Report: World's rich hide at least $21T offshore
North West Point in April, 2008, in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. / David Rogers/Getty Images
(CBS News) With about 55,000 inhabitants, the Cayman Islands should not be a well-known name to the rest of the world, but the tiny Caribbean territory has become famous as a tax haven for the world's super rich. According to a new report, the Caymans - along with the other dozen or so international havens for wealth like Switzerland and Bermuda - are the holders of so much of the world's capital, entire regional economies could be moved on it.
The Tax Justice Network has just released a report estimating that the world's tax havens house anywhere from $21 trillion to $32 trillion in money that governments cannot tax.
"This offshore economy is large enough to have a major impact on estimates of inequality of wealth and income; on estimates of national income and debt ratios; and - most importantly - to have very significant negative impacts on the domestic tax bases of 'source' countries," James Henry, the report's author and a former chief economist at consultancy McKinsey told the Guardian.
The problem of money leaving countries to avoid the tax man is not just reserved for the world's economic powers. The amount that has left developing countries for tax havens could have been more than enough to pay off their debts to the rest of the world, The Guardian reports. About $800 billion has left Russia since the early 1990s.
As staggering as the large sum of money hiding offshore is, only a relatively small number of people are holding it. Henry estimates that just 92,000 people, or about .0001 percent of the world's population, owns about $9.8 trillion of it.
Additionally, as governments the world-over struggle with inadequate tax revenues, the problem appears to be getting worse. The last time there was an estimate of the amount of money hiding in offshore accounts in 2005, The Wall Street Journal reports the figure was around $11.5 trillion.
Popular on MoneyWatch
- Reverse cell phone lookup service is free and simple
- Chrysler expected to make Jeep recall refusal official
- 6 ways to pay off your student loans
- Chrysler agrees to recall of Jeeps at risk of fire
- Why geniuses don't have jobs
- The Internship: 6 real-life lessons from the movie
- Top 10 professional life coaching myths
- Chrysler continues its refusal to issue a Jeep recall
According to this article "just 92,000 people, or about .0001 percent of the world's population, owns about $9.8 trillion of it." that comes out to somewhere around 10.65 Billion each for the .0001% that controls this money that is hidden from income tax collectors around the world. While these same people and corporations are seeking LOWER taxes. Why in the world would this first group think that they need MORE money? This is the clasic case of greed begets greed. These poor rich folks just never get enough cash, and they are wanting us hardworking Americans to add to their coffers by paying thier "fair share" of taxes too? I say when "Hell freezes over", and they are "cooling" thier heels there, maybe, again only maybe!
The second group:
There are many billionares who donate big bucks to worthy causes, year in and year out. Most without fanfare or boasting about their philanthrophy on a such huge scale. These wealthy benefactors pay their taxes, and look to help those in need. This second group has absolutely nothing in common with the first group that moves money overseas to avoid paying their taxes. This second group is truly thankful for living in a country where their dreams could become reality and have made them a huge fortunes. The first group is all about greed and self interests. The first group is the kind of people who will try to buy a candidate for president, to further their goals of having a lot more money than they have now. Think the Koch brothers, and other billionare republican donors. They are donating to Romney and the GOP because they want more money, not to see everyone in the USA doing well with good paying jobs, in fact they are disowning the poor, the disabled and the aged. No health care, no medicare no social security. They just could not care less about others, and seek power and more wealth because they think they deserve it.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48289598/ns/business-us_business/#.UA4HA2HY8dU
nottblu: "More class warfare..."
LOL! More of the conservatroll's political rhetoric, with their inability to understand that the plutocrats have been waging this class WARfare since at least 1981, with their endless "supply-side economic insanity," and the republican WAR on the middle class!
a new report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group states that many of the biggest U.S. companies who took advantage of government bailouts or rely on government contracts regularly hide their money from the IRS in overseas tax havens.
Overall, the U.S. loses approximately $100 billion in tax revenues every year as corporations and individuals shelter their fortunes in foreign bank accounts.
Some of the report's key findings include:
In 2010, making up for this lost revenue cost the average U.S. tax filer $434. That's enough money to feed a family of four for three weeks.
The taxpayers who pick up the largest share of the tab live in Delaware and New Jersey. On average, tax filers in those states paid an additional $920 and $752, respectively.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503983_162-20054892-503983.html
LOL! Apparently reading comprehension is not your strong suit, since it came from a new report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
In 2010, making up for this lost revenue cost the average U.S. tax filer $434.
What a hypocrite....screeching about high deficits, yet the U.S. loses approximately $100 billion in tax revenues every year as corporations and individuals shelter their fortunes in foreign bank accounts.