The Panama Papers

[Gilrandir]

And I suppose we should pay our bills with dreams and pixie dust?

I suggest Imperial Credits.

I bet Gilrandir would love it if they found anything on Putin but Nope zilch Didily squat! Media's trying to connect it to him

Putin doesn't need offshores to hide something from the state, because he is the state. He may do whatever he wants in Russia (and not only within it) unheeded and unopposed.

[Furunculus]

So should this just be an ethically accepted practice because otherwise the poor people would rip off the job creators or should something be done about it and if yes, what?

fundamentally, i don't have a problem with:
a) the principle of tax competion, or;
b) the notion of what people who want more taxation might term a "low tax regime"

that said:
c) if they broke the law, break them
d) human ingenuity is endless, if this exposes loopholes that need closing, close them.

little more needs be said.

[Tuuvi]

Britons learn everything is a massive con and then go back to work

[Papewaio]

Good post overall and I agree with it generally. But surely when you increase the tax % at the 40 grand mark that tax rate only applies to income above the 40 grand mark. So it is not a pay-cut, but the take home from the raise will be lower than the take home for the salary below 40k.

Australia highest bracket is 49% including 2% for Medicare (Universal Health) & 2% for 'temporary' rebuild levy

[Snowhobbit]

Australia highest bracket is 49% including 2% for Medicare (Universal Health) & 2% for 'temporary' rebuild levy

Wusses, our "temporary" tax from the 90's crisis is 5%. Do your numbers include social fees etc, VAT on necessary good or just straight income tax for labour?

I suppose the real point is that Australians are also disgusting and any right thinking individual will try to dodge as much taxes as possible.

[Papewaio]

That is just the income tax.

Then GST (VAT) of 10% on most things

Stamp Duty on Houses and Cars etc etc

With the richest people and companies not paying tax the rest are paying for the roads, schools, hospitals, fireman, nurses, police, trains, buses etc etc etc

[HopAlongBunny]

With the richest people and companies not paying tax the rest are paying for the roads, schools, hospitals, fireman, nurses, police, trains, buses etc etc etc

Well of course that's how it should work.
The lower classes allot their labor to public works, in order that their overlords may contemplate higher things.
Indeed, as one snakes one's way up the Great Chain of Being, it is to be expected that those higher on the chain are more prized for intellectual and spiritual gifts, rather than brute labor

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

So David Cameron has published his tax returns: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36007718

Nothing really shocking in there - although it doesn't detract from the fact that he tried to avoid admitting owning shares in his Father's dodgy tax vehicle one should also note that he sold those shares before he started pursuing others for tax evasion.

Does this wholly absolve him? No. Is it a mortal sin? Also, no.

[Snowhobbit]

That is just the income tax.

Then GST (VAT) of 10% on most things

Stamp Duty on Houses and Cars etc etc

With the richest people and companies not paying tax the rest are paying for the roads, schools, hospitals, fireman, nurses, police, trains, buses etc etc etc

Well sure, VAT and other taxes are in essence separate from Income taxes. Social fees however (as they are made in Sweden) are essentially a taxation on labour which the employee does not see in his pay-check, but is instead directly paid by the company for having hired a person. It is thus reasonable in Sweden at least to add those social fees to the Income tax when figuring how much taxes we actually pay (though this is rarely done).

[Gilrandir]

A view on who leaked the papers:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...panama-papers/

[Snowhobbit]

A view on who leaked the papers:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...panama-papers/

Nonono, this is all a conspiracy by the CIA/Ford foundation/Obama/Black helicopters or whatever the flavour of the month is.

Is it actually confirmed that the hackergroup is not only Russian but backed by the Russian state in some way? Fairly damning if that is the case.

[Greyblades]

It would make sense for them to do it, russia always likes to tweak the nose of the West and airing our 1%'s dirty laundry is quite a tweak.

[Lizardo]

Gilrandir the people who leaked the papers was funded by the USAID and George Soros open society foundation says on ICIJ's website dumbass, why the fuck would putin leak it lool, this leak has profited america the biggest tax haven ever since the tobacco law

[Brenus]

Who leaked is not the problem. The problem is there is something to leak...

[HopAlongBunny]

Who leaked, and even who is named is not really interesting.
The size and systemic nature of the behavior is eye-popping.

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/...132618375.html

[Gilrandir]

Who leaked is not the problem. The problem is there is something to leak...

Those who leaked expected to benefit by it, no?

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Those who leaked expected to benefit by it, no?

Perhaps not directly - someone could have leaked it because the abuse so incensed them.

[Lizardo]

One vital point they hacked the law firm 7 years ago but have been waiting for the perfect time when public sentiment against tax dodging was high they told the papers to incocate Putin when Putin is not mentioned in the 114 papers ICIJ have released of the 2.84 Tb of data. Look what Wiki leaks has to say about this




[If it isn't nice to say about yourself, then it is not nice to say about others.]

[Gilrandir]

they told the papers to incocate Putin when Putin is not mentioned in the 114 papers ICIJ have released of the 2.84 Tb of data.

Putin was not, but his close friend since his childhood was mentioned owning 2 bln dollar assets. And he is a cello player. Not kind of a big time career , nuh?

[Fisherking]

Look, the whole thing is suspect. It was a CIA job to embarrass their enemies. The data may or may not be mostly factual.

[Lizardo]

No i beleive the data is original just that they pick and choose the guys to embarass, and it has diverted the tax dodgers to America enriching goldman sachs lawyers and the other tax dodging handler companies based in Nevada and other states. If they start cracking down on tax haven islands your going to see america be the next big one

[Brenus]

Why the CIA would embarrassed UK Cameron? Why the link was aimed to Media. journalists who too often if not always protectors of the system, the "divertissement", Blaise Pascal definition of "human way to avoid reality or to be diverted from it" (very difficult to translate the French word as it has 2 meanings, but has similar sense: Divertissement as entrainment, ad as diversion, some screen).