This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Too Close to Home?
Two headlines. Similar stories. The first from Switzerland:
The United States authorities have offered to lift the threat of legal action against 11 Swiss banks in exchange for information, a Swiss paper reported on Sunday.
This is part of a very long story. The US Justice Department has been doing everything it can to get the names of US citizens who have Swiss bank accounts. The DOJ damn near busted UBS over this a few years back. Now they are going after the other Swiss banks. The lawyers at the DOJ don’t kid around:
“Give us the names or we’ll sue the shit out of you”.
Given what happened to UBS ($780mm in fines), the other banks have no choice but to fold and hand over the info.
This second story ratchets things up a bit and brings it home:(Link)
A federal district court judge has given the Internal Revenue Service permission to serve a “John Doe” summons on the California State Board of Equalization demanding the names of residents who transferred property to their children or grandchildren for little or no money, from 2005 to 2010.
The IRS has used John Doe summons to seek lists of American taxpayers unreported offshore accounts at Swiss Bank UBS and at HSBC’s bank in India.
These pushy techniques have worked well in Switzerland. The hard
working folks at the DOJ/IRS are now bringing them to California. This means that the IRS can look at anyone’s real estate transactions. With John Doe warrants, they can go fishing/snooping wherever they like.
Think what you will of this. The country is starved for revenue. The outfit that is charged with collecting that revenue has an army of tough-minded lawyers behind it. It will have the power to turn over stones as it pleases. In the end this effort will raise some additional revenue. It will scare the crap out of a few folks as well. Some will cheer this. I see the John Doe warrants as a big and dangerous step on a very slippery slope. It sure won’t do much for Uncle Sam’s image.
Unrelated Note:
In my forecasts for 2011 I said:
-Kim Jong-Il will die. His son will take over. The heir is a nut, there will be more military exercises that results in shells landing on S. Korea soil. China will make public statements that it is trying to bring order; behind the scenes they will be applauding the chaos.
I got the first part right. I believe I will be right on the second part too. This could get very messy. Fast.
»
- advertisements -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI8GEidaMMI
It's a fool who thinks he can predict the future. It's a king who goes out and creates the future.
Uhm, anybody hear anything about a Swiss threat to reveal money infromation that would be embarrassing to the US if they don't get the US DOJ to back off?
Is this fluff? Alot of Swiss banking is owned by so called Americans.
Ohh Wait Slewie? ?/ It's the PONZI ( EURO bail-out, being digested) DIRTBAG { CENTRAL}, AKA_ THE {ECB}!
^ "KIM"!
if only the goobermint were better at inspiring voluntary compliance, the irs mofos wouldn't hafta work on commission to try to stay outa debt?
today, i ended up at the post office w/ a friend but didn't have my box key, so i just showed ID and asked for my mail and was told they could not remove mail from a box once they had put it in there, but would sell me a key [the box is completely open in the back]
the vortex opened. how much?
$9...
[pause] well, ok. it's christmas and it's for a good cause...
economics, BiCheZ!
Arrr, Matey. Well spoken Slewie. Mr. Castings< I appreciate your comments. I'm Sum Dum Guy.
Happy Chinese New year. /sarc on
My accountant is a former IRS agent. He hates the IRS. Says they train their agents how to entrap people during audits. Says they are ruthless and ethic-less and looks forward to every court battle they throw at him.
Everyone including myself seems to going for the unsinkable widget that will save the day in any situation however heinous and cruel it may be.
Property elsewhere with your name in blocks on it seems to be good. or UNTIL.........
Gold, disputed may hold some promise on this spinning pebble.Many perspective all good and relevant.
All I wanted to do was be left alone to do my hobbies and whoosh, I'm ground zero for leaders and handlers with small dick insecurity for a control grid I was born into. Don't have me meet your wives or multiple mistresses.
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!
[Han reveals his clever plan of escape]
Princess Leia: You have your moments. Not many of them, but you do have them.
This is all I ask, gnite zh you scalliwags
also leave the graffiti to me, for the sake of the sake pleeeeze, You might know money, but Ido know graffiti, hell I bump into the at court, even today hahaha
I'm not being a prick actually I like it rock on, just laffing
"Given what happened to UBS ($780mm in fines), the other banks have no choice but to fold and hand over the info."
DOJ and IRS can only only go after Swiss banks, which have charters in the USA.... which is why DOJ is going after 11 banks. There are many Swiss banks, which have closed US operations over this issue.
