Confidence Games

Confidence Games PDF Author: Tanina Rostain
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262027135
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 421

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Book Description
The rise and fall of a tax shelter industry that enabled some of America's richest citizens to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. For ten boom-powered years at the turn of the twenty-first century, some of America's most prominent law and accounting firms created and marketed products that enabled the very rich—including newly minted dot-com millionaires—to avoid paying their fair share of taxes by claiming benefits not recognized by law. These abusive domestic tax shelters bore such exotic names as BOSS, BLIPS, and COBRA and were developed by such prestigious firms as KPMG and Ernst & Young. They brought in hundreds of millions of dollars in fees from clients and bilked the U.S. Treasury of billions in revenues before the IRS and Justice Department stepped in with civil penalties and criminal prosecutions. In Confidence Games, Tanina Rostain and Milton Regan describe the rise and fall of the tax shelter industry during this period, offering a riveting account of the most serious episode of professional misconduct in the history of the American bar. Rostain and Regan describe a beleaguered IRS preoccupied by attacks from antitax and antigovernment politicians; heightened competition for professional services; the relaxation of tax practitioner norms against aggressive advice; and the creation of complex financial instruments that made abusive shelters harder to detect. By 2004, the tax shelter boom was over, leaving failed firms, disgraced professionals, and prison sentences in its wake. Rostain and Regan's cautionary tale remains highly relevant today, as lawyers and accountants continue to face intense competitive pressure and regulators still struggle to keep pace with accelerating financial risk and innovation.

Confidence Games

Confidence Games PDF Author: Tanina Rostain
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262027135
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 421

Get Book Here

Book Description
The rise and fall of a tax shelter industry that enabled some of America's richest citizens to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. For ten boom-powered years at the turn of the twenty-first century, some of America's most prominent law and accounting firms created and marketed products that enabled the very rich—including newly minted dot-com millionaires—to avoid paying their fair share of taxes by claiming benefits not recognized by law. These abusive domestic tax shelters bore such exotic names as BOSS, BLIPS, and COBRA and were developed by such prestigious firms as KPMG and Ernst & Young. They brought in hundreds of millions of dollars in fees from clients and bilked the U.S. Treasury of billions in revenues before the IRS and Justice Department stepped in with civil penalties and criminal prosecutions. In Confidence Games, Tanina Rostain and Milton Regan describe the rise and fall of the tax shelter industry during this period, offering a riveting account of the most serious episode of professional misconduct in the history of the American bar. Rostain and Regan describe a beleaguered IRS preoccupied by attacks from antitax and antigovernment politicians; heightened competition for professional services; the relaxation of tax practitioner norms against aggressive advice; and the creation of complex financial instruments that made abusive shelters harder to detect. By 2004, the tax shelter boom was over, leaving failed firms, disgraced professionals, and prison sentences in its wake. Rostain and Regan's cautionary tale remains highly relevant today, as lawyers and accountants continue to face intense competitive pressure and regulators still struggle to keep pace with accelerating financial risk and innovation.

The Hidden Wealth of Nations

The Hidden Wealth of Nations PDF Author: Gabriel Zucman
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022624556X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 142

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Book Description
We are well aware of the rise of the 1% as the rapid growth of economic inequality has put the majority of the world’s wealth in the pockets of fewer and fewer. One much-discussed solution to this imbalance is to significantly increase the rate at which we tax the wealthy. But with an enormous amount of the world’s wealth hidden in tax havens—in countries like Switzerland, Luxembourg, and the Cayman Islands—this wealth cannot be fully accounted for and taxed fairly. No one, from economists to bankers to politicians, has been able to quantify exactly how much of the world’s assets are currently hidden—until now. Gabriel Zucman is the first economist to offer reliable insight into the actual extent of the world’s money held in tax havens. And it’s staggering. In The Hidden Wealth of Nations, Zucman offers an inventive and sophisticated approach to quantifying how big the problem is, how tax havens work and are organized, and how we can begin to approach a solution. His research reveals that tax havens are a quickly growing danger to the world economy. In the past five years, the amount of wealth in tax havens has increased over 25%—there has never been as much money held offshore as there is today. This hidden wealth accounts for at least $7.6 trillion, equivalent to 8% of the global financial assets of households. Fighting the notion that any attempts to vanquish tax havens are futile, since some countries will always offer more advantageous tax rates than others, as well the counter-argument that since the financial crisis tax havens have disappeared, Zucman shows how both sides are actually very wrong. In The Hidden Wealth of Nations he offers an ambitious agenda for reform, focused on ways in which countries can change the incentives of tax havens. Only by first understanding the enormity of the secret wealth can we begin to estimate the kind of actions that would force tax havens to give up their practices. Zucman’s work has quickly become the gold standard for quantifying the amount of the world’s assets held in havens. In this concise book, he lays out in approachable language how the international banking system works and the dangerous extent to which the large-scale evasion of taxes is undermining the global market as a whole. If we are to find a way to solve the problem of increasing inequality, The Hidden Wealth of Nations is essential reading.

