Janspeed

iTrader: (1)

................should it be perma banned all over the world?

Even with all the mess that ending offshore banking might bring, is it not time for those stupidly rich basterds to start paying taxes?

Not to mention that dirty wars would now have to be funded through the actual budgets of the countries waging them!

hodgy0_2

offshore banking 90% of the time = dirty money

drugs money
Stolen African wealth
money gained from other criminal activity
money hidding from the Tax authorities

imo

BlkKnight

It's not tax evasion, it's tax avoidance

There still a few loopholes in the UK Business Tax laws to earn money without paying (too much) Tax. If my company had to pay "lots" in corp tax I'd be very upset!

Keep em - they'll come in handy one day

Janspeed

iTrader: (1)

They prolly do more bad to people than they actually notice............

It would be nice to see what would pop up if they were to kill the scheme!

Simon K

Actually you do pay tax on off shore ££££ and have done for over 2 years. Off shore banking hides the fact you have money, you still pay tax on the interest to your nation of origin, its just masked who's paying it. So all British accounts are taxed, and the money combined and paid to the British Govn.

Its not rich people, its people hiding money from ex wives / families / partners etc etc.

Also, high tax payers, why should they work hard, and get taxed 50p in the pound, just to then have the money spent on the reported 2 million people that have never worked, or the 5 million that havent worked during the last 10 years ? They already paid tax o n the amount, so invested it offshore.

If you read the news you will see that America has now made Switerland hand over all the names of US patrons that have bank accounts, European countries will soon follow suit, so its already happening.

However, Middle East is now the place to invest and move your money. Mind you, monies from the war lords, drugs trade will never be effected, as these guys are on the forfront of ideas / schemes.

SBK

mrtheedge2u2

I voted no...... I used to work in the IOM and, to be honest, if I had serious cash or was earning serious cash it is where I would be banking.....

Simon, that is incorrect... UBS are handing over just above 5000 details of the 50000 account holders. Switzerland government stated that if the US persisted then they would simply invoke law making the details held by UBS property of the government and then the US would not even get the 5000

Simon K

50000 equals about 25,000 as on average each account holder has two accounts. Not sure what conditions makes you one of the 5000 though.

Speaking to a friend who works for UBS, he reckons that eventually they would give over the details to more people as the banking agreements are different between the US and the Swiss i.e. the US and the Swiss signed some sort of contract years ago.

However, the chances of this happening in Europe isnt as posssible / or likely as we never signed any contracts / similar aggreements.

Im repeating what I was told from a drunk conversation in a club a week or so ago :-)

Private off shore banking has a finite life, and I reckon in 5 /10 years it will be no more. I hope Im wrong.

SBK

TelBoy

It's a loophole that's certainly under the spotlight like never before. Should it be abolished? Why, because it benefits people with more money than you? Or are you pretending that you think it would be for the greater good of the country if it didn't exist?

Simon K

Who's that question aimed at Telboy ?? Me or the guy who asked the question in the first place ? Im up for off shore banking. Its a free world and you should be allowed to do with your money what you want.

It always seems the people without money, shout the loudest about the people with money. You never hear the rich complain about the poor who have free housing, hand outs, never work, etc etc etc.

Ive earnt it, Ive paid my tax on it, so its up to me what me what I want to do with it.

If on this soil, then cool, tax me, but if Ive placed it elsewhere, then pi55 off.

Just wish I had some money in the first place :-)

SBK

TelBoy

To the original poster.

hodgy0_2

I think we are talking about two different things here

"legitimate" off shore banking facilities, that allow companies to minimise their tax liability i.e tax avoidance

And tax evasion using secret accounts specifically designed by the offshore banking countries to hide money from the various tax authorities around the world

And I would bet that a very high % of money in these secret accounts is “dirty” money, i.e. the proceeds of organised crime.

mrtheedge2u2

Read McMaffia.... pretty much every penny that everyone ever earns is tainted by organised crime at some point in the process before you get your hands on it at pay-day

hodgy0_2

my point is we seem as a society to have a rather lopsided view

take Lord Rothermere (multi billionaire)
was born in the UK
Has built his fortune in the UK
Has built his stately home in the UK
Lives in the UK
is a UK citizen
but registered as a non dom for tax purposes in France

so he gets all the advantages and privileges of being UK citizen and living in the UK (mature western democracy with a general respect for the law etc) while paying very little for these privileges – and can engage in very cosy negotiations with the tax authorities on just how much you should pay

now if you are a single mother who takes a cleaning job on the side for a bit of extra cash and get caught – they through the proverbial book at you

just seems a bit odd to me

I have no time for career scroungers – but you will always get them

mrtheedge2u2

But surely to register as a non dom then he needs to spend over half the year out of the country..... or do you mean his company is registered outside of the UK. If it is the latter then a vast percentage of organisations and people in business are in the similar position.

