'Dump Trump': Tens of thousands join global march

'Dump Trump': Tens of thousands join global march
Demonstrators arrive on the National Mall in Washington, DC, for the 'Women's March on Washington' on January 21, 2017 (AFP Photo/Andrew CABALLERO-REYNOLDS)

March for Science protesters hit the streets worldwide

March for Science protesters hit the streets worldwide
Thousands of people in Australia and New Zealand on Saturday kicked off the March for Science, the first of more than 500 marches around the globe in support of scienceThousands of people in Australia and New Zealand on Saturday kicked off the March for Science, the first of more than 500 marches around the globe in support of science

Bernie Sanders and the Movement Where the People Found Their Voice

"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) -

“ … Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013.

They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader ..."
"Update on Current Events" – Jul 23, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: The Humanization of God, Gaia, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Benevolent Design, Financial Institutes (Recession, System to Change ...), Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Nuclear Power Revealed, Geothermal Power, Hydro Power, Drinking Water from Seawater, No need for Oil as Much, Middle East in Peace, Persia/Iran Uprising, Muhammad, Israel, DNA, Two Dictators to fall soon, Africa, China, (Old) Souls, Species to go, Whales to Humans, Global Unity,..... etc.)
(Subjects: Who/What is Kryon ?, Egypt Uprising, Iran/Persia Uprising, Peace in Middle East without Israel actively involved, Muhammad, "Conceptual" Youth Revolution, "Conceptual" Managed Business, Internet, Social Media, News Media, Google, Bankers, Global Unity,..... etc.)


Hong Kong's grandpa protesters speak softly but carry a stick

Hong Kong's grandpa protesters speak softly but carry a stick
'Grandpa Wong' is a regular sight at Hong Kong's street battles (AFP Photo/VIVEK PRAKASH)
.
A student holds a sign reading "Don't shoot, listen!!!" during a protest
on June 17, 2013 in Brasilia (AFP, Evaristo)

FIFA scandal engulfs Blatter and Platini

FIFA scandal engulfs Blatter and Platini
FIFA President Sepp Blatter (L) shakes hands with UEFA president Michel Platini after being re-elected following a vote in Zurich on May 29, 2015 (AFP Photo/Michael Buholzer)
"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …

Wall Street's 'Fearless Girl' statue to stay until 2018

Wall Street's 'Fearless Girl' statue to stay until 2018
The " Fearless Girl " statue on Wall Street is seen by many as a defiant symbol of women's rights under the new administration of President Donald Trump (AFP Photo/ TIMOTHY A. CLARY)



“… The Fall of Many - Seen It Yet?

You are going to see more and more personal secrets being revealed about persons in high places of popularity or government. It will seem like an epidemic of non-integrity! But what is happening is exactly what we have been teaching. The new energy has light that will expose the darkness of things that are not commensurate with integrity. They have always been there, and they were kept from being seen by many who keep secrets in the dark. Seen the change yet?

In order to get to a more stable future, you will have to go through gyrations of dark and light. What this means is that the dark is going to be revealed and push back at you. It will eventually lose. We told you this. That's what you're here for is to help those around you who don't see an escape from the past. They didn't get their nuclear war, but everything else is going into the dumper anyway. … “

Search This Blog

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

On the trail of the offshore tax dodgers

BBC News, by Ian Pollock, Personal finance reporter, 13 December 2011 

Related Stories 

Greg Skyte, the man in charge of the search for
offshore tax dodgers
The government's attempts to squeeze more money from offshore tax dodgers is being run from just about the most nondescript set of offices you could possibly imagine.

Based at the back of a tax advice centre in the middle of Birmingham, the Offshore Co-ordination Unit (OCU) is the latest measure of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to tackle offshore tax evasion.

As the name of the OCU suggests, it will try to co-ordinate the Revenue's scrutiny of the extra information it is now receiving on UK taxpayers with money abroad.

That includes data generated by recent tax deals with the Liechtenstein and Swiss governments.

"The information HMRC holds is vast and we hold about 80 times more data than the British Library," says the new unit's boss Greg Skyte.

"It's about getting a grasp on all the data we have. The unit is about placing the right data with the right people and making the best use of the data we have."

Time to confess

The unit's first salvo has been to write to the first 1,000 of about 6,000 UK residents who were recently revealed to own accounts with the HSBC bank in Switzerland.

They will be asked to certify that they do not owe anything to HMRC - or confess that they do.

The betting must surely be that money will soon come in.

