Network Archives

Voluntary Tax Disclosure Programs Correlated With U.S. Citizenship Renunciations

"'It’s quite clear from the data that the number of people renouncing their citizenship shoots up at the same time that the IRS began the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Programs. Then, the number of people renouncing citizenship decreases at the same time that the Streamlined program is announced – which gives US citizens living abroad a less cumbersome way to catch up on back taxes, but then it shoots up again when the FATCA rules start to kick in and people find that the bank they have worked with for 20 years is closing their account because they are a US citizen' said David McKeegan of Greenback Expat Tax Services, a tax preparation company." Continue reading →

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Deloitte Rep. Warns China, Hong Kong To Sign FATCA Agreement

"'If the BVI and Caymans comply with the FATCA [Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act], this speaks volumes about the importance of this legislation to the world at large, let alone China and Hong Kong,' said Patrick Yip, deputy national mergers and acquisitions leader at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. 'China and Hong Kong financial firms that think by putting assets and income into BVI and Cayman companies they can avoid the reach of FATCA, they need to think again.' Although a US law, FATCA applies worldwide to every financial institution that receives payments from US sources. The mainland and Hong Kong should sign the agreements with the US to soothe their worries, he urged." Continue reading →

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Swiss Offshore-Adviser’s Guilty Plea Marks a Shift in Tax Crackdown

"On Aug. 16, Edgar Paltzer, 57 years old, a Swiss lawyer formerly with the Zurich firm of Niederer, Kraft & Frey, pleaded guilty in federal court in New York to a single count of conspiracy. Experts say Mr. Paltzer is the most prominent Swiss adviser to confess and the first to do so publicly. More than 30 advisers have been indicted in connection with allegedly enabling U.S. taxpayers to hide money abroad. The case puts further pressure on U.S. taxpayers holding secret offshore accounts, because advisers might opt to protect themselves by turning in their clients. The case also expands government scrutiny to assets stored in bank vaults." Continue reading →

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“When Will They Learn?”

"In a conservative administration, a government will institute greater social controls. In the following liberal administration, the government will institute greater economic controls. And the police state will be increased under both administrations. The net effect is overall increased dominance by government. Under the two-party system, this dominance is not only tolerated by the populace, but encouraged. The day never comes when a people convince their government to 'lighten up.' Relief only comes when an overly-powerful governmental system collapses under its own weight." Continue reading →

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The Worst Law Most Americans Have Never Heard Of

"While there is still an opportunity for you to avoid getting boxed in by a desperate and out-of-control government, nobody knows exactly how much time is left. And once official capital controls are implemented (#3), your wealth is trapped and things tend to unravel pretty quickly. Developing your internationalization game plan does not mean you have to leave your home country. It is possible to achieve a certain level of international diversification without needing to leave your living room, for example, by opening a foreign bank or brokerage account remotely. The idea is to create your own personal insurance policy to immunize yourself from the common destructive measures of a desperate government." Continue reading →

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The Empire’s Next Effort to Extract Your Wealth

"Since before the tech bust, we’ve been suggesting that while Americans 'think' they’re getting richer… they’re actually heading in the other direction. They’re getting poorer. This proposition has been easier for folks to entertain since housing busted and the financial crisis reversed the “wealth effect” in 2008. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the logic of the American Empire and what you can expect in the year(s) ahead." Continue reading →

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Ron Paul: Middle of the Road in Healthcare Leads to Socialism

"Beginning in the 1940s, government policies distorted the health care market, causing prices to rise and denying many Americans access to quality care. Congress reacted to the problems caused by their prior interventions with new interventions, such as the HMO Act, ERISA, EMTLA, and various federal entitlement programs. Each new federal intervention not only failed to fix the problems it was supposedly created to solve, it created new problems, leading to calls for even more new federal interventions. This process culminated in 2010. Contrary to the claims of some of its opponents, Obamacare is not socialized medicine. It is corporatized medicine." Continue reading →

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Citizen Obama’s Middle-Class Vacation in Martha’s Vineyard

"Seventy hotel rooms had been booked for the president’s secret police (not counting those for the whores). Somber men could be seen everywhere with earpieces and bulging jackets. People on the island generally yielded before them on the sidewalk, out of deference for what they understand are their own bodyguards. 'It’s good to be in Massachusetts again,' the president confided when climbing down from a MV-22 Osprey, a military helicopter-airplane hybrid. 'With its tough gun laws, the state of Massachusetts illustrates how common-sense controls can reduce crimes and create a safe gun-free zone for middle-class families like mine.'" Continue reading →

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America’s Social Recession: Five Years and Counting

"What happens to the social fabric of an advanced-economy nation after a decade or more of economic stagnation? For an answer, we can turn to Japan. The second-largest economy in the world has stagnated in just this fashion for almost twenty years, and the consequences for the 'lost generations' which have come of age in the 'lost decades' have been dire. In many ways, the social conventions of Japan are fraying or unraveling under the relentless pressure of an economy in seemingly permanent decline." Continue reading →

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Economic Darwinism and the Next Financial Crisis

"The boom times enabled animals called bankers grow to massive size. Nature selected those who were the fittest for that environment. When the environment changed, these animals were like dinosaurs staring at the glaciers. The interest rate policy of the Federal Reserve today is designed to keep those dinosaurs warm and well fed. The people who run our country were largely selected by Economic Darwinism from a pool of people who owe their success to cheap interest. It is no surprise that these people see cheap interest as the only solution to our economic woes. This policy is about rebuilding their past rather than improving your future." Continue reading →

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