Posted on 06/06/2013 7:15:14 AM PDT by Kaslin
Earlier this year, I had some fun when it was revealed that the President’s new Treasury Secretary had a lot of money in the Cayman Islands.
After all, leftists want us to believe tax havens are rogue regimes that should be eliminated. Some of them even want military intervention against these low-tax jurisdictions!
Much to my amusement, Mr. Lew even pretended he was financially illiterate to justify making sensible decisions to invest via the Cayman Islands.
And unlike the President’s first Treasury Secretary, Mr. Lew didn’t break the law and cheat on his tax return.
You probably won’t be surprised to learn that Secretary Lew wasn’t the first Democrat to utilize tax havens. Lawmakers such as John Kerry, Bill Clinton, John Edwards, and others on the left also have utilized tax havens to boost their own personal finances.
And it appears that Mr. Lew won’t be the last Democrat to be caught with his hands in the cookie jar.
Here’s some of what’s being reported by the New York Times with regards to the President’s nominee to be U.S. Trade Representative.
Michael Froman, a longtime White House economic aide nominated to be President Obama’s trade representative, has nearly half a million dollars in a fund based in the Cayman Islands, according to financial documents provided to the Senate Finance Committee. …White House officials said Mr. Froman played no role in creating, managing or operating the investment funds and had done nothing wrong. “Mike Froman has paid every penny of his taxes and reported all of the income, gains and losses from the investment on his tax returns,” Mr. Whithorne said.
I don’t remember that compliance with the tax law mattered when Obama and the media were going after Romney in 2012 for legally investing in the Cayman Islands.
Could it be that tax havens are okay, but only if you support big government?
What makes this story particularly amusing is that Mr. Froman’s Cayman investments were domiciled in Ugland House, which is infamous in leftist circles for being the legal home for thousands of entities.
According to a 2011 financial document, Mr. Froman held $490,845 in a fund managed by Citigroup and based in Grand Cayman’s Ugland House, a modest whitewashed building that has been widely cited as a symbol of tax avoidance since it is home to nearly 19,000 business entities seeking favorable tax treatment. In answers to Finance Committee questions, Mr. Froman said on May 17 that he still held those assets but would sell them off within 90 days of confirmation as trade representative. Mr. Grassley said the president once called the Ugland House “the biggest tax scam in the world.”
You may be thinking that you’ve heard of Ugland House before. Perhaps that’s because you were paying attention during the 2008 campaign.
To refresh your memory, pay attention beginning at the 1:13 mark of this video.
But I guess it’s okay that Mr. Froman invests via Ugland House. After all, he’s willing to endorse higher taxes for other people, so that’s sort of like getting an indulgence for supposed sins.
The President must really like people who invest in tax havens because his nominee to be Treasury Secretary also is “guilty” of having a sensible approach with regards to her personal finances.
Here are some relevant details from a Reuters report.
Chicago billionaire Penny Pritzker on Thursday appeared on her way to becoming U.S. commerce secretary, after a top Republican lawmaker said she had answered most of his questions about her role in…her family’s use of an offshore tax haven. …A 184-page financial disclosure form released by the White House provided a detailed view of Pritzker’s wealth. It includes $54 million in consulting fees she received from the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Trust Co, which manages an offshore trust for the Pritzker family in the Bahamas. …Pritzker acknowledged being a beneficiary of an offshore trust set up when she was “a little girl” and told the panel she has asked the current trustee to step aside and appoint a U.S. trustee.
How convenient that she waited until age 54 – and being nominated to a high-level slot – before addressing the issue.
In a logical world, of course, she wouldn’t have to pretend there’s something wrong with utilizing the superior laws that exist in the Bahamas, any more than she should have to justify selecting a restaurant that gives her better food and quality service at a lower price.
In other words, the real moral of the story is that so-called tax havens play a very valuable role in the global economy. As explained in this video, they are very good platforms for economic activity and they encourage less punitive fiscal policy in high-tax nations.
Here are additional reasons why tax havens are a huge plus for the global economy.
Unfortunately, good economic policy doesn’t seem to count for much. Politicians for high-tax nations have been somewhat successful in badgering tax havens into surrendering some of their fiscal policy and agreeing to act as deputy tax collectors for foreign governments.
What does this mean? Well, as Professor Greg Mankiw of Harvard University explains, politicians will raise taxes even higher when they don’t have to worry about competition from low-tax jurisdictions.
114) Has a double standard for investing in China and the Cayman Islands
Although Obama criticized Mitt Romney for having investments in China and the Cayman Islands, Obama himself has investments in both of those places.
People forget that tax havens are only tax havens if you keep their existence secret from the IRS. If you don’t, they are just funds that happen to be located overseas.
Under pressure from the powerful and ever-more-greedy US government, bank secrecy has pretty much gone away. I’ve heard that many overseas banks refuse to open accounts for US citizens because it’s not worth the potential hassle.
Yet another reason for a consumption based tax—who cares where you stash your money if the taxes are assessed when you spend it?
The tax code is nothing but a long list of favors given to special interest groups in exchange for their votes. It is fully corrupt and should be eliminated, immediately.
Ugland House is bad…unless you’re a rich leftist
Could it be that tax havens are okay, but only if you support big government?
I'm pretty sure Romney supports Big Government, so that's not it.
Well, what do you expect? He’s a hypocrite like 99.99% of the rats
“Yet another reason for a consumption based tax—who cares where you stash your money if the taxes are assessed when you spend it?”
And when the bulk of the money gets spent offshore? Make your money tax free and spend it overseas. Great system for everyone that can afford to do it, but it would suck the high hard one for everone stuck paying an extra 33% tax on everything they buy.
Modern Liberalism (aka: Obamaism) is but a GIANT Ponzi Scam! Those at the top live LARGE on the resources of those at the bottom, who are kept ignorant, angry and constantly served “serpent” promises that are never fulfilled. Like all Ponzi scams those victimized must also be corrupt themselves... to buy the lie of “Red Pottage”. Therefore there is always a “war on virtue” waged. Which explains “gay marriage”, drug culture, abortion, hatred of all things good and Godly and the destruction of the family unit.
That’s a good point; I never thought of it that way.
Do you really think that will happen to a significant extent? I think most money earned in the country is spent in the country.
” I think most money earned in the country is spent in the country.”
You are talking about today. Do you think that would be the case if the Fairy tax was passed?
The Canadian border would be dotted with Walmarts.
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