Saturday, May 11, 2013
Rand Paul thinks we are too mean to offshore tax evaders
Rand Paul, spawn of noted opportunity Libertarian Ron Paul, is continuing his fight on behalf of Americans who use offshore banks to carry on their tax evasion schemes.
Late Tuesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) introduced a bill that would repeal part of a law aimed at fighting offshore tax evasion.No, not at all. It is just being fair to legitimate tax evaders who might be found to have done something illegal if the law goes into effect. Sometimes it is hard to believe he was the product of the fastest sperm.
The law, called the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, was passed in 2010 and is supposed to go into effect on January 1, 2014. It requires foreign financial institutions to report information about Americans with accounts worth more than $50,000 to the IRS. Firms that don't comply will be fined.
Tax policy watch dogs say the FATCA is essential to rooting out tax cheats. "The increased bilateral exchange of taxpayer information that...[is] crucial to cleaning up the worldwide shadow financial system," Heather Lowe, director of government affairs for the advocacy organization Global Financial Integrity told Accounting Today earlier this month. "[F]oreign financial institutions should not harbor the illicit assets of U.S. tax evaders."
But Paul's bill to weaken the law was immediately hailed as "heroic" by the biggest independent financial advisory firm in the world. In an email press release from the deVere group, chief executive Nigel Green said, "Senator Paul’s heroic stance against this toxic, economy-damaging tax act is a landmark moment in the mission to have it repealed. He has taken a courageous stand against FATCA, [a law that] will impose unnecessary costs and burdens on foreign financial institutions."
Paul, generally a die-hard anti-taxer, says the intent of his bill "is not to disrupt legitimate tax enforcement."
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