~James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son
Kay Bell, Watch out for the Dirty Dozen tax scams of 2017. Phishing and phone scams lead the list
The Duke Reporters' Lab found 114 dedicated fact-checking initiatives in 47 countries in its latest census. Growth was concentrated outside of the United States.
Robots Will Soon Do Your Taxes. Bye-Bye, Accounting Jobs Wired
This week the European Parliament
took an important step in combatting financial secrecy. A joint committee voted
on amendments
to the new anti-money laundering directive that would mean citizens should have
access to the beneficial owners of companies.
The amendments also brought
trusts into the scope of the legislation and not trusts will be subject to the
same rules on transparency as other legal entities.
To see why this is important, check out our report – Trusts,
Weapons of Mass Injustice here.
The myth of Machiavelli as an amoral schemer is just that — a myth. But as to whether he had a dim view of women, even by the standard of Florentine men of his era: guilty as charged
Jared Walczak, Washington Legislature Takes Up Formal Income Tax Ban (Tax Policy Blog)
Jim Maule, So Who Should Pay Taxes for Police Protection? “As explained in this article and others, the governor of Pennsylvania has proposed that Pennsylvania towns relying on the state police for all policing in the town pay a $25 per-person tax for those services.”
Crisis, Committees and Consultants: The Rise of Value-For-Money Auditing in the Federal Public Sector in Canada
Brookings – Why we made a computer game about the federal budget:
We decided to build a computer game. It’s called “The Fiscal Ship” — and you can play it yourself at www.fiscalship.org. It’s a partnership between The Hutchins Center at Brookings and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.”
The Despot's Guide to Wealth Management - On the International Campaign against Grand Corruption
New book by Jason Sharman
Further on Contempt Sanctions for Failure to Produce Foreign Documents
I previously blogged on a case In re Various Grand Jury Subpoenas, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9697 (SD NY 2017), involving contempt sanctions for failing to produce foreign bank and entity documents allegedly in the control of the person subject to the grand jury subpoena. See Contempt Sanctions Continued in GJ Subpoena for Required Records (Federal Tax Crimes Blog 1/25/17), here. On February 13, 2017, Judge Pauley issued a further order staying the effective date for the contempt sanction of $1,000 per day to comment from February 14, 2017 to March 20, 2017 to permit the subpoenaed party additional time to arrange with the foreign entities and coordinate with the Government to produce the documents. The key documents for this new opinion are:=
The order, here
The motion was filed but apparently the memo in support was filed under seal;
the motion was just the bare motion, so I don't link it.
The United States response, here
The subpoenaed person sought to purge the contempt order previously issued by showing that she had complied with the compulsion in the subpoena by requesting that the Swiss banks produce the records directly to the Government. One of the banks notified the person that, under Swiss law, it could not produce the documents to the Government. But, the Government urged, whether or not that was true, with the right form of request (requesting production to her rather than the Government), the banks could produce the documents to the person and she could then provide them to the Government. Judge Pauley gave the additional time to make sure that she had the time necessary to get the documents, but he makes clear that the Government will not wait forever -- hence the March 20, 2017 date.
Via Professor Bainbridge – This is a massive blog with plenty of information about law, politics, religion, culture and food