Overview of Tax Shelters

Overview of Tax Shelters PDF Author: United States. Congress. Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Investments
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description


The Offshore Advantage

The Offshore Advantage PDF Author: Terry Neal
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
An explanation of how and why people go offshore.

Corporate Tax Shelters

Corporate Tax Shelters PDF Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Ways and Means
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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The Crisis in Tax Administration

The Crisis in Tax Administration PDF Author: Henry Aaron
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780815796565
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
People pay taxes for two reasons. On the positive side, most people recognize, even if grudgingly, that payment of tax is a duty of citizenship. On the negative side, they know that the law requires payment, that evasion is a crime, and that willful failure to pay taxes is punishable by fines or imprisonment. The practical questions for tax administration are how to strengthen each of these motives to comply with the law. How much should be spent on enforcement and how should enforcement be organized to promote these objectives and achieve the best results per dollar spent? Over the last few years, the U.S. Congress has restricted spending on tax administration, forcing the Internal Revenue Service to curtail enforcement activities, at the same time, that the number of individual filers has increased, tax rules have become more complex, and more business have become multinational operations. But if too many cases of tax evasion go undetected and unpunished, those who may have grudgingly paid their taxes may soon find it easier to join the scofflaws. These events in combination have created a genuine crisis in tax administration. The chapters in this volume evaluate the capacity of authorities to enforce the tax laws in a modern, global economy and examine the implications of failing to do so. Specific aspects of tax law, including tax shelters, issues relating to small businesses, tax software, role of tax preparers, and the objectives of tax simplification are examined in detail. The volume also builds a conceptual basis for future scholarship, with regard not only to tax administration, but also to such fundamental questions as whether taxpayers respond mostly to economic incentives or are influenced by their experiences with the filing process and what is the proper framework for evaluating the allocation of resources within the IRS.

The Trump Tax Shelter

The Trump Tax Shelter PDF Author: Dan Keppel
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781985448308
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 66

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Book Description
Pay NO taxes on your wealth Avoid future tax increases Create a $500,000 tax-FREE account Boost your savings by 30% You may not have started work with a $100-200 million boost from your father like Trump, but you can create your own tax-FREE stream of income like his. Clearly the Trump tax plan helps businesses and the wealthy. There is no reason why you cannot benefit from the tax code too. Using 408 of the IRS code, you can create an unlimited account that grows without current or future tax. It eliminates taxes when taken out for your needs and can pass to your heirs totally tax FREE. No matter what your income, this helps you avoid future taxes to pay off the national debt. Using the new "pass-through" form, you can avoid tax on the first 20% of your business profits. Using debt financing like the "king of debt," you can structure your income so you avoid taxation. The loan, used as 'income' is not taxed. With the recent increase in the national debt, you can avoid the future tax increases that are sure to strike most working Americans. Many American corporations and wealthy people have moved their wealth, corporations and the good-paying jobs to other countries. http: //www.nytimes.com/2014/07/06/business/ when-taxes-and-profits-are-oceans-apart.html Many avoid taxes with complex tax shelters and subsidiaries. Luckily, there is a way for you to avoid paying their taxes. You can use a FREE special IRS-approved tax shelter to protect all your savings and investment earnings. You can build a $1/2 million fund by investing $250 a month over time. You can use the tax laws for your benefit like the people in the top 1% income bracket do! Trump's new law allows anyone to use the Trump Tax Shelter. You can set up your Trump Tax Shelter in 1 hour

Tax Shelters

Tax Shelters PDF Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Finance
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Corporations
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description


Corporate Tax Shelters

Corporate Tax Shelters PDF Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Finance
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 120

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Book Description


U.S. Tax Shelter Industry

U.S. Tax Shelter Industry PDF Author: United States
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 898

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Book Description