Bank kept 52,000 secret Swiss accounts for U.S. taxpayers

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/ubs-kept-52000-secret-bank/story.aspx?guid=%7B1264AD62-1C52-4444-8398-6D2E6B08E1DE%7D&dist=msr_5


IRS tries to force UBS to reveal U.S. tax dodgers

Bank kept 52,000 secret Swiss accounts for U.S. taxpayers, IRS says

By Alistair Barr, MarketWatch

UBS AG kept as many as 52,000 secret Swiss bank accounts for U.S. taxpayers and the firm should turn over information on all of them, the Internal Revenue Service said Thursday.
said it would fight the demand, citing Swiss financial privacy laws, U.S. law and an agreement the bank already has with the IRS.

UBS agreed on Wednesday to pay $780 million in fines and other payments for helping U.S. clients avoid paying taxes. Switzerland's largest bank and the country's financial regulator also agreed to turn over the identities and account information of some of these customers to the U.S. government. See full story.
The move is unprecedented for a country that's built its banking industry on privacy for centuries. In agreeing to reveal the identities of some account holders, Switzerland is walking a fine line.

"Switzerland's offshore private banking industry is trying to assure its foreign investors that the country still provides the same level of protection as before, while at the same time ordering UBS to disclose names to U.S. authorities," Alois Pirker, a senior analyst at consulting firm Aite Group, said.
"This reassurance is extremely important," he added. "The ultra wealthy have many options available and will certainly not hesitate to move their assets should Switzerland prove to be an unreliable partner."
The IRS filed a civil lawsuit Thursday asking a U.S. district court in Miami to order UBS to disclose the identities of U.S. customers with secret Swiss bank accounts. The lawsuit claims as many as 52,000 U.S. taxpayers had these hidden accounts.

[pepperbear]

1. make no mistake: among the names will be movie stars, well know "captains of industry" along...

the lines of donald trump, and yes, dear friends, probably more than a few politcos, and from both sides of the aisle.

[cliffordu]

2. Yep - it will be a true cross section of self centered piggishness.

Sure am glad they're still building prisons as fast as they can.

[ThomCat]

5. Ah, but prisons aren't for wealthy people.

Prisons are only for little people who steal small sums from businesses and from other people. Wealthy people who steal millions are given deals and breaks and second chances, or maybe, house arrest in their multi-million dollar penthouses.

Maybe, if someone is wealthy and a democrat they'll get railroaded into prison. But those are show trials that happen just often enough to keep the little people happy. And then it's just a few months in some minimum security prison.

[exboyfil]

3. I applaud the IRS in this attempt, but I don't think they are going

to get anywhere. It will be like trying to play whack a mole. In some sense Helmsley was correct, "Only the little people pay taxes". This is the reason why plans to really up marginal rates on the rich may prove to be counterproductive. The more the really rich have to lose, the more they will fight with every tool at their disposal, and they have access to a whole lot more tools. The ultimate tool would be renouncement of their citizenship.

The taxman seeking out offshore accounts kind of reminds me of the first stage in "Atlas Shrugged". The government in that book thought that by holding onto the capital of its most productive citizens, that it would keep them working in the society. When Stage II happened (ie individuals said keep the capital I want my freedom and began working for themselves, the government tried to reel them back in).

I am predicting that my children may be looking at citizenship in another country given what is going on with Federal spending in our country. They may need to seek out a young country not burdened by massive debt.

[progressive_realist]

11. Good luck finding a country with less debt than the USA.

Measured as a percentage of GDP, we aren't a particularly debt-ridden country.

Incidentally, coming off as a Shrugger isn't going to make you many friends on this board.

[exboyfil]

12. I don't necessarily agree with Rand's philosophy but I

recognize that when the pay versus play cost gets too great, folks are going to look for other options. When individuals cannot benefit from their work (both in training/preparation) and in actual execution, they seek opportunities in which they will benefit from it. It is human nature. Otherwise we are slaves as Rand expressed in her books.

