Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Links Aug 10

Lawmakers target "shell" companies Wyoming News
Aug 8 - A fascinating development. "Wyoming lawmakers are considering new legislation to crack down on fraudulent businesses in the state. One of the most significant changes would be a new state statute banning "nominee" officers and directors ... Specifically, the bill would make anyone acting as a director or officer of a corporation or a nonprofit group assume all fiduciary duties of the role." Secretary of State Maxfield said the proposed legislation is in "no way" a response to a recent Reuters report that led to increased public scrutiny of the state's policies. Yeah right. Scrutiny works. Let's have a lot more of it.

Italy Tries to Get Tax Cheats to Pay Up New York Times

Aug 8 - On an advertising campaign for Italy’s revenue agency to get Italians to pay taxes, "The point is to increase tax compliance by changing the mentality ... It used to be that tax evaders were seen as crafty, but in a moment of economic crisis, demands have increased for more effective crackdowns to aver the possibility of taxes being raised ... A poll commissioned by the association of Italian Banking Foundations and Savings Banks, released in October, found that 48 percent of Italians said that fighting tax evasion should be the country’s priority for stimulating growth, more important than reducing public spending or lowering taxes.

See also:
Italy’s Tax Evaders Labeled as Parasites taxationinfonews
Aug 9 - "Italy is taking an unconventional approach to battling tax evasion ... Challenging the long-standing public perception in Italian society of tax evaders as “crafty” individuals, the television, radio and billboard advertisements will illustrate tax dodgers in a grotesque caricatural manner as parasites sucking resources from the social system and making no positive contribution to society." Hat tip Alex Marriage.

Ethiopia: Beyond Tax Debate Centred On Estimation- Change of Culture Vital allAfrica.com
Aug 9 - "Noting that culture remains the major culprit in the system, considerable investment should have been allocated to changing traditional attitudes towards paying taxes ... No doubt that the change would demand institutional creativity, which is in short supply at the different levels of the tax authorities."

ColombiaTax exemption for foreign investors has "had its day": Juan Carlos Echeverry Caracol (In Spanish)
Aug 8 - The Minister of Finance and Public Credit has stated that the tool of tax exemptions as an incentive for foreign investors, has now "had its moment". The economy is attracting investment without the need for that privileged arrangement.

Introducing the 2011 deposit crisis FT Alphaville
Aug 5 - On the suggestion that "the next obvious step for the Fed is to declare an official negative interest rate policy, or a national imposed tax on deposits of a certain sum. It’s what Switzerland has already been hinting heavily it will do if the Swiss franc remains “massively overvalued”. And yes, if you think that’s effectively nothing more than a wealth tax on the extremely rich, you’d be extremely right. Unfortunately, it might just be the incentive needed to get hoarded cash circulating through the economy once again."

Who owns the right to catch fish? Land Value Taxation Campaign

Aug 5 - On the right to fish -"It is strange how the government and the people who advise it know so little about the fundamental principles of economics or morality ... It is the same principle that applies to owership of the surface of the earth. In reality it cannot be "owned", but since we have a system of land titles, the next best thing is to make sure that holders of land titles pay for their privilege through a system of land value taxation."

And see they article they refer to:
Who owns the right to catch fish? Manchester United? Guardian

Aug 5 -"It makes absolutely no sense ... that small-scale fishers, with a heritage of genuinely sustainable fishing going back hundreds of years, should be forced to pay quota owners, often quota traders, ever increasing prices to lease the right to catch fish." The identity of these quota owners and traders is shrouded in mystery, as the management of quota fishing rights is not in the public domain ... 'there's a rumour that some is held by Manchester United ... But there's no way of knowing for sure. I do believe that the Royal Bank of Scotland owns some quota, but again, there's really no way to confirm it.' "

Pillaging the American Tax Payer - how it's done. Golem XIV
Aug 10 - "Two headlines which when put together tell the story that the financial press has not seen fit to point out.Headline one from The Wall Street Journal - BofA Sells Part of Mortgage Portfolio to Fannie Mae , Headline two from The Washington Post - Fannie and Freddie ask for $7 billion more ... Now when I put the two together and what I see is BoA being granted another bail out from the tax payer but having it disguised by laundering it through a 'deal' with Fannie Mae." Hat tip The Cynical Tendency.

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