I hear this kind of stuff from folks who don't really understand why offshore entities are useful in any number of scenarios for perfectly legitimate reasons.
I also hear it from folks who have never had to deal with the heavy handed tactics of a government that unabashedly tries to extort money from pockets it considers "deep enough" to pick.
You might think those tax dollars find their way to useful social programs. You'd be wrong. More often than not, they're used to prop up favored industries or enrich politically connected individuals.
I don't condone tax cheating. But I absolutely condone jurisdiction shopping if it helps to keep funds in the hands of those that earned it. I know that'll make me unpopular with a certain vocal minority but those folks haven't ever bought me so much as a cup of coffee so I think I'll live.
> folks who have never had to deal with the heavy handed tactics of a government that unabashedly tries to ...
the Swiss banking act that guaranteed secrecy to customers of Swiss banks were intended to protect information about the Jewish people from Nazi Germany. This act is now ineffective since Switzerland has harmonized reporting rules with both US and the EU several years ago. Singapore was also grey-listed with other popular tax havens and they too had to moderate their banking secrecy to get on the white list. you'd be hard pressed to find a useful bank anywhere in the world that isn't FATCA compliant.
>I know that'll make me unpopular with a certain vocal minority but those folks haven't ever bought me so much as a cup of coffee so I think I'll live.
Great attitude, sir. But who will build the roads? ;)
I also hear it from folks who have never had to deal with the heavy handed tactics of a government that unabashedly tries to extort money from pockets it considers "deep enough" to pick.
You might think those tax dollars find their way to useful social programs. You'd be wrong. More often than not, they're used to prop up favored industries or enrich politically connected individuals.
I don't condone tax cheating. But I absolutely condone jurisdiction shopping if it helps to keep funds in the hands of those that earned it. I know that'll make me unpopular with a certain vocal minority but those folks haven't ever bought me so much as a cup of coffee so I think I'll live.