Saturday, April 20, 2013

Death, Drinks & Taxes

A new drug is out. Everyone is talking about it. Death. Take it, and you have one amazing week to live. It's the ultimate high. At the ultimate price ~ Drinks From Behind The Iron Curtain

For young Soviets, the Beatles were a first, mutinous rip in the iron curtain ~ The band inspired dissidents and musicians. Vasin was a diehard Beatles fan. The Beatles' music had given him, he said "all the adventures of my life", for which "I was arrested many times, accused of 'breaching social order'. They said anyone who listened to the Beatles was spreading western propaganda." More than that, in the USSR, the Fab Four "were like an integrity test. When anyone said anything against them, we knew just what that person was worth. The authorities, our teachers, even our parents, became idiots to us." Beatles drowning in cold river

On Friday President and Mrs. Obama released their most recent tax return for the entire world to see.  They continued a longstanding tradition of sitting presidents releasing their returns, even though no law requires that they do so. The tradition began under the late President Richard Nixon The IRS Should Report on Tax Returns Filed by Members of Congress Forget about the Bahamas, Panama, Cayman Islands, or Fiji. If you want to avoid paying taxes and have no problem with dicey business practices, Europe has a lot to offer.
Europe is far from innocent in the international offshore tax evasion industry, as the Tax Justice Network (TJN) recently demonstrated. Many European countries, with their stable infrastructure and professional personnel, provide fertile ground for businesses or individuals to evade taxes The 'who's who' of European tax havens

Avoinding taxes odd strategies Tax competition – in which countries fight to lower taxes – not only hits the poor, it doesn't even help the economy grow Heard that countries should 'compete' on tax ~ THE GREAT DIVIDE: Tax System Stacked Against the 99 Percent 99%

With growing availability of the Internet around the world, double-digit growth rate, and stronger-than-ever financial reports of the major players in this market jurisdiction free (Google, Facebook and the like), online advertising is expected to be a key player in the twenty first century global economy Digital Reality Bitcoins Bitdragons

Congress could control the IRS’s abuse of the tax law. Using insights from the literature of administrative oversight, this Article proposes that Congress provide standing on third parties to challenge IRS actions. If properly designed and implemented, such “fire-alarm oversight” would permit oversight at a significantly lower cost than creating another oversight board. At the same time, it would be more effective at finding and responding to IRS abuse of the tax system and would generally preserve the IRS’s administrative discretion in deciding how to enforce the tax law. Monopoly on Truth