Foreign Tax Havens Essay

Submitted By smstark960

Words: 385

Pages: 2

Open Document

Foreign Tax Havens: Update
Sarah Stark

For many years, wealthy Americans avoided US tax policies by “hiding” their sizeable assets in the banks of nations – such as Switzerland – where confidentiality policies made “tax havens” possible. Tax havens refer to countries that offer little to no tax liabilities while providing little to no financial information to foreign tax authorities. They do not require citizenship for people to benefit from their tax policies. However after discovering information about the identities of some of the clients of these Swiss banks in 2009, investigations of these offshore accounts began. The result of these investigations was the indictment of over 100 taxpayers and advisors. On Aug 20, 2009, the IRS announced that Swiss bank UBS AG would reveal the identities of 4,450 secret accounts as part of a government settlement. This is a huge turning point in the traditionally confidential policies of the Swiss bank. Additionally, this could mean the beginning of criminal proceedings against US taxpayers using Swiss accounts to evade taxes. On Sept 11, 2012 Bradley Birkenfeld – former employee of UBS – who aided in the international crackdown on tax havens collected $104 million in exchange for the information he exposed.
Upon these investigations, Americans with Swiss accounts are forced to make some important and possibly life changing decisions. Would they be better offer renouncing their American citizenship, to protect their assets and avoid investigation? Presently in 2014, investigations of offshore accounts begin to go past Swiss banks. The newest area of interest is the Cayman Islands. The IRS carried out a yearlong investigation resulting in the arrests of 3 financial advisers from

FINC6013 L12 Essay

Finance Lecture 12: Multinational Tax Management Lecturer: Andrew Grant Introduction › How are taxes applied across the world? - Basics of intercountry tax treaties › Transfer Pricing - The setting of the price for goods and services sold between controlled (or related) legal entities within an enterprise › The Use of Tax Haven Subsidiaries and international offshore financial centres - Part of the overall tax minimization strategy 2 Tax Principles › Tax Morality - The Multinational Corporation…

Words 2654 - Pages 11

Taxation in the United States and Publishing Essay

Chapter 16 U.S. Taxation of Foreign-Related Transactions ©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice 16-1 U.S. TAX OF FOREIGNRELATED TRANSACTIONS (1 of 2)  Jurisdiction to tax  Taxation of U.S. citizens & resident aliens  Taxation of nonresident aliens  Taxation of U.S. businesses operating abroad ©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as 16-2 U.S. TAX OF FOREIGNRELATED TRANSACTIONS (2 of 2)  Tax planning considerations  Compliance and procedural Considerations  Financial…

Words 1872 - Pages 8

Essay on apple computer

com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/20/how-to-make-30-billion-and-pay-no-corporate-income-tax-the-apple-way/ Apple went to Ireland, and it managed to bring in $30 billion in overseas profits over a four-year period without paying a dime of corporate income tax to the Irish, American or any other national government. That is one key conclusion in a new report from the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on the computer giant’s strategies for avoiding U.S. corporate income tax. 2. Why does Apple Computer keep their funds…

Words 717 - Pages 3

Pestle Analysis of Andorra Essay

country through an economic reform. The General Counsel (Parliament) approved three main regulations to complement the first phase of economic openness: The law of Companies (October 2007), the Law of Business Accounting (December 2007) and the Law of Foreign Investment (April 2008). These regulations establish a transparent, modern and internationally comparable regulatory framework. The tourism and trade represents the fundamental column of the economy. Tourism accounts for roughly 80% of GDP. Around…

Words 2684 - Pages 11

Ibe International Business Questions Essay

are three major operating objectives that underline the reasons for companies to engage in international business: -expanding sales: pursuing international sales usually increases the potential market and potential profits -acquiring resources: foreign sources may give companies lower costs, new or better products, additional operating knowledge -minimizing risk: international operations may reduce operating risk by smoothing sales and profits, preventing competitors from gaining advantages.…

Words 9940 - Pages 40

Global Economy Essays

symbiotic relationship between the United States and China. Both parties benefited from this union until the financial crisis (Ferguson, pgs. 335-33). 3. 1934 RTAA (Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act) – gave the president the ability to negotiate foreign trade agreements for three years without approval from Congress for changes up to fifty cents (Ravenhill, pgs. 14 & 118). 4. Seigniorage – is the provider of the currency in an economy which has benefits of increased political and economic autonomy…

Words 4517 - Pages 19

Dependency Theory In The Caribbean

free market capitalism in many countries, what was once theory has now become grounded in reality. There is a Burger King or a McDonalds on every corner in many nations, oil and other minerals are being extracted with state of the art equipment and foreign technologies in…

Words 3648 - Pages 15

Notes On Solutions To Unmarked Questions

Solutions to Unmarked Questions Module 8 Q2 The 45 degree line When you construct a 45 degree line on an X-Y coordinate plan, at any point on this line the X coordinate = Y coordinate. In the Keynesian income-expenditure model, the demand side is in equilibrium when Y = AE. (This is tricky.) Therefore the demand side is in equilibrium when the AE curve intersects the 45 degree line. Q4 Equilibrium GDP (III) (a) Equilibrium Y = 2000 (b) New equilibrium Y = 2100 (c) Increase in…

Words 3491 - Pages 14

Essay on Multinational Finished

Set out a clear summary of key changes relating to global foreign direct investment and international production in 2014 over the previous year. You should include an accurate description of salient trends in the data e.g. Greenfield investment and cross border M&A. (Word-guidance 750). FDI by Geography FDI Inflows FDI inflows are the value of inward direct investment. Global inflows have had a 9% increase in 2013 which shows increase in economic activity throughout the world. Figure 1 shows…

Words 3530 - Pages 15

Nature and Causes of Global Money Laundering Essay

funds are used today by sophisticated money launderers. From this perspective a primitive form of money laundering and indeed tax evasion was established, in that money was hidden, moved and invested despite the fact that someone else had a claim. Since then the principles of money laundering have not changed, but the mechanisms have. AL CAPONE'S 1931 CONVICTION FOR TAX EVASION LEADS TO THE MODERN PRACTICE OF MONEY LAUNDERING The term "money laundering" is said to have evolved from the Prohibition…

Words 8889 - Pages 36