I’ve posted here before on the UBS controversy in which the U. S. government is putting the arm on Swiss bank UBS for encouraging rich Americans to hide their income in Swiss bank accounts (with UBS, natch). One of the fascinating things about the case is that it’s a scandal on both sides of the Atlantic for completely different reasons.
Here we see it as scandalous that Americans are evading taxes. In Switzerland they see it as scandalous that the U. S. would violate Swiss sovereignty by going after UBS and compromising the sacrosanct bank accounts. Tax evasion isn’t a crime in Switzerland.
Rather than the 52,000 originally mentioned, the U. S. has settled for UBS fingering 4,500:
Wealthy tax cheats prize the privacy of the offshore bank that hides their identity – and their money. But in a landmark deal announced this week, the US and Swiss governments are using that same tool of secrecy to flush out suspected American tax dodgers. The irony towers like the Alps.
When both governments explained their agreement on Aug. 19, they withheld enough details to keep US tax evaders guessing: Am I one of the 4,450 account holders at Swiss banking giant UBS whose identities will be turned over to US authorities?
That unknown will hopefully push US tax evaders to voluntarily fess up and pay up before a Sept. 23 deadline in a general leniency program. Such self-reporting may hurt their bottom line, but it will spare them jail time and a lifetime of guilt.
It will be interesting to see how this unfolds. I’m definitely looking forward to the FOIA requests that are likely to materialize. Shall we start a pool on how many U. S. Senators are among the 4,450?
Oh, where or where will tax evaders hide their money now?
I have no pity for the Swiss on this. The same laws and practices that protect tax cheats today protected Nazis.
There are plenty of places: Singapore, the Caribbean. My guess is that those are next on the hit list.
This case with UBS was particularly egregious. U. S. citizens were being solicited in the United States from branches located in the United States.
Sigh, as the man said, the very poor and the very rich never seem to have enough money.
On the Swiss, I think I’ll defer to Harry Lyme:
“Don’t be so gloomy. After all it’s not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love – they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. So long Holly.”
Wonder what Harry’d say now?
Bye the bye, anyone think Rowling has Swiss bankers in mind when she came up with Gringotts Wizarding Bank? The Gnomes of Zurich and so forth.
Tax evasion by a sitting U.S. Senator, or even a former Senator is not a crime. Same for Representatives and Presidents.
Sure it is, Steve. You just can’t prosecute them until after they’re out of office.
“You just can’t prosecute them until after they’re out of office.”
Why is that? Or was a smiley missed?
Harrison Arlington “Pete” Williams, Jr. (December 10, 1919 – November 17, 2001) was a Democrat who represented New Jersey in both the United States House of Representatives (1953-1957) and the United States Senate (1959-1982). Williams was convicted in 1980 for taking bribes in the Abscam sting operation, and resigned from the U.S. Senate in 1982 before a planned expulsion vote.
U. S. Constitution Article I Section 6:
Continuous session means that Congressmen can’t be prosecuted (other than for treason, felony—which means something different in this context than you might think, or breach of the peace) until they’re out of office.
I’m guessing an over/under of 1 mainly because most Senators don’t make enough money while in office to go through the hassle of hiding it, and the pre-election scrutiny should be high enough to deter individuals with numbered Swiss bank accounts from running in the first place.
I bet that we’ll see half a dozen retired US senators in the UBS group though, as they’ll have had enough cash and income to make it worth the effort to hide.
This might be illuminating. Senators make a lot during their term of office. Some senators have gone into the Senate as paupers and left as millionaires.
I was being sarcastic in that I fully expect any U.S. politicians at the federal level on the list to go off the list. They are our rulers, our political class, they are above us.