President Obama on "House and Senate Introducing Legislation to Crack Down on Overseas Tax Havens"

[ProSense]

October 27, 2009

Statement by President Barack Obama on House and Senate Introducing Legislation to Crack Down on Overseas Tax Havens

“I commend Chairmen Baucus and Rangel, and Senator Kerry and Congressman Neal, for moving forward on the important task of giving the government the tools it needs to crack down on Americans hiding their assets in overseas tax havens. A small number of individuals and businesses hide their assets overseas solely in order to shirk their responsibilities, even as the vast majority of hard-working Americans honor the obligations of citizenship and fulfill their responsibilities.

“Shortly after taking office, I laid out a set of proposals to crack down on illegal overseas tax evasion. The legislation introduced today would fulfill that promise, putting a stop to billions of dollars worth of abuses. I look forward to working with Congress to turn these proposals into law so that honest Americans no longer shoulder the burden of the few individuals and businesses that put profit before responsibility.”

[Cha]

1. Shirkers need to be outted..wanna bet they're

so called "conservative"?

President Obama..bringing money back to our treasury after it had been raped for 8 years.

[karynnj]

3. "conservative" of their money - at any rate

This is really good news, I hope they pass some good legislation here.

[vaberella]

2. But me thought the President was a Corporatist....

Thanks Prosense, love my President, he's amazing.

[Cha]

4. Ye-ah..so what's he doing

by going after them with lazer focus?

[karynnj]

8. It sure sounds like it from this Finance committee discussion with Blum

(Kerry's staffer from BCCI days) and Kerry on the national security danger hand and hand with the audacity that the wealthiest people in the country are cheating on their taxes. (July 24 hearing - scroll down and click where indicated - http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/2008hearings.htm ) (Kerry's disgust with the cheaters is very obvious)
Kerry and others on the Finance committee have been working on this for a very long time. (The Kerry/Blum conversation starts about 55 minutes in and it is fascinating.)

An interesting way to think of this is a selective tax increase on some of the wealthiest people - that the republicans can't complain about!

[Rosa Luxemburg]

5. Catch the big fish - oil company subsidiaries incorporated in tax havens

the huge companies must be owing millions in tax to the USA? Oil companies' subsids. are registered overseas.

[Laelth]

6. k&r for good policy. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[karynnj]

7. Here is a link to a great Kerry explanation of what they had to do at a MA town Hall he did last Dec

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5ZlrbkdBNk

There is also a very nice discussion on tax shelters here - between Blum (Kerry's staffer from BCCI days) and Kerry on the national security danger hand and hand with the audacity that the wealthiest people in the country are cheating on their taxes. (July 24 hearing - scroll down and click where indicated - http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/2008hearings.htm )
Kerry and others on the Finance committee have been working on this for a very long time. (The Kerry/Blum conversation starts about 55 minutes in and it is fascinating.)

An interesting way to think of this is a selective tax increase on some of the wealthiest people - that the republicans can't complain about!

[flyarm]

9. any info on UBS only having to turn over 250 names out of 52,000 clients hiding money?

In Swiss and other off shore accounts?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jul/13/ubs-us-government-tax

UBS in last-ditch talks with US government to protect client anonymity
Swiss bank negotiates stay of court proceedings in bid to protect secrecy of 52,000 American customers from US tax authority


Andrew Clark
guardian.co.uk, Monday 13 July 2009 17.31 BST

snip:
The US government has had UBS in its sights for some time. In February, the bank was obliged to pay $780m to settle criminal charges of aiding and abetting tax evasion in a smaller-scale case that culminated in UBS handing over details of about 250 clients. At the time, former UBS employee Bradley Birkenfeld made a series of lurid allegations about the bank's ethics - including a claim that he smuggled diamonds hidden in a toothpaste tube across an international border on behalf of a UBS client.

Long renowned for the discretion of its banking institutions, Switzerland is loath to permit any chink in its armour of secrecy. But experts say times have changed - while foreign clients once had to fly to Switzerland to open or access bank accounts, the country's banks now have branches around the world that actively seek deposits on foreign soil.

"What's been happening here is a pretty significant game of chicken," said Evan Stewart, a specialist in white collar litigation at Washington law firm Zuckerman Spaeder. "This is a slippery slope. If this goes, US citizens' ability to be secretive about their accounts elsewhere in the world is going to be troublesome."

In a statement, UBS would only say that it welcomes a hiatus for negotiations: "It is a positive development that the governments will now engage in intensive discussions over the next two weeks and attempt to negotiate a resolution of the John Doe summons litigation."

[ProSense]

10. Are all 52,000 of them suspected of crimes?

Are you proposing a witch hunt?

[flyarm]

11. read the article!

[SpartanDem]

12. Here come the he's a socialist cries

[Hekate]

13. More good news. I don't hear a pony neighing yet but this is the third piece I've read tonight...

... that is just plain good news from the Obama administration and Dem Congress. Cut the F-22 and other pork-barrel military projects, eliminated funding for abstinence-only sex ed in high schools, and now this.

The man can multi-task, just like he said he could. That wasn't just a campaign promise.

Hekate

[karynnj]

14. Here is Baucus' introduction in the Senate

By Mr. BAUCUS (for himself, Mr. Kerry, and Mrs. Shaheen):

S. 1934. A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to prevent the avoidance of tax on income from assets held abroad, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Finance.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, today, I am pleased to introduce the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act of 2009.

The bill gives the IRS powerful tools to find US taxpayers who are hiding their money in offshore accounts. It includes strong incentives for individuals to properly report income from assets held in offshore accounts. The days of sending your money offshore to avoid paying US taxes are over.

This package is the result of a collaborative effort with the House and has the support of the White House and the Treasury Department. It is fully consistent with the policies in the preliminary draft of offshore compliance proposals that I released in March of this year to detect, deter, and discourage offshore tax evasion.

The bill is a practical solution to a very challenging problem. For the first time, the tax law would authorize the IRS to receive information reports from foreign financial institutions disclosing the identities of their US account holders and the amounts being held in the accounts.

Individuals with offshore accounts would be required to provide details of those accounts on their tax returns.

Trust rules would be significantly strengthened to prevent the true beneficiaries from hiding behind a nominee owner.

It will not be so easy to hide your money from Uncle Sam anymore.

Following the recommendation of the Government Accountability Office, the IRS would have more time, up to 6 years, to find and examine unreported and misreported offshore transactions.

Robust penalties would be in place for those who still try to skirt the rules.

This bill would improve tax compliance without raising taxes on anyone. These are taxes that already are legally owed.

Those who game the tax system by hiding their money in offshore accounts, like those in the recent UBS scandal, unfairly shift the tax burden to honest taxpayers who comply with their tax obligations. The IRS estimates that up to 52,000 individuals hid billions of dollars in offshore accounts through UBS.

Offshore tax evasion is a significant part of the tax gap and it has gone on long enough.

I believe this bill will be a turning point in putting an end to offshore tax evasion.

I look forward to working with my Colleagues here in the Senate and in the House to enact this important piece of legislation this year.

[Whisp]

15. This is just wonderful. Busy man.

and some here says he's a lackluster do-nothing. Seems he's got something to announce every second day that is a BIG DEAL like this one.

huge.

can't believe it actually.