IRS Commissioner Mark Everson told senators Tuesday that a trend toward a world economy helps wealthy taxpayers hide money in complicated transactions offshore, virtually invisible to tax agents. (link)
When I went to work for the IRS in 1980, the top tax bracket was 70% and capital gains were taxed at 28%. Today, we have a top bracket of 35%, capital gains are taxed at 15% and still people don’t want to pay their taxes.
The panel said the havens allow Americans to avoid paying $40 billion to $70 billion in taxes each year, with the help of “an armada” of professional advisers.
I notice how they carefully said “avoid” as opposed to “evade.” Tax avoidance is not criminal, evasion is. Joe Taxpayer gets a W-2 and, therefore, cannot “avoid” paying taxes on his earnings but the wealthiest among us would rather pay the attorneys than the government. Yet they use the same roads we do, are represented by the same Congress as we are, and on and on.
To address the problem, tax, securities and money laundering laws should be changed to presume that a U.S. citizen should be taxed on money in a trust or corporation in a country known to the Treasury Department to be a tax haven, said Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the investigative subcommittee. That would put the burden on the taxpayer to prove the money should not be taxed.
Um, yeah. This falls right in line with the presumption under our tax code that all income is taxable unless specifically excluded.
The tax gap continues to widen and it is not because the middle class is claiming deductions to which they are not entitled. The addition of social security numbers for dependents caused huge numbers of them to disappear from tax returns. The requirement that receipts be given for contributions in excess of $250 caused reported donations to fall drastically. Middle class taxpayers, unless they are self-employed, have few ways to cheat on their taxes. Why do we continue to allow the uber-rich to get away with doing it?
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
George Bush and the Grand Oil Party obviously want to exempt the “elite” from paying any taxes at all. George plans on firing lawyers in IRS who are the ones trained to investigate the wealthy who hide their money in off shore accounts….
I think Americans should take a good look at the MILLIONS (approximately 2.4) Mexicans who are demonstrating in Mexico city right now DEMANDING that every vote be counted.
If only we valued democracy as much as they do….we should have already been in the streets of D.C. demanding oversight, accountability and investigations…and not leaving until something was done.
Buzz Buzz…M