Ok, if he operates in the UK he will pay tax on a, albeit, small amount, but you can not blame these people for being money-smart

hodgy0_2

no the non dom rules are still circa the 1800's when travel by coach n horses was the norm.

so I think although you can only stay 90 days in the country you get a day either side allowed for travel (based on you traveling by coach n horses circa 1800)-- so in effect you get 3 days (it might actually be more).

so Lord Rothermere will leave France by helicopter on monday morning and be in his office by 8.30am, he can stay until wednesday and only use one day of his allowance.

or presumably he can leave that night and it will not count at all.

Leslie

If it amounts to tax evasion then it should certainly be banned.

Les

Janspeed

iTrader: (1)

It's your opinion.

Janspeed

iTrader: (1)

Which is mostly does.......

Deep Singh

AsI wonder if people might be happy to pay more tax if they didn't think it would be wasted on the 2-5 miilion people who can't be bothered to get off their fat ***** but manage to sh8t out kids.

Anyway, you won't see the end of off shore for some time it will just change shape.

There are literally billions of pounds of uk money sat in India, africa, far east from their respective immigrants here.

A couple of years ago, the one eyed w8nker tried to get the Indian prime minister to sign an accord to allow the uk govt access to these accts. It was dressed up as an anti terrorist measure, funny as no major terrorist organisation is based in India.

Thankfully the indian pm told the one eyed Scot to **** right off. India (and other countries) depend on this inward influx of cash.

Anyway my point is that 'offshore banking' will move to countries like India, China, middle east etc.

I of course would never condone tax evasion. Actually I want to pay MORE tax. It would make me happy to know that I work until I have blisters on my feet so others can have free housing and benefits.

And I trust Brown implicitly to spend my tax money wisely and not spend it sending our sons and daughters to their deaths in some desert

TelBoy

Sorry, you've lost me. What is?

Simon K

Deep Singh, :-) hahahaahah couldnt agree more.

SBK

Janspeed

iTrader: (1)

Your opinion, is your opinion.

Janspeed

iTrader: (1)

I guess most people dont understand the concept, in the sense that;

The money used to finance the 9-11 attacks was filtered through offshores,

The money used to finance the London attacks most likely was laundered through offshores,

Lockerbie was most likely financed through offshores.


Dozens of dirty wars were financed through offshores, like Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, etc etc
All those black market weapons sales/buys are done through them too.

After reading some of the pathetic attempts at justifying the system, I wonder how some of people on here would feel if their children, husband/wife friends were killed by a weapon/bomb/terrorist's hands (whatever), that was all paid for by/through an offshore?

Maybe when your wife is left to live on her own with her children in a damp crap apartment with minimum wage (if that much) after you have blown to bits by some terrorist or whatever, maybe it will all be worth having offshores at the end???

Janspeed

iTrader: (1)

You would.

TelBoy

Thing is, Janspeed, there will always be a price for providing this service by somebody, somewhere in the world. What you're proposing is for EVERY country to have just an indigenous banking industry. Not really going to happen, is it?

hodgy0_2

I always find that argument unconvincing

It is a bit like saying what’s the point of having speed limits when we all speed

TelBoy

That's a tortured analogy, my goodness

You'll never stop all countries providing tax "incentives", not when it means capital inflows to their countries. Not in a million years.

Janspeed

iTrader: (1)

True true!

hodgy0_2

tax incentives are fine, like the Irish example

but we are talking about ultra secrecy -- designed purely for the purposes of tax avoidence and the hiding, as Janspeed has said, of dirty dirty money

Are you seriously suggesting 2-5 million people do not want to work, or is it just a convenient fantasy to allow you to justify tax evasion

Janspeed

iTrader: (1)

A lot of people think so!

I dont like paying taxes because of the way this country is run, but you HAVE to, it is a social obligation.

Without them it would be chaos.

However it just seems that people are voting no for the **** of it, they have never had/will have money to shove offshore anyway............