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Hunt for Taxes & the CRS

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; I followed your advice and opened an account in the United States. I live in Britain and my daughter lives there in the States so I used her local address. To my shock, it was very easy. You said the USA has become the new tax haven. So the USA is not part of the common reporting that even covers the Middle East?

KL

ANSWER: That is correct. The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) is an information standard for the automatic exchange of tax and financial information on a global level. It was put together by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) back in 2014. Its purpose was to hunt down tax evasion primarily for the European Union. They took the concept from the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which imposed liabilities on foreign institutions if they did not report what Americans were doing outside the country.

The legal basis of the CRS is the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. As of 2016, 83 countries had signed an agreement to implement it. First reporting took place in September 2017. The CRS has many loopholes for countries have to sign the agreement. This has omitted the United States as well as most developing countries. Note that countries that are included are China, Singapore, Switzerland, most tax havens and of course Australian/New Zealand as well as Canada.

As of 2018, the signing nations to avoid are:

Albania, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Australia, Austria, The Bahamas, Bahrain, Belize, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, China, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Dominica, Ghana, Grenada, Hong Kong (China), Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Marshall Islands, Macao (China), Malaysia, Mauritius, Monaco, Nauru, New Zealand, Pakistan, Panama, Qatar, Russia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Samoa, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sint Maarten, Switzerland, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Vanuatu

Trump Tax Cuts Have Postponed Economic Collapse: “The U.S. Has Become The Tax Haven Of The World”

Trump Tax Cuts Have Postponed Economic Collapse: “The U.S. Has Become The Tax Haven Of The World”

The last several years have seen massive gains for both stock market and digital currency investors with prices hitting unprecedented levels of growth. But one particular asset class, despite its necessity for day-to-day global activities, has been totally ignored by the general investing public. According to venture capital financier Carlo Civelli, there are varying reasons for why mining companies involved in commodity metals like copper, zinc, gold and silver have been either stagnant or seen disproportionate drops in their market value versus broader stocks, but one in particular stands out as of late:

The exploration stocks are just not attracting the following that they used and the reason for that could be the whole blockchain and Bitcoin mania… which is diverting a lot of speculative money from what used to be the commodities markets.

And while we’re likely to see continued interest in crypto currencies over coming years, Civelli notes that recent political developments in the United States, as well as favorable supply demand fundamentals, suggest that 2018 will be a breakout year for commodities markets after having hit cyclical lows. In an interview with Future Money Trends, Civelli says that President Trump’s tax cuts have shifted the global balance and may have postponed any serious economic problems for another ten years. 

The United States has become the tax haven of the world. 

Coupled with Trump’s trillion dollar infrastructure plan, the widespread tone of economic optimism across the global economy explains why Civelli has been aggressively gobbling up mining stocks (and he’s not talking about digital blockchain mining):

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

German Study: USA is the Top Tax Haven in the World

TAX Haven USA

Migration to USAA new study by the Green Party in Germany places the USA at the top of the list of tax havens for foreign investors. They have highlighted the key states in their study. I have written about this before. The strong capital flows coming into the USA from overseas have been stunning, to say the least. Some 3,000 millionaires from Greece, 10,000 millionaires from France, 6,000 millionaires from Italy, 2,000 millionaires from Spain, and about 2,000 millionaires from Russia have all migrated to the USA.

This is confirming what we see on capital flows. The dollar haters are incapable of looking at international news, and they only focus on the Fed and the Treasury. They seem incapable of objective analysis or looking at the entire world.

The War on Savings: The Panama Papers, Bail-Ins, and the Push to Go Cashless

The War on Savings: The Panama Papers, Bail-Ins, and the Push to Go Cashless

The bombshell publication of the “Panama Papers,” leaked from a Panama law firm specializing in shell companies, has triggered both outrage and skepticism. In an April 3 article titled “Corporate Media Gatekeepers Protect Western 1% From Panama Leak,” UK blogger Craig Murray writes that the whistleblower no doubt had good intentions; but he made the mistake of leaking his 11.5 million documents to the corporate-controlled Western media, which released only those few documents incriminating opponents of Western financial interests. Murray writes:

Do not expect a genuine expose of western capitalism. The dirty secrets of western corporations will remain unpublished.

