Companies spend 50 percent of their time making money and the other 50 percent trying to keep that money. Governments around the world have trouble trying to tax companies whom hold all their money offshore. Tucked away in hidden banks far from the homeland, companies and organizations use this to evade taxes and commit fraud.
The Panama Papers are a series of anonymous papers released to a German newspaper that revealed transactions that date back as far as the 1970s that described how companies concealed money from public scrutiny.
This greed is the reason for thousands of economic issues in the United States alone.
There were over 2.6 terabytes of confidential information that provided more than 214,000 offshore banks listed by a provider, Mossack Fonseca. Mossack Fonseca is a corporate service provider that started in 1986 and is located in Panama City, Panama.
Mossack Fonseca is a tax haven that represents five to 10 percent of the global shell company market, The Economist. The Panama Papers revealed several heads of state from countries such as Argentina, Iceland, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates. Mossack allowed many important government officials around the world to hide income from prying eyes.
Companies that operate within a given territory have an obligation to pay. You can’t just say I do want to, even when you have millions and millions of dollars.
Taxation helps fund federal programs that help millions of underprivileged and impoverished individuals. By foregoing taxes, companies are pushing the economy into the gutter. People have a tendency to try and find ways to game the system, and try to increase their gains. By bypassing the system to an offshore bank, companies can avoid taxes, prosecution and federal intervention.
Though no Americans have been named specifically in the U.S. so far, we are not exempt from such financial foul play. In the U.S. it is fairly easy to create a shell company. This makes tax evasion extremely simple and interferes with how the U.S. economy works.
The federal government is making it easy to cheat at their own game. We allow people to steal and take what isn’t theirs. The money that they keep could help out an infinite amount of people. Many federal programs such as social security and free college would be completely viable options if everyone pitched in. Millionaires make more and the poor have to steal just like the rich – not to have a nicer car but to be able to eat.
If everyone gave then everyone could succeed.
The panama papers show one of the many flaws in the American banking system, and that several people, even important government officials around the world, have found and continue to abuse this loophole.
If we want to expand as a country and to fix our economy, we need to stop companies from starting shell organization and from banking offshore. Though this might not solve the problem, and humans can always find a way to get around their responsibilities, it does give us a shot at fixing America.
We live in the land of the free and the home of the brave – not the land of the poor and the home of greed.
If those with great wealth don’t want to help make America great then we must force them to, because without out taxes how would we have police, fireman or the DPS. Truly the most American thing you can do is pay your taxes.
Teddy Edwards • Apr 17, 2016 at 4:51 pm
THE PREMISE OF YOUR OPINION IS FALSE.
Large corporations don’t actually pay taxes. At least not in the usual sense.
Corporate profits are taxable. But corporations either build in the taxes into their products or services so they are not “out” any money, or
The Corporation will simply cut jobs within the corporation — usually lower-paying and less essential ones –to make up for the taxes (if they didn’t already build the tax amount into the prices of their product or service).
Or the Corporation will cut the number of hours of employees to make up for the loss in corporate profits from an unexpected high tax amount.
Or the Corporation will cut back on the more expensive ingredients of their product to make up for the pending tax loss it faces. Or it cuts back on the number or types of services it will offer the consumer to make up for the tax loss it is facing. Which can make it less competitive, which hurts the economy.
Or the Corporation will simply raise it’s prices for it’s services or product and the consumer will pay the difference.
If you learn nothing else in college or university, learn this:
Corporations do not pay taxes in any meaningful sense of the word “pay”.
Teddy Edwards • Apr 17, 2016 at 4:51 pm
THE PREMISE OF YOUR OPINION IS FALSE.
Large corporations don’t actually pay taxes. At least not in the usual sense.
Corporate profits are taxable. But corporations either build in the taxes into their products or services so they are not “out” any money, or
The Corporation will simply cut jobs within the corporation — usually lower-paying and less essential ones –to make up for the taxes (if they didn’t already build the tax amount into the prices of their product or service).
Or the Corporation will cut the number of hours of employees to make up for the loss in corporate profits from an unexpected high tax amount.
Or the Corporation will cut back on the more expensive ingredients of their product to make up for the pending tax loss it faces. Or it cuts back on the number or types of services it will offer the consumer to make up for the tax loss it is facing. Which can make it less competitive, which hurts the economy.
Or the Corporation will simply raise it’s prices for it’s services or product and the consumer will pay the difference.
If you learn nothing else in college or university, learn this:
Corporations do not pay taxes in any meaningful sense of the word “pay”.
Teddy Edwards • Apr 17, 2016 at 4:51 pm
THE PREMISE OF YOUR OPINION IS FALSE.
Large corporations don’t actually pay taxes. At least not in the usual sense.
Corporate profits are taxable. But corporations either build in the taxes into their products or services so they are not “out” any money, or
The Corporation will simply cut jobs within the corporation — usually lower-paying and less essential ones –to make up for the taxes (if they didn’t already build the tax amount into the prices of their product or service).
Or the Corporation will cut the number of hours of employees to make up for the loss in corporate profits from an unexpected high tax amount.
Or the Corporation will cut back on the more expensive ingredients of their product to make up for the pending tax loss it faces. Or it cuts back on the number or types of services it will offer the consumer to make up for the tax loss it is facing. Which can make it less competitive, which hurts the economy.
Or the Corporation will simply raise it’s prices for it’s services or product and the consumer will pay the difference.
If you learn nothing else in college or university, learn this:
Corporations do not pay taxes in any meaningful sense of the word “pay”.
Teddy Edwards • Apr 17, 2016 at 4:51 pm
THE PREMISE OF YOUR OPINION IS FALSE.
Large corporations don’t actually pay taxes. At least not in the usual sense.
Corporate profits are taxable. But corporations either build in the taxes into their products or services so they are not “out” any money, or
The Corporation will simply cut jobs within the corporation — usually lower-paying and less essential ones –to make up for the taxes (if they didn’t already build the tax amount into the prices of their product or service).
Or the Corporation will cut the number of hours of employees to make up for the loss in corporate profits from an unexpected high tax amount.
Or the Corporation will cut back on the more expensive ingredients of their product to make up for the pending tax loss it faces. Or it cuts back on the number or types of services it will offer the consumer to make up for the tax loss it is facing. Which can make it less competitive, which hurts the economy.
Or the Corporation will simply raise it’s prices for it’s services or product and the consumer will pay the difference.
If you learn nothing else in college or university, learn this:
Corporations do not pay taxes in any meaningful sense of the word “pay”.