Bruce and I are Swiss and being Swiss we can have accounts at banks, which are owned by the Swiss government and over which the US DOJ has no authority, nor influence. As a matter of law, it is unconstitutional (Swiss constitution) for such banks to release any customer info.
Pay and pay, or emigrate and renounce. I chose the latter.
IRS forcing open the dark corners of the Swiss banking system to go after tax cheats is fine by me. So too is looking for fraudulent real estate valuations used to cheat on tax liabilites. Equating this to Big Brother intrusion is ridiculous. Given the title of "Too Close to Home?", I wonder whether Bruce has a secret Swiss account he wants to keep hidden.
so by definition anyone who claims their property as their own is a 'tax cheat' and should have their private property expropriated, by force, by the government?
please tell me why we pay federal income tax?
for schools? no that's what property taxes are for.
for universities? no that's what state taxes are for.
for roads? no that's what gasoline tax is for.
for social security? no that's what social security tax is for.
for defence? well no, corporate tax covers all the (even excessive) military outlays.
so what enumerated power in the constitution does me paying federal tax cover?
oh wait, our first lady's multimillion dollar vacations, obama's multimillion dollar canadian made bus and other political favours (like funding fannie mae, freddie mac to get votes).
You forgot the interest owed on the money borrowed from the federal reserve system.
Weird, that...we could have just printed our own money.
Behold, the embodiment of the term "useful idiot."
Tuffy,
Ok, till it's YOU............then sing a new tune.
Warm ups,strictly warm up.
Next!!!!
It won't be me. I don't cheat on my taxes.
Tuffmug
Me either,never have,never will, intentionally.
You think that makes one iota of difference to them?.
With all those regs, all of us are guilty of something, BANK it.
Hell no.
Whateva! You're just opposed to warrantless wiretaps, indefinite detainment of American citizens and summary executions without trial because you've to something to hide! Fess up hippy!
Given what happened to UBS ($780mm in fines), the other banks have no choice but to fold and hand over the info.
IS Switzeralnd a Soverign nation or not?,why do they have to turn over anything unless they want to?.
SUE who?.
Appears the USGUB is IRSN the shit outa whever it wants, how they can do this is beyonf my grasp.
Swiss need to grow a set.
BK, may I ask how you foresaw the death of KJI? (and his heirs' aggression.)
thanks
sgt_doom
"It is also possible that US Corporations that are headquartered off shore may not be playing fair either."I love this sentence, it speaks volumes and volumes of pure, unadulterated IGNORANCE!Are you really human? You are really a typical chatbot with a NLI (natural language interface), right?No way any humanoid could make such a pathetically gullible statement.No way....---MAYDAY-----MAYDAY-------------------------------------------REPLY------------------------REPLY------------------REPLY------------
Thank you for the input. Our system has had a poser, er uh power failure causing some minor technical difficulties.
You are correct, there are no off shore operations functioning under questionable conditions and Ireland, Switzerland, and Caribbean Island communities are upstanding tax shelters. We are sorry for the incontinence this may have caused you. We hope to continue to service any blinking, banking or bunking needs.
To reply to someone hit the little blue 'reply' link below their comment.
OK so let me get this straight...
Obama just decided to focus more on Asia....
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/12/2011129132510922889.html
Now the North Korean dictator kicks the bucket....
and it seems like his replacement is a bit of a war monger...
whats the problem....
fire up the drones!
health insurance personal mandate for 18yr olds, as well as this private property viewed through the lens of government summonsz
.
werent we just passing the bill to future generations
Fantastic calls on 2011. Lucky for you ole Kim took that uber stressful train ride and didn't wait two more weeks!
"I hate big brother."
We all do, now what??
I am surprised anyone would think that they have a right to privacy in public records. Weird.
I understand why California doesnt want to comply, costs $$$$ and man hours.
I don't have the expectation....let alone the right...to privacy anywhere anytime.
Meanwhile, it takes 3 fucking years to bring Fannie and Freddie to court. And even then, it's the SEC doing it ... in CIVIL court. How many others should be facing CRIMINAL prosecution? Yet, the DOJ chooses to go after tax cheats?? There is no hope.
We have become the very definition of a plutocracy.If you have influnec ,you will do ine;if not then you are dead meat
"they hate us for our freedoms"
Yeah! ...for both of them!
And they are simple bodily functions.
Good thing I did transfer the properties to my kids correctly, only giving them shares in the properties that were within how much they were allowed to be gifted tax free. I bet that I'll be contacted to show this though in the coming years.
In the 90's, while still a student, I interned at a Fire Department (I was a very OLD student) when the Fire Chief was about to retire and had a personal windfall of taxpayer dollars come his way.
