Panama Papers

[Washout]

almost all of the arab "allied" head of states are in the list, ukranian pm, UK's prime minister dad, icelands pm etc etc, but whos making the headlines in the western media?

you guessed it right, PUTIN makes the headlines lol

Should be interesting as will take a time before too much finger pointing can go on. Reckon they've sat on this for a while to ensure they've got it right.
11 million docs will take a while to trawl through!

There's a few levels of wrongness here I think.
One thing to keep legitimately earned money offshore, not keeping all your eggs in one basket etc. Quite another to use them for setting up dummy companies to actively facilitate the laundering of ill gotten money!!

Edit: Just to say if used to help pay less tax is very naughty and hopefully all found doing it are named and shamed (even if it's technically not illegal). Those found to be using this company for illegal activities need to be stomped on.

 

[Muzy]

who actually gives a crap. All this will be is a witch hunt conducted by mad people who are mad because they don't get to wipe their arses with £50 notes. I couldn't give a crap if Messi, Putin, or Geoff Capes stashed their laundered money in an offshore account in Timbuktu

I hate people like you with a mice brain.

example, If companies skip paying taxes, the associated burden on the national physical (roads,sewers etc) infrastructure and social infrastructure (health care, retirement) falls unjustly on other companies and individuals to pay.
These offshore companies let rich individuals and companies skip paying their fair share by pretending the money is tied up or lost to investment in these fake firms.

 

[Ayahuasca]

I think what wildman is getting at is there's no point giving a damn about it as nothing will likely come of it and it's something us peasants are unlikely to be able to change.

Plus, we already knew it was going on, maybe just not on the scale these papers show.

 

[mrk]

What would Bobby Axelrod do!

 

[Emlyn_Dewar]

As someone has mentioned already, there will be an inquiry, and then it'll all be swept under the rug.
The public in this dump, will forget it ever happened, once a new season of X-Factor, or The Voice comes on.

 

[wildman]

I think what wildman is getting at is there's no point giving a damn about it as nothing will likely come of it and it's something us peasants are unlikely to be able to change.

Plus, we already knew it was going on, maybe just not on the scale these papers show.

exactly this.

It's not like we didn't know this was happening, and pig master cameron might bleat on about fair taxation etc, but do any of us seriously think there is going to be anything that comes out of this. Give it a few months and there will be a carpet somewhere with all of this firmly swept under it.

 

[Hambut_Bulge]

And here we have the proof that the people in charge of making said rules are doing all they can to circumvent them, when in all reality they are rich enough to not need to, while preaching to the rest of us.

Hardly, nearly all of the names revealed are assorted third world tin-pot dictators and their assorted families/friends/cronies. None of whom, last I checked, have set any UK tax rules.

 

[wordy]

Hey look, all the rich people are corrupt, corporations have a disproportional influence on the political system, and the media are part of the problem.

Quell surprise. Nothing will happen. There's to much vested interest.

Or maybe they'll be an "inquiry", aka buy yourself some stalling time in the hope the problem goes away.

Might as well close the thread. Stretch has predicted the future with 100% accuracy.

 

[Freakbro]

Hardly, nearly all of the names revealed are assorted third world tin-pot dictators and their assorted families/friends/cronies. None of whom, last I checked, have set any UK tax rules.

This is a global issue, I wasn't restricting it to just UK tax laws....so when I say 'we' I'm talking about the whole world.

And how many of those names have you seen/read about from the 11 million pages of documents? How many more do you think there are in there?

And since it's been mentioned already Camerons dad is in there, that's hardly a non UK related tin pot dictator...

 

[CREATIVE!11]

who actually gives a crap. All this will be is a witch hunt conducted by mad people who are mad because they don't get to wipe their arses with £50 notes. I couldn't give a crap if Messi, Putin, or Geoff Capes stashed their laundered money in an offshore account in Timbuktu

The intelligence (or lack of it displayed here) is quite staggering, probably best post I've seen in a long while.

Yeah people were mad in 2008 too, they were just jelly of dudes living it up like the wolf of wall street popping ludes and banging hookers.

