New Christian Aid Report Accuses Firms of ‘Ripping off Poor’

[G_j]

http://www.christiantoday.com/news/society/new.christian.aid.report.accuses.firms.of.ripping.off.poor/472.htm


Christian Aid has issued its latest damning report on the multinational firms' abuse of tax law, which has left poor countries to foot the bill.

Posted: Monday, September 12 , 2005, 10:33 (UK)

A new scathing report from Christian Aid, to accompany a parallel report by pressure group The Tax Justice Network, has harshly criticised multinational accounting firms for “ripping off the poor” and undermining democracy by fostering tax avoidance on an international scale, reports The Herald.

The report, entitled The Shirt Off Their Backs, by the Christian humanitarian charity also accused the accountant and lawyer institutes of “indifference” towards abuses of taxation law by member firms.

The Tax Justice Network’s Tax Us If You Can study has made the claim that tax avoidance, combined with capital shift, by companies and individuals in poor countries on a massive scale, has resulted in a US$500bn loss in revenue in the developing world, a sum which far exceeds the amount these countries receive in aid.

The hard-hitting reports come not long after a US$465m settlement by KPMG after it admitted selling “unlawful” tax shelter schemes costing the public literally billions of dollars.

..more..

[texpatriot2004]

1. FINALLY some REAL CHRISTIANS n/t

[mntleo2]

2. I Participated With This Campaign

And some of us went to DC last year when the Bush administration tried to stealthily release the poverty numbers, which were embarrassing (I did not get to go, but friends from my organization, http://www.wroc.org did go) . We hung out a closeline with T-shirts from people all over the nation who had written on the shirts some of the barriers they faced every day when trying to survie and what happened to them when they tried to seek aid for their needs. We held a press conference to call attention to the plight of now more than 50 MILLION Americans (at least that many people are poor, because the numbers are not very accurate either).

Poverty levels are calculated extremely low, as well. They think a family of four should be able to live on under $18,000 a year, to be considered in real poverty. A single adult could barely live on $1500 a month on that amount, much less an entire family! Oh and the amounts determined have not been adjusted for YEARS.


If you raised the amount of poverty to what a family actually needed to live, adjusted by inflation, it would be extremely high and it would *not* look good to the politicians. Of any ilk. Dems have been almost as bad at demonizing the poor, while they let the the REAL welfare queens like Halliburton pick our pockets...

My 2 cents

Cat In Seattle <-----kudos to my Sen Patty Murray and Rep Jim (Bagdad Jim) McDermott for listening about poverty even though they are often called kooks by their own people for actually listening to The People.....

[G_j]

3. great post

thanks for all your efforts.
I agree figures adjusted to reality would not look good for any of the politicians. Let us hope Katrina has at least put the issue of poverty where people will look at it acknowledge it.

[ninkasi]

4. Without addressing the issue of poverty

Everything else the government does will be almost useless. To truly tackle the causes of poverty, we need to examine the tax cuts to the richest, the lack of government sponsored health insurance, paying a living wage, and letting companies set up headquarters in places that save them from paying billions in taxes.

This will also need to see how important it is to make sure a quality education is available to every child, regardless of income, race, sex, or national origin. We are pouring countless billions into subsidizing corporations, slashing their taxes, and the income taxes of their CEOs, while cutting services designed to help the poor maintain even the most bare form of existence.

[kineneb]

7. Yo, I would like to make $18K

"They think a family of four should be able to live on under $18,000 a year, to be considered in real poverty."

Two of us (adults) are living on my salary, which was recently reduced to $240/wk, before taxes. The irony is that Hubby would loose medical care if I earn too much. He is diabetic and will shortly be on dialysis. Then he qualifies for disability.

We live a simple life, and I have been trying to cut back on driving. We live at the edge of insolvency, surviving with financial help from my mother. The only thing that allows us to survive at this level is that we have a tiny mortgage on the house. If we had to rent we would be screwed.

[Mountainman]

5. I use to have to sell unlawful tax avoidance schemes.

When I worked for a CPA firm part of my job was to find clients that fit the requisites for the firm's tax schemes. We even knew they were illegal but the wealthy people put the money they didn't pay to Uncle Sam in an interest bearing account and earned money on it until the IRS caught up to them. This was back when you could make 12% interest on CD's.


One of the scams was a way to put your kid through college on the government.

You had to have a fully paid off house worth quite a bit and a kid ready to go to college. You set up a trust in the kid's name. You give the trust the house then buy it back paying principal and interest. The interest on the loan is income to the trust and tax deductible to you. You take the interest income and pay college tuition room and board and many times you bought the kid a new car also.


I quit that racket a long time ago because of the need to be dishonest. I spent a long time being looked down on for it.

[G_j]

6. wow, that is quite a racket

wealthy people sending their kids to college, while others get saddled with debts that it will take years to pay off.
Nice to know blue collar workers can send rich kids to school with their taxes!