The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has produced more world-shaking reports on secret, massive tax evasion schemes, this time focused on Luxembourg. The six month project – “Lux Leaks” – was undertaken by ICIJ journalists around the Earth, and has reverberated and been reported by the largest news organizations in the world. Because of the revelations a great deal of pressure has become felt by new European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker – whose previous government position was as Prime Minister of Luxembourg for 19 years.
Somewhere in the neighborhood of 340 of the world’s most well-known corporations have become identified for using complex accounting schemes in Luxembourg, avoiding paying taxes altogether in their home nations, while paying as little as 1/4 of 1% tax to Luxembourg on tens of millions of Euros in income.
Whether ICIJ’s second tax evasion bombshell in recent years – the first revealed massive corporate/individual tax cheating carried out in the British Virgin Islands tax haven – results in strong, concrete actions to tackle the decades-old, trillion-dollar per year, global tax avoidance/haven industry, enabled by the world’s largest accounting and legal firms, will become publicly known as this astonishing news story grows.
The following link to ICIJ’s website opens the door to a treasure of information/articles explaining in detail what their journalists around the world have uncovered so far: http://www.icij.org/project/luxembourg-leaks
“Luxury and avarice – these pests have been the ruin of every state.”
– MARCUS PORCIUS CATO (234-149 B.C.) Roman statesman
John Christensen sent a letter to Queen Elizabeth. In the letter he expressed his concerns about British crown colonies’ long-running status as “tax havens”, how tax evasion through those colonies is immoral, and suggested she do something to straighten it out. Mr. Christensen is director of the Tax Justice Network (TJN), a group of men and women focused on bringing the world’s attention to the decades-old tax evasion industry operated by the largest accounting, banking, and legal companies on Earth.
After listening to the group’s August radio program “Taxcast”, it looks like Mr. Christensen has yet to receive a reply from Queen Elizabeth to his letter. It is unfortunate that the work of men and women at Tax Justice Network is not more well-known, because the group has been successful to some extent in raising awareness on the very important topic of tax evasion – which continues to occur on a massive scale.
TJN members have taken on an entrenched, pervasive, and secretive global financial operation protected by the world’s most wealthy and powerful people. The battle they fight is truly a “David vs. Goliath” affair, one which involves accounting, finance, and legal tools/weapons that most people find difficult to understand. Tax haven jurisdictions such as the British Virgin Islands, Bahamas, Luxemburg, Switzerland, the state of Delaware, Hong Kong, and dozens of others around the Earth offer high net worth people and the world’s largest transnational corporations low to zero tax rates as incentive to stash money.
“Patriotic” politicians stand at podiums with rows of perfectly folded flags behind them – elected to office through the support of multi-billionaire tax evasion cheats – and continue to completely ignore tax havens while speaking publicly about the urgent need to “cut the deficit” and reduce taxes. All the while, nations around the world lose trillions of dollars in tax revenue every year, and political “lovers and defenders of their country” do absolutely nothing.
The most important facts surrounding the tax haven industry people need to become aware of is that, first, this is a global industry. Second, that any individual or family on Earth who has accumulated a large amount of wealth, along with every large corporation, most likely are involved in tax evasion through tax haven schemes. Third (as mentioned), the largest and most highly respected accounting, banking, and legal firms on the planet are deeply and intimately involved. These firms are the “engineers” of the $multi-trillion tax haven industry.
So, while those belonging to the Occupy-coined group 99% will likely not be “stashing” any wealth into tax haven jurisdictions, the wealthiest people from all nations on Earth conduct “business as usual”. Tax evasion cheats continue on without any feelings of guilt over not “paying their fair share”, satisfied to protect and increase fortunes through complicated financial schemes, while their fellow elected-politician tax evaders remain silent.
The global tax haven/evasion industry rolls on full-steam ahead, free from any serious interference in the form of laws, sanctions, or effective blocking actions by politicians, almost “nuisance-free” but for moral economists like John Christensen and his friends at the Tax Justice Network, concerned academics in the fields of accounting, finance, and law, and politicians who’ve become aware of the industry – “the pinstripe Mafia” – and how loss of tax revenue hurts national economies and people everywhere.
So, if any person reading this sees John Christensen, please send along encouragement, words of support, and thanks for the good work and effort he and his dedicated group of men and women have undertaken. If he hasn’t received any response from Queen Elizabeth to his letter yet, pass along this suggestion. Get a group of men and women – a really big group – and pile up in cars over to her house.
Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms.. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.
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The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has produced more world-shaking reports on secret, massive tax evasion schemes, this time focused on Luxembourg. The six month project – “Lux Leaks” – was undertaken by ICIJ journalists around the Earth, and has reverberated and been reported by the largest news organizations in the world. Because of the revelations a great deal of pressure has become felt by new European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker – whose previous government position was as Prime Minister of Luxembourg for 19 years.
THE ONENESS of HUMANITY 