Fun

While Politicians Worldwide Clamor Over Tax Evasion, Pandora Papers Show Bureaucrats Are the Worst Offenders

News Feed - 2021-10-06 05:10:35

While Politicians Worldwide Clamor Over Tax Evasion, Pandora Papers Show Bureaucrats Are the Worst Offenders


As bureaucrats across the globe continue to ask the common citizenry for access to every financial decision they make, politicians and celebrities worldwide are hiding large amounts of wealth in tax havens according to the Pandora Papers. While American politicians like the Biden administration claim to be against tax corruption, some people view the U.S. as the world’s “main tax lagoon.” Pandora Papers Expose Hypocrisy Among Bureaucrats Worldwide, US Public Officials Manage to Escape Investigation


During the last month, the Biden administration and other U.S. politicians have been discussing proposed legislation that aims to address tax evasion by the so-called billionaire class and corporate entities. One proposal aims to give the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) access to bank account information, regardless of tax liability. If enacted, financial institutions across the country would have to report accounts with at least $600 worth of transactions or more. Another proposal aims to introduce “unrealized capital gains” otherwise known as “anti-deferral accounting.” The Pandora Papers published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) exposes 330+ bureaucrats from various countries, but prominent wealthy Americans and U.S. public officials are not mentioned in the investigation.


Meanwhile, this past week the latest release of the Pandora Papers has been published and the documents unveil a great number of politicians worldwide hiding wealth to stay clear of taxation. The papers were released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and they claim to reveal the “inner workings of a shadow economy” for the “well-connected.” The papers include two million documents from 14 different service providers, exposing over 330 politicians and public officials from various countries. The Pandora Papers derive from over two years of reporting from 600 journalists at 150 news outlets that uncovered close to 12 million documents.


The Pandora Papers are two times the size of the offshore accounts and the number of public officials named in the Panama Papers. Offshore asset links stemmed from celebrities too, like the professional cricket player Sachin Tendulkar, model Claudia Schiffer, and the world-famous singer Shakira. Interestingly, prominent American bureaucrats managed to stay out of the investigation’s findings despite the record-setting monetary expansion the U.S. has seen in the last two years. One Reporter Asks: ‘Why Are There No Big American Names in Pandora Papers?’ Russia’s Press Secretary Says the ‘US Is the Main Tax Lagoon for the Whole World’


A few media outlets like NPR and the Washington Post mentioned tax-evading American bureaucrats and the country’s contribution to the Pandora Papers. The Washington Post (WP) quickly said Americans leverage the same methods of tax evasion but no public official was named in the WP report. A scathing report from the Independent doesn’t mention any American politicians but the author decides to investigate why high profile U.S. citizens were not added to the list in the Pandora Papers. While prominent Americans managed to escape being targeted by ICIJ’s investigation, the country itself did not.


Researchers noted that the U.S. is well known for being a tax haven and people from abroad are hiding funds in specific areas located in the United States. Moreover, the research did find that Americans are hiding money in other countries like Central America, but no specific names were included in the research. “The records also show how a firm in Central America became a one-stop-shop for American clients, allowing them to conceal their assets while facing criminal investigations or lawsuits,” The WP author wrote about the evidence found in the Pandora Papers. While more than 330 bureaucrats worldwide were mentioned in the Pandora Papers, American politicians managed to escape the investigation. The Biden administration and many other U.S. politicians have been targeting so-called tax offenders, but Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, Dimitry Peskov, ridiculed the U.S. for hypocrisy, calling the country the world’s largest “tax lagoon.”


The Independent highlights that state governments from Nevada and South Dakota have become tax havens for foreign nationals. NPR said both states “adopted financial secrecy laws that rival those of offshore jurisdictions” While the Western media had failed to implicate any prominent American bureaucrats, Russia’s foreign ministry ridiculed the United States over the findings in the Pandora Papers. Russian president Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, Dimitry Peskov, said the papers make U.S. politicians look like hypocrites.


“What catches the eye is which country is the world’s largest lagoon. This, of course, is the U.S.,” Peskov told the press this past week. “This does not correlate at all with their declaration about the fight against corruption… We see that the U.S. is the main tax lagoon for the whole world,” the Russian president’s press secretary emphasized.


Meanwhile, U.S. politicians are attempting to create tax reform that allegedly targets corporate entities and the so-called billionaire class. However, the proposed guidelines mentioned in the “American Families Plan Tax Compliance Agenda” do not seem to target the American wealthy. Civil rights groups and privacy advocates are concerned about the concepts of “unrealized capital gains” which means citizens would have to pay for capital gains before they even sold their assets.