Or were people angry that people killed themselves (Story on reddit of a pensioner who killed himself because he lost his pension) and because people lost homes/jobs/money etc etc all due to the actions of selfish people looking to profit for themselves.

I hate people like you with a mice brain.

example, If companies skip paying taxes, the associated burden on the national physical (roads,sewers etc) infrastructure and social infrastructure (health care, retirement) falls unjustly on other companies and individuals to pay.
These offshore companies let rich individuals and companies skip paying their fair share by pretending the money is tied up or lost to investment in these fake firms.

I remember the Reddit post about Facebook evading tax in the UK, one comment cracked me up.

"I work for minimum wage yet I paid nearly as much as Facebook in tax last year!!!!!"

Lmao

 

[doodah]

Just seen the Icelandic PM's interview, it did not look good. Did he deny he sold his share for $1 despite his signature appearing on the documents?

 

[Hambut_Bulge]

This is a global issue, I wasn't restricting it to just UK tax laws....so when I say 'we' I'm talking about the whole world.

And how many of those names have you seen/read about from the 11 million pages of documents? How many more do you think there are in there?

And since it's been mentioned already Camerons dad is in there, that's hardly a non UK related tin pot dictator...

Pretty sure that the finances of Ian Cameron (who is dead - unless he's influencing tax policy from the great hereafter...) are already a matter of public record. Same goes for Ashcroft, Sharples and Mates. And these are the only UK names mentioned on panamapapers.icij.org (you can filter it by country)

The point is though that you and I pay our tax to the UK government, and there is, so far, no evidence that anyone in said government has done anything illegal under UK law. What Vladimir Putin's dodgy mates may or may not have squirrelled away from the Russian tax man, is a matter for the Russian authorities. And yes, good luck to them with that.

Yet to judge from the somewhat hysterical coverage from the BBC/Guardian this morning, the proverbial visitor from outer space could well be forgiven for thinking that a vast international conspiracy encompassing everyone (ie Tory) in Westminster had been uncovered.

Just think a little perspective is needed.

 

[joeyjojo]

Pretty sure that the finances of Ian Cameron (who is dead - unless he's influencing tax policy from the great hereafter...) are already a matter of public record.

Possibly not. An interviewee on World at One a few minutes ago was saying that Cameron (a successful financial adviser) made substantial use of bearer shares, which are specifically designed to make the identity of the asset holder impossible to discover. They were finally banned last year because of their use in money laundering.

 

[Hambut_Bulge]

Possibly not. An interviewee on World at One a few minutes ago was saying that Cameron (a successful financial adviser) made substantial use of bearer shares, which are specifically designed to make the identity of the asset holder impossible to discover. They were finally banned last year because of their use in money laundering.

But were at the time were legal. Even Guardian article on the same notes this, and also using word 'avoid' rather than 'evade'.

 

[joeyjojo]

But were at the time were legal. Even Guardian article on the same notes this, and also using word 'avoid' rather than 'evade'.

I didn't say they weren't, but your assertion that "the finances of Ian Cameron ... are already a matter of public record" is probably false if his offshore holdings used loads of bearer shares. Again, they're specifically for hiding who owns the assets.

 

[Von Smallhausen]

Cameron's dad is named

Cameron's dad's involvement in offshore finance is no secret.

 

[wildman]

Cameron's dad's involvement in offshore finance is no secret.

exactly and neither is it illegal. People can question the morality of pumping your money offshore to reduce your tax liabilities through legal means, but that doesn't suddenly make it headline worthy.

 

[doodah]

Illegal, no but he's got some cheek wading into Jimmy Carr's use of it whilst papa Cameron is doing something similar. So is *all* of this tax avoidance and no evasion?

 

[jimjamuk]

Yawn - nothing new here - move along please

Actually the notable thing is the lack of UK names on the list - something to celebrate no? The rest of the world can sort themselves out

 

[jimjamuk]

Illegal, no but he's got some cheek wading into Jimmy Carr's use of it whilst papa Cameron is doing something similar. So is *all* of this tax avoidance and no evasion?

Its 2016 catch up - if its legal then its called avoidance but then someone made up some moral rules and people are bashed with that in the court of public opinion. If its illegal its evasion and rightly you should be going to jail