Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Tax evasion and closing loopholes

You can have a Lord, you can have a King, but the man to fear is the tax collector.
— Anonymous citizen of Lagash, a city-state that existed approximately 6,000 years ago in what is now Iraq

“If speaking is silver, then listening is gold.”
 - Proverb


Consultants doing core public service work 'deeply problematic'
IPAA PANEL: It’s very worrying that core public sector work is being outsourced to consultants, says Victorian Public Sector Commissioner Paul Grimes.


It’s time to tax wealth properly




Bloomberg Tax, G-20 Eyes Tax Gold Mine in ‘Sexy’ Crypto Market:
Tax authorities across the world, dazzled by potential revenue, have taken notice of the cryptocurrency market—despite its many booms and busts.
For tax authorities, the cryptocurrency market could be a rich source of revenue that has gone largely untapped—the market once soared in value to about $800 billion. But in their quest for cash, tax authorities have had to create new definitions and regulatory approaches. ...

The incestuous world of tax and how it may give birth to conflicts of interest



Attorney Fraud Resulting in Tax Court Decision; Can It Be Corrected? How?



This article caught my attention today:  Bruce Vielmetti, Former Foley & Lardner partner suspended for falsifying documents in IRS audit...


The European Union, tax evasion and closing loopholes: new report



Today, a new report commissioned by the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament and written by the Tax Justice Network's Andres Knobel demonstrates that despite progress in recent years on closing down opportunities for tax evasion, there are still significant loopholes for citizens and … [Read more...]


Bloomberg, Top 3% of U.S. Taxpayers Paid Majority of Income Taxes in 2016:
Individual income taxes are the federal government’s single biggest revenue source. In fiscal year 2018, which ended Sept. 30, the individual income tax is expected to bring in roughly $1.7 trillion, or about half of all federal revenues, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Bloomberg looked into the 2016 individual returns data in detail for some additional insights illustrated in the charts below:
  • The top 1 percent paid a greater share of individual income taxes (37.3 percent) than the bottom 90 percent combined (30.5 percent).
  • The top 50 percent of all taxpayers paid 97 percent of total individual income taxes.
African Governments Are Paying for the World Bank’s Mauritius Miracle Foreign Policy
Ghost offices on the small island provide legal but questionable means of siphoning tax dollars away from poor countries and into the pockets of the global elite.
‘Enough excuses!’ – France’s Le Maire grows impatient over digital tax The Irish Times
‘Mr Le Maire has said a small- or medium-sized company in an EU country such as France, Germany or Italy on average pays 14 percentage points more in tax than Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple.’
Revealed: Russian billionaire set up US company before Trump Tower meetingThe Guardian
‘formed a shell company with an accountant who has had clients accused of money laundering and embezzlement’
Shell and Eni on trial Global Witness
Oil giants Shell and Eni are on trial in Milan for their part in a bribery scheme that robbed the Nigerian people of $1.1billion.