Additionally, IRS commissioner Charles Rettig and Janet Yellen, the Treasury secretary, want banks to report deposit and withdrawal information tied to the average American’s bank account. The mixture of the Pandora Papers and ideas like the proposed tax compliance agenda shows that the political class of so-called public servants in the U.S. have been hypocrites and have clearly been benefitting at the expense of everyone else.


It goes to show, that while politicians all around the world are complaining about the average citizen evading taxes, bureaucrats are the ones breaking their own rules or leveraging legislated loopholes they created to protect their own wealth.


What do you think about the Pandora Papers and why do you think Americans managed to stay out of this investigation? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Bank of America"s Crypto Research Debuts: Digital Assets Are "Too Large to Ignore" NEWS | 7 hours ago Bitcoin Will Become Currency in Brazil Soon, According to Federal Deputy Aureo Ribeiro NEWS | 9 hours ago Tags in this story 330 politicians, American Families Plan, Americans, Assets, Bureaucrats, Celebrities, Charles Rettig, Dimitry Peskov, hypocrites, ICIJ, Janet Yellen, Nevada, NPR, Panama Papers, Pandora Papers, Pandora Papers Expose, South Dakota, Tax Compliance Agenda, tax evasion, the Independent, US Tax Lagoon, washington post, wealthy


Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article. Read disclaimerShow comments

News Feed

Galaxy launches $113M crypto fund, Nansen launches Ether ETF dashboard: Finance Redefined
Zoltan Vardai4 hours agoGalaxy launches $113M crypto fund, Nansen launches Ether ETF dashboard: Finance RedefinedGalaxy launched a $113 million crypto fund on the week of the debut of the first spot Ether ETFs in the US.
US Unveils Bill Giving Treasury Secretary ‘Unchecked and Unilateral Power’ to Ban Crypto Transactions, Advocate Warns
US Unveils Bill Giving Treasury Secretary "Unchecked and Unilateral Power" to Ban Crypto Transactions, Advocate Warns A new bill introduced in the U.S. has a provision that “
Bitcoin Price Recovery At Stake If This Level Doesn’t Hold, Crash Could Erase Gains
Reason to trust Strict editorial policy that focuses on accuracy, relevance, and impartiality Created by industry experts and meticulously reviewed The highest standards in reporting and pu
Ethereum Beacon Chain Surpasses 300K Validators, Over $28 Billion in Ether Deposits Locked
Ethereum Beacon Chain Surpasses 300K Validators, Over $28 Billion in Ether Deposits Locked The Ethereum protocol has reached another milestone as the number of Ethereum 2.0 validat
Coinbase shares slump, but Base revenue signals it’s undervalued — Analyst
Ciaran Lyons2 hours agoCoinbase shares slump, but Base revenue signals it’s undervalued — AnalystCrypto analyst Will Clemente believes Coinbase is “the biggest kind of venture style bet in public markets” since T
NFT utility continues to captivate fashion and luxury brands — NFT Paris
Gareth Jenkinson9 hours agoNFT utility continues to captivate fashion and luxury brands — NFT ParisArtists, fashion and luxury brands showcased the actual utility of NFTs and blockchain technology at NFT Paris.1446 To
Sony Considers Remaking "The Princess Bride" as Internet Explodes in Fury
As Hollywood movie studios get further and further away from producing original content and instead rely on remakes and reboots of familiar franchises, Sony has apparently floated the idea of remaking "The Princess Bride
Dapper Labs Suspends NFT Operations for Russian Users Amid New EU Sanctions
Dapper Labs Suspends NFT Operations for Russian Users Amid New EU Sanctions Canadian company Dapper Labs has blocked operations with non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for Russian accounts
Nivesh Rustgi4 hours agoBitcoin forks BCH, BSV and XEC soared last month, but are the gains organic and sustainable?Bitcoin forks, BCH, BSV and XEC rallied over the last 30 days while KAS and FLEX led among altcoin gaine
Bitcoin, Ethereum Technical Analysis: ETH Plunges Below $1,800 as Red Wave Intensifies
Bitcoin, Ethereum Technical Analysis: ETH Plunges Below $1,800 as Red Wave Intensifies Following a move towards $32,000 to start the week, BTC was fighting to stay above $29,000 du
Savannah Fortis13 hours agoBitcoin sails the seas: Sailor paints giant ‘B’ on boat to promote crypto across the wavesA captain from Brussels took his passion for sailing and Bitcoin and set sail on his Sato Boat pain
Nigerian Judge Rules in Favor of Accused Crypto Startup, Accounts to Be Reopened
Nigerian Judge Rules in Favor of Accused Crypto Startup, Accounts to Be Reopened A Nigerian Federal Court judge recently ruled that the two frozen bank accounts belonging to Rise V