Insanely Rich Tax Cheats Hid Over $21 Trillion In Offshore Accounts

[Viva_Daddy]

"Since most of the missing financial wealth belongs to a tiny elite, the impact is staggering," says Henry.
"For most countries, global financial inequality is not only much greater than we suspected, but it has been growing much faster."

Had this money been taxed as income, Henry estimates it could have brought in around $190 to $280 billion. That doesn't even include revenues from estate, capital gains or other types of taxes.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/insanely-rich-tax-evaders-have-hidden-over-21-trillion-in-offshore-accounts-2012-7#ixzz26xhal4B2"

I hope this link works for you: http://www.businessinsider.com/insanely-rich-tax-evaders-have-hidden-over-21-trillion-in-offshore-accounts-2012-7 if not, Google "Rich Trillion offshore" for several sources.

This is why we're hurting. WE'VE BEEN ROBBED!!!

[SickOfTheOnePct]

1. Is it illegal?

If it is, then the people need to be prosecuted.

If it isn't, then until the law is changed, as it should be, then I have no problem with it.

[rhett o rick]

2. Problem is that the people responsible for prosecuting and changing the laws are in on the thieft.nm

[cherokeeprogressive]

3. I don't understand. . .

From your link:

"Turns out the super rich are even richer than we thought. According to new research by economist James Henry, there was a conservatively estimated $21 to $32 trillion being held in private offshore tax havens in 2010.

As if this wasn't already a large number, the $21 trillion is held by 100 million people, while $9.8 trillion is held by just 100,000 people."

Is the author saying that roughly 1 in 3 people in the US hold offshore accounts totalling $21 trillion dollars?

http://www.businessinsider.com/insanely-rich-tax-evaders-have-hidden-over-21-trillion-in-offshore-accounts-2012-7#ixzz26xmFlSEc

[TalkingDog]

5. Does the article specify Americans or is that all off shore account holders?

N/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. (a) Business Insider is wrong - it's 10 million people, not 100m; (b) it's across the whole world

which BI does not make clear. Not very good reporting, really. Here's the paper by the economist:

http://www.taxjustice.net/cms/upload/pdf/The_Price_of_Offshore_Revisited_Presser_120722.pdf

(can't paste from it - every word comes out on a new line!)

Page 2 - the number of 'global super-rich' with the $21 trillion is fewer than 10 million. Of these, 100,000 people worldwide hold $9.8 trillion.

If 30% of those rich are American, then it's 3 million - the richest 1% of Americans. But it may be less than 30% - the main focus of the paper is 'middle-income countries' like China or Russia, where they think there's a lot of rich individuals who keep their money abroad. They think from 139 middle-income countries, there's $9.4 trillion held abroad. So even if higher income countries (USA, Canada, Western Europe, Japan, Australia) hold nearly all the rest (and I'm sure a bit of the rest would be held by a few dictators or similar from really poor countries), I suspect the USA wouldn't get as much as 30% of the whole.

[moondust]

4. Moochers.

I doubt if much of that money was "earned" in any meaningful way. Fat cats hire investment managers to do the "work" of turning their big piles of cash into bigger piles on the backs of underpaid working people while the fat cats dodge their taxes and go yachting. Republicans want us to believe the moochers are those exploited working people and the unemployed like them whose jobs were "disappeared" so that the real moochers could buy bigger yachts and open more offshore accounts.

Robbed indeed! Redistribute now!

[sarcasmo]

6. That money would balance the budget.

[Viva_Daddy]

7. This really pisses me off because...

The RW Republicans are calling for the poor, the elderly, etc. to pay income taxes (the famous 47%) while many of their rich contributors are parking their money offshore specifically to EVADE taxes!

Apparently their elite private schools didn't teach them to share like my public schools did - not to mention their so-called "religious values".

This money is also not being used to "create jobs". Why? Because too many of the rich are not really "job creators", they're thieves, moochers, parasites, Scrooges (as in "Screw-you-I've-got-mine&quot .

[B Calm]

9. Tax Evaders = Traitors