I knew that there was a ton of money squirreled away in tax havens by the super rich, but I had absolutely no idea just how much it is, or just how few own all that wealth. The bottom 40% of Americans own 0.2% of the wealth, but that does not count the wealth hidden in tax havens.
A new report by the Tax ,sJustice Network released Sunday reveals that between $21 trillion and $31 trillion is currently tucked away in global tax havens by the global super-rich–an amount that far exceeds previous estimates. Through exploiting gaps in global tax rules, the global financial elite are managing to hide "as much as the American and Japanese GDPs put together" from taxation, leaving the world's poor to carry the burden of global debt through harsh austerity measures.
The report pools data from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, United Nations and global central banks.
In the report, The Price of Offshore Revisited, the Tax Justice Network details the ways in which the trillions of dollars are essentially smuggled out of countries into tax free havens such as Switzerland and the Cayman Islands through private banks.
According to the calculations, £6.3tn of assets is owned by only 92,000 people–0.001% of the world's population… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Common Dreams>
Picture credit: Democratic Underground
I suppose I owe Willard an apology. I have thought of him as a member of the 1%, when perhaps I should have said the .001%.
I know all that money is not US, but just to give you an idea of the magnitude of that wealth, if the high estimate is correct, it is enough to pay off the entire US national debt… twice.
8 Responses to “Trillions in Tax Havens”
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One more disgusting fact coming to the light of day!!
Too True
"Through exploiting gaps in global tax rules, the global financial elite are managing to hide "as much as the American and Japanese GDPs put together" from taxation, leaving the world's poor to carry the burden of global debt through harsh austerity measures."
The working poor carry all of the burden paying for the wealthy to exploit loopholes created by bought politicians and tax attornerys… sigh
Exactly!
"$32 trillion of hidden financial assets in offshore tax havens represents up to to $280 billion in lost income tax revenues," … "These estimates reveal a staggering failure: inequality is much, much worse than official statistics show, but politicians are still relying on trickle-down to transfer wealth to poorer people," said John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network. "People on the street have no illusions about how unfair the situation has become."
After reading this article and some of the comments beneath it, where I previously said it was about the greed and power, I don't think of it the same way now. It is all about the POWER! Nothing more. The money, the greed, is just a way to buy power and perpetuate the inequalities in life. These people, the ones that would use their greed to continually buy power, are soulless.
An excellent article but depressing in many ways. I need to think more to regain some perspective before commenting further.
I'd say that, rather than one or the other, the two go hand in hand.
Oh dear! Please don't raise these poor people's taxes. How on earth would they ever survive if they had to pay a little more?
ROTF!