He was horrified at the tax consequence of receiving all this cash all at once and asked if I had any idea what to do with it.
I told him to line up his most trusted relatives and give it away. At the time he could give each about $50k. He was hispanic so he had a bazillion relatives and grandchildren.
I only worked there for about six months and he's now a City Commissioner over the last (jesus! twenty years). Every time I run into him he tells everyone how great a genius I am and how I saved him millions.
Lucky for him I had just read my textbook regarding gift transfers less than ten minutes before he asked my opinion.
Bruce, for once I disagree with you. First off you have to realize that the lawyers in the House and Senate control the Tax Code. It is written to be complex and furnish the wealthy/informed with the proper loop holes to be legal tax evaders. It is also written to entrap those that are trouble makers.
The IRS, in this write up, indicates it going after tax evaders. Fair enough, maybe some of the drug dealers and other bad guys will get to contribute to the financing of the country. One can assume nothing, but the rich cheaters may get the worst end of this.
If the drug cartels, their politicians, and their lawyers get beat up, so much the better. It is also possible that US Corporations that are headquartered off shore may not be playing fair either.
It may be that if you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear. It also may be that the statement is not true. I do not know any IRS agents to hear their stories about jerks they have to deal with. I do know that a good friend of mine took all his papers and receipts that were jumbled in a box and dumped them on the desk of the IRS agent, telling him to prove he was a tax dodger. My own father, who was an accounting and tax wizard, ordered the IRS guy out of his house, as in “get out of my house”. Both of these persons were correct in the audit, but there is more than one side to any story. Polite diplomacy has it place and benefits. Not that tax collectors have ever been popular.
Do you use alcohol as a get-high? Don't forget that in the '20s, alcohol dealers were drug dealers, through an amendment to the Constitution, which has never been done for any other drug.
Yeah...that lasted.
"It is also possible that US Corporations that are headquartered off shore may not be playing fair either."
I love this sentence, it speaks volumes and volumes of pure, unadulterated IGNORANCE!
Are you really human?
You are really a typical chatbot with a NLI (natural language interface), right?
No way any humanoid could make such a pathetically gullible statement.
No way....
I don't necessarily agree with him but it seems like he was being cheeky whereas you assumed he was serious - I prefer to give people the benefit of doubt.
I have about 7,500 pages of documents from the County Recorders that show how 4 small shell companies avoided paying taxes. In the process they ripped my wife off until we won in a civil suit against one of the ring members.
Hey if the IRS (the collection arm of the private banks that own the Fed) are going to start to process crime again I'd like to give them what I have. Do you have an email address?
They didn't want to look into it back in 2008. I guess they are getting desperate.
Yes I support rats turning on each other as the ship goes down. The higher up the ladder it gets the more cheering from those watching from below.
Eventually the poor will be out roasting hot dog and marsh mellows around the warming fire in the trash can while they cheer as various satellites are knocked out of the night sky above.
I heard Klingons are withdrawing their funds from Swiss banks now that Ferengi banksters have taken over. There, on the starboard bow. Thanks for all the fish guys.
Head bankster-Ferengi, blankenfeld caught relaxing at the Fed. Whose a pretty boy.
http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/9300000/Quark-ferengi-9330446-581...
who you callin a ferengi?
SO the vicous cycle continues. Discourage US citizens from pursuing ventures. Lack of pursuit means no chance for added tax revenue. Tax revenues continue to decline.
At some point there is nothing left to squeeze. This is a sure tell that we are getting closer and closer to the end game.
They are going to give in and reveal all the names of the pawns and schmoos. The king and queens will be protected.
Amazing, the DOJ will chase unknown John Does with Swiss accounts but won't chase criminals on Wall Street...maybe if all of the account holders tod Swiss banks to make campaign contributions to Obama the heat would go away...
Yep. I find it interesting how the DoJ manages to allocate its precious capital.
And what i mean by "interesting" shouldn't dare be inferred as positive.
I get the impression they are going after the second or third tier guys, the little people in the world of major plutocracy.
The malingerers of this class, more or less.
Tell the US to GFYS.
Swissies need to grow a pair. Merge into the EU and make the Euro the new reserve currency that 99% of the world wants to trade with as opposed to the 1% which is shoving the USD down everyone's throats.
The US is basically saying to Swissies: "hand over your loot, maties!"
Don't do it!
Without really understanding how it would materialize I can visualizae Switzerland without a constituency of powerful defenders in a world which may decide it does more harm than good.
What. really, is Switzerland's leverage here?