The deal struck with the Liechtenstein authorities in 2009 has already flushed out 1,721 people who have voluntarily admitted they hold untaxed money there.

As of March this year they had already paid over an extra £140m.

All that has happened even before the banks in Liechtenstein start writing, next March, to their account holders from the UK.

They will ask those customers to confirm they are in a regular position with the UK authorities, or tell them to close their accounts and take their money elsewhere.

Surely collecting hidden tax from the HSBC customers will now be a piece of cake, given that the UK authorities know their names and addresses, and details of their Swiss bank accounts as well?

Greg Skyte says previous experience suggests it will not be so easy.

"A lot of it [the money] is put through trust structures, there are company structures involved, and numerous individuals who are linked together and it's not always straightforward," he says.

"It is not always immediately apparent who has ownership of that bank account - we have to establish that before we can establish a liability."

Who are they?

It is no surprise to anyone that there are tax dodgers hiding their money offshore.

So what has the Revenue learned about the ones it has been uncovering recently?

"Anecdotally, people are hiding money offshore not necessarily just for tax purposes, the hiding of the tax is a secondary motive for them," says Greg Skyte.

"We do have cases where individuals have simply stashed significant sums offshore, purely for the purpose of keeping it hidden from the rest of their family," he explains.

That does not make it legal, of course.

His colleagues have also come across a few cases where the money has, apparently, originated in attempts to keep cash and assets out of the hands of the Nazis before and during World War II.

"What we have found under the Liechtenstein disclosure facility is that there are quite a number of individuals, some in the Jewish community, who have hidden their investments and assets from the war," Greg Skyte says.

"This has been passed down from generation to generation, and the assets have built up significantly due to the interest and we are finding instances where those assets run from hundreds of thousands to millions of pounds."

What has motivated the owners of all this cash to come clean now, apart from the fact that the Revenue is on to them?

"Those individuals who have now had it passed down to them are now asking if they really have to disclose this income," Greg Skyte explains.

"There are a lot of individuals who are in their twilight years who have had this playing on their conscience for quite a few years, maybe decades, and who want to come forward to put their tax affairs on the right footing before they die so they don't pass their concerns and liabilities to their children."

Thwarted no longer

The OCU's existence is part of the Revenue's grand plan to squeeze an extra £7bn from tax dodgers in the next few years.

Starting with just 25 staff, the Birmingham unit plans to expand to 100 or so in the next few years.

They are using computer programmes to scrutinise existing HMRC data, and numerous databases the Revenue is building with the information now being supplied to it by offshore banks and investment firms.

The Revenue's efforts to claw back potentially hundreds of millions of pounds of uncollected tax were kick-started in 2006.

After years of being thwarted, it finally won a breakthrough legal case, giving it the right to demand that banks operating in the UK reveal the names and addresses of UK customers with accounts offshore.

Since then, vital deals have been struck to exchange individuals' tax information with the governments of Liechtenstein and Switzerland, after both governments caved in under international pressure.

These countries had been two of the world's most notorious tax havens where secrecy had been the watchword of their banks.

As well as overseeing the existing operation of the Liechtenstein "disclosure facility" and the HSBC cases, the OCU will also directly scrutinise the affairs of up to 500 people a year, whose bank details the Revenue will soon be able to request from the Swiss authorities.

Not enough staff

Greg Skyte expects that quite a significant number of people his unit contacts will end up owing nothing to the UK tax authorities.

"Maybe they are not UK resident although they have a UK address, and [then there are] those who are non-domiciled. They may not fall under the UK tax umbrella," he points out.

"Because of their non-domiciled status, provided they hold their investments offshore, and they don't remit any of that income to the UK, they won't be chargeable on that liability."

What if people simply do not respond to a letter from the Revenue, or the UK's tax inspectors don't believe the person's claim that there is nothing to declare?

Greg Skyte says each case will be assessed, and if there is reasonable evidence the person has been less than frank they will receive further scrutiny.

But he admits that his department will not have the staff or resources to, for instance, call in all 6,000 people on the HSBC list for a grilling.

"It just isn't practical to issue letters inviting each and every one of those to come in," he says.

"We don't have the resource, short term, to take forward enquiries on such a scale. But we will ask questions on a significant number of those cases."

That does not mean someone can expect to get away scot-free simply by lying and signing a certificate saying they have no UK tax to pay.

Anyone who responds this way, even if they are not followed up immediately, will find they stay on file, with the information they supplied cross-checked in the future against other records held by both HMRC and foreign tax authorities.


No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.