{"id":206484,"date":"2021-06-17T03:26:55","date_gmt":"2021-06-17T03:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/?p=117833"},"modified":"2021-06-17T03:26:55","modified_gmt":"2021-06-17T03:26:55","slug":"nobody-dodges-taxes-like-the-super-rich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/06\/17\/nobody-dodges-taxes-like-the-super-rich\/","title":{"rendered":"Nobody Dodges Taxes Like the Super-Rich"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Biden\u2019s big plans for America rest in part on his plans<\/a> to pay for them by raising taxes on the rich. He wants the top marginal rate restored to 39.6%. He wants households making more than $1 million a year to pay the same rates on capital gains as regular people pay on income from work. He wants to close a loophole that allows appreciated assets to pass tax-free to heirs.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to argue with the president\u2019s focus on the rich. The fiscal pickings are second to none, and polls show that Americans strongly favor his approach. They hugely support<\/a> equal taxes on capital gains, and a solid majority<\/a> don\u2019t believe the rich are paying their fair share.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s just one big problem. No matter what tax increases Biden manages to pass, some of America\u2019s richest families stand a good chance of somehow getting around them. They expect no less from their \u201cmilitia<\/a> of tax attorneys, wealth managers, accountants, trust lawyers and other advisors\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

The militia has its own special name (the Wealth Defense Industry), its own special shorthand (WDI) and its own special job: \u201cto create<\/a> and enrich hereditary dynasties of wealth and power.\u201d The players and the tools of their trade are the subject of a new and infuriating book by Chuck Collins, The Wealth Hoarders: <\/u><\/em>How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions<\/u><\/em>.<\/p>\n

The hoarders have perfected disappearing acts that make Houdini look like a novice. The particulars differ but the aim is always the same, to disguise and minimize how much the rich are really raking in.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at where the trillions are hiding and some of the paperwork that hides them\u2014including an instrument mistakenly created by Congress.<\/p>\n

The list<\/a> of tax havens<\/a> is extra-long, heavy on islands but including<\/a> major countries and cities: the British Virgin Islands, England, Switzerland, Bermuda, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Seychelles (a group of islands in the Indian Ocean), Cyprus, Gibraltar<\/a>, Malta, the Marshall Islands and their coral island neighbor Nauru, Samoa, Mauritius, the Cayman Islands, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, Taiwan, Singapore, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, London, the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, and Puerto Rico<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Wealth Hoarders<\/em> makes the case, though, that the friendliest haven of all is right here at home: \u201cIn the last 10 years, a number of converging factors have led to the United States becoming the No. 1 global destination for hidden wealth and kleptocrat capital. The US is the new Switzerland,\u201d long the gold standard for shielding wealth from taxes.<\/p>\n

An especially noteworthy U.S. haven is the newbie South Dakota, \u201cwhich<\/a> has quietly made itself the world\u2019s leading money haven, crushing former go-to shelters\u2026\u201d Of course, it has plenty of company: \u201cNevada, Alaska, Delaware and other states also participate in this race to the bottom,\u201d routinely obscuring wealth and lowering taxes for the super-rich.<\/p>\n

One popular shelter stems from a Congressional misstep in 1990, the replacement of GRITs (grantor retained income trusts) with GRATs<\/a> (grantor retained annuity trusts). The change eliminated one loophole but, as it turned out, created a bigger one:<\/p>\n

The lawyer Richard Covey, a star member of the Wealth Defense Industry, cleverly figured out that GRATs, in fact, allow the wealthy to avoid estate and gift taxes by \u201crapidly churning assets into and out of trusts.\u201d The IRS tried to end the accounts in 2000 but lost the case to Audrey Walton, a Walmart heir.<\/p>\n

Covey\u2019s flair for tax avoidance is matched by his honesty. GRATs, he admitted, make a mockery of the Tax Code.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no lack of other hideouts, including FLPs (family limited partnerships) and IDGTs (intentionally defective grantor trusts). Measly millions have to go elsewhere; to set up shelters like these<\/a>, individuals need a net worth of $5 million or more and couples twice as much.<\/p>\n

Democrats often rail against shelter abuses, but the idea of cracking down carries its own Catch-22. Major party donors are delighted to use them, and even more delighted to have a Covey of tax professionals keeping them on the books.<\/p>\n

The late Herman Wouk won the Pulitzer Prize for his 1951 novel The Caine Mutiny. He deserves another prize for a single sentence he also gave us<\/a>:\u00a0 \u201cIncome tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same kind of fiction curls the pages of the maddening new book The Wealth Hoarders<\/em><\/p>The post Nobody Dodges Taxes Like the Super-Rich<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.\n


\r\nThis content originally appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a> and was authored by Gerald E. Scorse.
<\/p>\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Biden\u2019s big plans for America rest in part on his plans to pay for them by raising taxes on the rich. He wants the top marginal rate restored to 39.6%. He wants households making more than $1 million a year to pay the same rates on capital gains as regular people pay on income [\u2026]<\/p>\n

The post Nobody Dodges Taxes Like the Super-Rich<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":407,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27398,27150,11947,20203,17180],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206484"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/407"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206484"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206516,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206484\/revisions\/206516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}