out a quarter of the world’s species, displace over a billion people and make poverty permanent – all within the lifetime of our children. If we are to avoid these terrible consequences the world needs a transparent, democratic and honest debate on climate change policy, and it needs urgent action. You can help achieve both these things by:
* Demonstrate your disapproval of the continued use of similar tactics by API by publicly withdrawing membership altogether,
* Make a public statement calling on the head of state in every country where you do business to support cuts of greenhouse gas emissions of 40% by industrialised countries as a group by 2020.
* Making clear your company’s position on cap and trade and or taxation as a means to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions
I am sending this letter to the CEOs of: BHP Billiton, BP, Chevron, Conoco, Exxon, General Electric, Halliburton, Shell and Petrobras.
Yours sincerely,
It is staggering that companies like BP and Shell are members of an organisation that is still denying climate change and that is opposing President Obama’s plans.
Please sign up on the Greenpeace site to add your name to the protest.
Pact Breaks Through Swiss Bank Secrecy – washingtonpost.com.
It is, perhaps, not the full disclosure the United States demanded. But tax cheats thrive in the dark, and now that darkness is no longer total.
There is a tipping point though: here is another major paper saying that tax cheats use secrecy.
Now its the duty of the US, UK and the OECD to get openness for all, Automatic Information Exchange for all, and to shine a light in the darkness for all.
It’s not enough thjat there’s a little light for the US. The world as a whole needs it.
Credit to Zoe Young for making this, and to all involved.
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