Reply #22: “Switzerland should very carefully consider whether to provide shelter to someone who is on the run [View All]

[guruoo]

from the law,”

Beyer said he assured the Swiss government that US-Swiss relations would remain friendly.
“Both sides are aware of how close Switzerland and the US are.”

:rofl:




UBS offers put to shame more traditional tax shelters. UBS folks presented to some very receptive Americans ways to avoid paying anything to the IRS, taking advantage of the bank secrecy rules in Switzerland and Lichtenstein.

The one hitch was that the schemes were illegal. But, the UBS folks noted, they had ways to structure transfers from phony Bermuda and Cayman Island accounts to overseas accounts held by shell corporations that were so complex and arcane that U. S. authorities -- mired in confusion -- would give up the chase.

An estimated $20 billion flowed from American clients into UBS tax avoidance schemes in recent years, according to DOJ officials. If, conservatively, just 30 percent of that amount should have been paid in taxes, these scams saved the well-to-do clients of UBS just under $7 billion.

The only problem was that in 2004 a relatively small crack opened up in the scheme. That year, the IRS and the Justice Department found out that Bradley Birkenfeld, a US citizen working for UBS, and Mario Staggl, a Lichtenstein resident, had devised a tax evasion plan for Igor M. Olenicoff, a billionaire California developer.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/23/gimme-shelter-tax-evasion_n_169084.html