Fugitive Tax-Slaves

Don’t Fall Victim to Hoarding

"Thanks to the courageous Edward Snowden, America now knows the NSA has, for seven years, collected data on many millions of our phone calls, emails and other communications, even when its top officials have testified that it had not. And things look like they are going to get even worse. Hot on the heels of the NSA revelations, now the habitually anti-tax haven and pro-tax Organization for Economic and Community Development (OECD) wants in on the action, by forcing all countries into useless data-hoarding of private information in a very big way." Continue reading →

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Holocaust survivor and US tax fugitive Marc Rich dies at 78 in Switzerland

"Billionaire Marc Rich, who invented oil trading and was pardoned of a life sentence by President Bill Clinton over the then-biggest tax evasion case in U.S. history and busting sanctions with Iran, died on Wednesday from a stroke in Switzerland at 78. Rich fled the Holocaust with his parents for America to become the most successful and controversial trader of his time and a fugitive from U.S. justice, enjoying decades of comfortable privacy at his sprawling Villa Rosa on Lake Lucerne. Belgian-born Rich, whose trading group eventually became the global commodities powerhouse Glencore Xstrata, died in hospital from a stroke, spokesman Christian Koenig said." Continue reading →

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Credit Suisse faces $1.2-billion US penalty over taxes

"Credit Suisse faces a penalty of $1.2 billion (1.1 billion francs) from US authorities over cases of tax evasion involving American clients, a Swiss lawyer estimates. The cantonal banks of Zurich and Basel are also believed among those targeted. Last week, MPs in Bern rejected an agreement with the US, backed by the Swiss federal government, to temporarily lift banking secrecy laws to allow Swiss banks to settle with American authorities over past tax evasion cases. The agreement was never made public but was expected to include significant fines against 14 Swiss banks." Continue reading →

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Australian Taxation Office targets Bitcoin users

"The Australian Taxation Office is taking aim at Bitcoin users who could be attracted to the burgeoning virtual currency by the possibility of hiding transactions and dodging tax. Despite the ability to trade virtual currencies like Bitcoin anonymously, the ATO is confident it can track users in efforts to stop fraud. 'Bitcoin is no more anonymous than physical cash and the ATO has experience in working with earlier forms of ­anonymous electronic money systems, and with physical cash, which are relevant for responding to new and emerging ­systems,' ATO senior assistant ­com­missioner for the cash economy Michael Hardy told The Australian ­Financial Review." Continue reading →

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“Homelanders” To U.S. Expatriates: Don’t Come Back… Ever

"The 2008 amendments levy an 'exit tax' applies to both U.S. citizens and long-term U.S. residents—green card holders who have resided in the United States for at least eight of the 15 years prior to expatriation. The tax is predicated on the legal fiction that you sell all of your worldwide property at its fair market value on the day before you expatriate. But that’s only the beginning. In 1996, Congress enacted the 'Reed Amendment' to the Immigration and Nationality Act. The amendment gives the US Attorney General the discretion to deny entry into the United States to a former US citizen who renounced US citizenship in order to avoid US taxation." Continue reading →

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What Currency Controls Mean for You

"Many in the First World are predicting that we are on the verge of an economic collapse that will bring about the destruction of wealth, but this is not so. Yes, there will most certainly be a collapse, but, historically, wealth is not destroyed in such situations, it merely changes hands. It is likely that the reader is already well aware that small jurisdictions, such as Singapore and Hong Kong, are attracting a share of wealth that is beyond what their size would naturally dictate. The amount of wealth per resident in these jurisdictions is high. Its presence means that opportunities abound in these havens. For every door that closes, another opens." Continue reading →

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“Stalin Would Love This…”

"There are dark, unspoken consequences of lists and information gathering. We’ve seen this before. While President Obama dismissed concerns about his administration’s domestic spying operations as 'minor intrusions' on our liberties, the truth is quite different if one actually takes the time to think about the potential implications of such massive data gathering. And can we really be accused of overreacting with the IRS abuse of targeted groups and the government leaks of late? No one but the self-deluded thinks that our data is unfailingly safe and in the hands of the most competent and trustworthy among us." Continue reading →

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Dolce and Gabbana jailed over tax evasion

"An Italian court on Wednesday sentenced fashion house duo Dolce and Gabbana to one year and eight months in prison for tax evasion of around one billion euros ($1.33 billion), according to media reports. Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana were found guilty of having transferred control of their brands to a shell company in Luxembourg in 2004 and 2005 to avoid paying Italian taxes." Continue reading →

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Can Swiss Human Rights Withstand IRS Extraterritorial Tax Enforcement?

"Switzerland is being persecuted for being a productive, peaceful nation that has a strong human rights policy with regards to privacy. More specifically, politicians from high-tax nations resent the fact that investors flock to Switzerland to benefit from good policies, and they are pressuring the Swiss government to weaken that nation’s human rights laws so that governments with bad fiscal systems have an easier time of tracking and taxing flight capital. But I’m not opening champagne just yet. The Swiss have resisted American demands before, and on more than one occasion, only to eventually back down." Continue reading →

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DoJ Files Action to Collect Multiple 50 Percent Civil FBAR Penalties in U.S.A. vs. Zwerner

"On June 11, 2013, the U.S. government filed a Complaint to collect multiple civil FBAR penalties in the amount of $3,488,609.33 against Carl R. Zwerner of Coral Gables, Florida for his alleged failure to timely report his financial interest in a foreign bank account. According to the Complaint, from 2004 through 2007, Mr. Zwerner, a U.S. citizen, had a financial interest in an account at ABN AMRO Bank in Switzerland (hereinafter, 'the Swiss bank account') and that the balance of the Swiss bank account from 2004-2007 was at all times greater than $10,000 and that, as such, on or before June 30, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008, Mr. Zwerner was required to file an FBAR." Continue reading →

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