Why haven’t we got someone like Senator Carl Levin?

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The following message has been sent to me from the office of Senator Carl Levin in the USA, via Bill Fant at Citizens for Tax Justice:

The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has scheduled a hearing for August 1, 2006, entitled Offshore Abuses: The Enablers, The Tools & Offshore Secrecy. The Subcommittee has held a number of hearings addressing the issue of tax havens and offshore abuses which are undermining the integrity of the federal tax system, diverting tens of billions of dollars each year from the U.S. Treasury, and undermining U.S. law enforcement.

Hearings held in 2001 examined the historic and ongoing lack of cooperation by some offshore tax havens with international tax enforcement efforts and their resistance to divulging information needed to detect, stop and prosecute U.S. tax evasion.

A hearing held in December 2002 and Report issued in January 2003 provided an in-depth examination of an abusive tax shelter used by Enron.

Two days of hearings in November 2003, and a bipartisan report issued in 2005, provide an inside look at how some respected accounting firms, banks, investment advisors, and lawyers have become engines pushing the design, sale, and implementation of abusive tax shelters to corporations and individuals across the country.

The Subcommittee’s upcoming August 1st hearings will present case histories on the use of offshore trusts and corporations to circumvent U.S. tax, securities and anti-money laundering laws. Witnesses for the upcoming hearing will be securities firms, banks, law firms, U.S. taxpayers, a trust protector, and tax and securities experts. A final witness list will be available on Thursday, July 27, 2006.

The committee in question is heavily influenced by Senator Carl Levin . There is no better friend of tax justice. It's just a shame that the powers that be in Parliament here make sure that such issues do not get an official airing. And when they do, when bodies like the All Party Africa Committee look at them, as they did earlier this year the serious proposals they make are automatically dismissed as unworkable.


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