Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Double Irish

Yellen on Twitter

By choosing to compete on taxes, we’ve neglected to compete on the skill of our workers and the strength of our infrastructure. It’s a self-defeating competition, and neither President Biden nor I are interested in participating in it anymore.


A Better Corporate Tax for America Janet Yellen, WSJ. Yellen comments


US offers new plan in global corporate tax talksFT

1 big thing: Dimon calls on companies to be policymakers Axios. Oh.

Corporate America tears down Biden’s infrastructure plan Politico


Professors Leandra Lederman (Indiana-Maurer) and Allison Christians (McGill) released 2 new videos today on their Break Into Tax YouTube channel.

The first of today’s videos, One Weird Tip To Save a Bundle in Taxes, shares a breakthrough of universal interest. That video will likely be widely shared, so be among the first to see it!


The second Break Into Tax video, Why Take Tax? The Top Ten Reasons, counts down reasons why students should consider taking a tax class. It includes cameo appearances by many tax professors and other experts, sharing insights gained over many decades. Don’t miss the debut of the “Christians & Lederman Top 10 List”!

 

ICIJ on  secrecy and the harm of global tax abuse:

Half a decade later, Panama Papers’ revelations continue to roil political and economic systems worldwide, and governments are still collecting on tax liabilities exposed by our findings. Our latest tally shows that countries have recouped a whopping $1.36 billion in unpaid taxes, fines and penalties due to official inquiries that the investigation sparked.

The figure is definitely an undercount of how much money has gone back into public coffers thanks to the Panama Papers, and it’s just the tip of the iceberg in measuring the material impact the investigation has had on the world.

Will Fitzgibbon and Michael Hudson recount the wide-ranging effects Panama Papers has on everything from politics to pop culture to lawmaking to journalism itself. A number of wealthy and powerful people have also been prosecuted as a result of the project. In an exclusive interview, a former U.S. prosecutor from the team tasked with America’s legal response to the Panama Papers takes you behind-the-scenes of the complex criminal cases that resulted from the investigation.

But despite all the fallout, subsequent ICIJ investigations have shown that the offshore system is so big and so entrenched that dismantling it — or even reforming it — isn’t something that can be done in a span of just a few years. We talk to experts about what’s next in the global fight against financial crime and secrecy.

WHAT BIDEN CAN DO
The new U.S. president from Delaware has repeatedly pledged to tackle tax havens and illicit finance. Here’s five key reforms experts say he should put at the top of his list.

$1 TRILLION IN PROFIT SHIFTING
An analysis by the International Centre for Tax and Development on newly available OECD data finds that multinational corporations’ use of tax havens cost governments more than $200 billion in tax revenues in 2016 alone — “a phenomenon where the majority of countries lose.”

TOM RENNER AWARD
FinCEN Files, our investigation with BuzzFeed News on global financial corruption and dirty money, won a
special award for covering organized crime or other criminal acts from Investigative Reporters and Editors. Luanda Leaks, our exposé on how Africa’s wealthiest woman made her fortune from one of the world’s poorest countries, was named a finalist for the same prize.

 




Justice Department releases efforts to fight pandemic fraud to date

  • 474 charged so far; attempts to obtain $569 million
  • 120 charged with PPP fraud
  • Have seized $580 million in EIDL loan fraud
  • Arrested 140 people for unemployment fraud; use stolen identities; much of this by international organized crime groups
  • Also done dozens of cases against bogus treatments or cures, PPE issues, and has taken down hundreds of fraudulent websites

  Joint US/Canadian Crackdown on Grandparent Scams

 
Virus Benefit Theft

Why do we have April Fools Day?  No one seems to really know, though it goes back centuries at least, and is celebrated around the world.  Here is an interesting discussion of it.

Studies I’ve done for BBB can all be found here. Here are links to some of the study topics: puppy fraud, tech support fraud, romance fraud money mules, apartment rental, crooked movers, government imposters, online vehicle sale scams, rental fraud and gift cards.
Coronavirus

Fraud News From Around the world

Humor

FTC and CFPB  

Business Email compromise fraud (read BBB study)

Ransomware

Data Breaches

ATM skimming

Jamaica and Lottery Fraud (read BBB lottery fraud study)

Romance Fraud and Sextortion (read BBB romance fraud study)