The U.S. biggest problem (and it is less than a problem for it than other countries like Japan going forward) is that its percentage of population of retirees is increasing. This creates opportunities for youngsters, but the current year demand to take care of these individuals, along with the national debt accumulated by these individuals earlier, will make an ever increasing claim on the resources of the current working generation. Fortunately we have a test case in Japan to see how this shift in demographics is going to go.


From http://www.phoenixvillenews.com/articles/2009/02/18/opinion/srv0000004700087.txt

David Cameron:

Today, our national debt is equal to about 75 percent of our GDP. The national debt-to-GDP ratio — a standard way economists measure the burden of national debts — is now higher than what it was in 1943, after the New Deal programs of the 1930s and the beginning of World War II. The current fiscal year's deficit plus the "stimulus" plan increases the ratio to 84 percent. The cost of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's recently announced Financial Stability Plan plus our deficits will put us over 100 percent in as little as a year.

Since the beginning of available GDP data in 1929, the U.S. national debt-to-GDP ratio has exceeded 100% in only three years: 1944-1946. Of course, World War II was an unprecedented war mobilization effort to defeat Germany and Japan. Yet, if we continue down this path of borrowing, we will soon match these national debt-to-GDP levels with no justifiably comparable reason.

According to the CIA's World Factbook, only five countries have national debt-to-GDP ratios in excess of 100 percent: Zimbabwe, Lebanon, Japan, Jamaica, and Italy.

[LaPera]

4. I like this fucking story, I love this story, can this be-Wow, can Patriotic

Americans actually be hiding their tax money, then asking for even more tax breaks, subsidies, then bailouts?

Give us all you got.....

[TWiley]

14. Lets rename it .......... ILLEGAL AMERIKUNS

[keepthemhonest]

6. let me at that list please

lets take a few bets on who is going to turn up on it.Cheney, the most patriotic american?sacasm.

[elizfeelinggreat]

16. We deserve to see who is on that list ...

and some mugshots.

[Mari333]

7. sic em, IRS. nt

[jtrockville]

8. uhhh... shouldn't the headline be "tax EVADERS", not "tax PAYERS"?

[SoCalDem]

9. DAMN those ACORN/ FreddieMac-FannieMae /Socialist hippies

dodging their taxes with all those Swiss bank accounts:evilgrin:

[Xithras]

10. Minor point maybe, but I'd bet that most of those are perfectly legitimate.

Until I recently had to close it (emptied it out because I needed the cash) I had an account myself with Credit Suisse. That account had nothing to do with tax fraud, and was kept simply as a way to park some of my funds offshore in Euros as a hedge against the falling US dollar. It was just another bank account, and my whopping 1% interest accrual was always reported on my taxes. Always. It wasn't worth risking the wrath of the IRS over a grand in interest a year.

Opening an account with UBS or Credit Suisse is really no different than opening an account with Chase or Wells Fargo. Lots of perfectly normal people open them as a way to insulate their savings from domestic economic problems. Mine just held my "disaster funds".

[jakefrep]

15. You're probably right.

A friend of mine (a schoolteacher in Cedar Rapids) maintains an offshore bank account for basically the same purpose, plus he and his wife visit her parents in Germany every summer. It's cheaper to make withdrawals from an account over there.

Apparently that makes them tax cheats in the eyes of some here.

[elizfeelinggreat]

17. It sounds like yours was not SECRET

eta: "UBS agreed on Wednesday to pay $780 million in fines and other payments for helping U.S. clients avoid paying taxes."

[TWiley]

13. ahem ... 52,000 NON-taxpayers. n/t

[Kansas Wyatt]

18. Hmm... I wonder if some Americans have actually been funding terrorist groups?

America needed a new enemy to fear, and the Swiss kept things private and away from prying eyes. Pay foreigners to start a war and keep things going, while a much bigger pay-off is guaranteed by the American people to go fight them over there, before we have to fight them here. And it's all tax free!

Maybe the Swiss KNOW some sinister shit has been passing through their banks, and they fear a much bigger reason to keep things private.

Just a thought.