Expect hits at Russia, Iran and Syria and some tiny “balancing” western country like Iceland.

Iceland, of course, was the only country to refuse to bail out its banks, instead throwing its offending bankers in jail.

Pepe Escobar calls the released Panama Papers a “limited hangout.” The leak dovetails with the attempt of Transparency International to create a Global Public Beneficial Ownership Registry, which can collect ownership information from governments around the world; and with UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s global anti-corruption summit next month. According to The Economist, “The Panama papers give him just the platform he needs to persuade other governments, and his own, to turn their tough talk of recent years into action.”

The Daily Bell suspects a coordinated global effort linked to the push to go cashless. It’s all about knowing where the money is and who owns it, in order to tax it, regulate it, “sanction” it, or confiscate it:

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Panama Papers Problem

The Panama Papers Problem

The worst criminals on earth are not the poor who sit behind bars in jails and prisons. The biggest thieves are found among the rich. The 1% can buy legislation, politicians and the media to carry out and hide their dirty work. If they can’t change the laws to benefit themselves in their homelands they simply send their money elsewhere through shell holding companies. This transfer of wealth, much of it diverted from what ought to be tax payments, is an open secret. Panama, the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Luxembourg and Switzerland are known for securing the money and secrets of the rich and the well connected.

The leak of 11.5 million documents from the Panama based Mossack Fonseca law firm brings into the light of day what was long known but passively accepted. Now the facts are in the open but the way in which the revelations are reported is questionable and taints an important story.

The documents now known as the Panama Papers were leaked to the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) who then shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). ICIJ is a non-profit but with its own problematic origins. It is funded in part by the Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundation, Kellogg Foundation and the Rockefeller Family Fund. ICIJ then worked with journalists around the world including from the Guardian and the McClatchy newspaper chain.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Panama Papers only a glimpse into ‘astonishing’ wealth stashed offshore

Panama Papers only a glimpse into ‘astonishing’ wealth stashed offshore

Some estimates suggest between 8 and 14 per cent of global wealth is kept in tax havens

It's estimated that at least $7 trillion and up to $32 trillion is currently kept in holdings in tax havens.

It’s estimated that at least $7 trillion and up to $32 trillion is currently kept in holdings in tax havens. (Eric Gaillard/Reuters)

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The provocative revelations coming out of the so-called Panama Papers are just a glimpse into the murky global network that’s keeping “absolutely astonishing” amounts of money out of public coffers.

The 11.5 million files taken from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca show how the financial elite exploit a secretive system to manoeuvre wealth anonymously and ensure the taxman doesn’t take his cut.

The firm is “the world’s fourth biggest provider of offshore services,” according to the Guardian, with about $42 million in yearly revenue. The documents contain information about more than 214,000 shell companies, trusts and foundations — usually used to hold or transfer financial assets while obfuscating the identity of their real owner — that were registered with the firm.

“That gives a sense of the tremendous scope of this in terms of the flows of money into these largely mysterious companies, and this is only one firm,” says Nicholas Shaxson, an investigative journalist and author of Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men who Stole the World.

It’s difficult to delineate what constitutes a tax haven but it’s generally agreed that, depending on the criteria, there are between 70 and 92 states serving as such worldwide. And there’s an estimated two million shell companies registered with offshore firms in these states.

Panama Papers shell company graphic

Panama Papers shell company graphic

(CBC)

“For a long time, people thought of tax havens as an exotic sideshow of the world economy. Now it’s clear they are absolutely central to it. We’re talking about absolutely astonishing, mind-boggling amounts of money,” Shaxson says.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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