Noose Tightens On Tax Evasion By The Wealthy

[Omaha Steve]

http://thebigslice.org/noose-tightens-tax-evasion-wealthy/

September 16, 2013 | Tom Hunter

Between 2009 and 2010, the average American income bounced back but as is always the case, the devil sits behind that word average. During that time, incomes for the mega-rich — those top 0.01 percent of earners (the 1 percent of the 1 percent) — saw their incomes soar 21 percent, according to Reuters. Incomes for the 1 percent rose 11.6 percent. During that same time, the income of the bottom 90 percent of all Americans actually saw their income drop to -0.4 percent. So, after the calamity that was the downturn of 2008, virtually all Americans received an additional slap in the face in the form of plummeting income.

The 1 percent took home 45 percent of all income gains during the Clinton Administration, 65 percent of income gains during the second Bush Administration and a whopping 93 percent of income gains during the Obama Administration–so far.

Faced with estimated losses of $100 billion in offshore tax cheating, in 2010 the 111th Congress passed a law known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, the aptly-named FATCA, which intends to curb the epidemic of tax evasion by the mega rich, through the use of offshore tax havens, also known as Secrecy Jurisdictions. Unsurprisingly, this law barely passed with mostly the support of Democrats in Congress.

No observer of recent American politics could miss that Republicans hate taxes. Yet, surely law-and-order-loving Republicans don’t desire to coddle criminal s– or do they?

FULL story at link.

[The Magistrate]

1. All For A Tight Noose On These Types, Sir....

[JEFF9K]

2. The effective tax rate on the wealthy is about half ...

... of what it was in the 1950s when our country had its best economy, yet they are cheating on these low rates!!

[nyquil_man]

8. I remember Bush arguing in 2004 that raising the rate on the top brackets was ineffective

because the rich would just find ways to pay less, which made we wonder why we didn't just raise the rate sky high so that they had no choice but to pay more.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

3. The talking point on the Right when you mention a tax increase on the rich....

They say, "Obama got his tax increase and it failed to create jobs."

[1-Old-Man]

4. Enforcement and collections are down about 10 %

According to Cspan this afternoon.

[Hekate]

5. If this actually happens, I'll be most happy

KnR

[bluedeathray]

6. If they add the word "Troops" to the end, it'll become FATCAT! nt

[quakerboy]

7. “Well first of all, for a criminal practice there has to be a gun. It’s pretty simple.”

as per Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA).

Plus every true Republican knows that Taxes are the true Crime. (cause, see the gubmint has guns and the're stealin yer munies to pay fer abortions and gay weddins and solar panels and crap like that). So by definition, avoiding taxes is no crime, its a patriotic responsibility.