pandora papers

<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-pandora-papers-why-does-south-dakota-feature-so-heavily-169291">https://theconversation.com/the-pandora-papers-why-does-south-dakota-feature-so-heavily-169291</a>a <span style="color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: "Libre Baskerville", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;"> trove of confidential documents outlining how global elites squirrel away their wealth to avoid tax has been laid bare in the “<a href="https://www.icij.org/investigations/pandora-papers/" style="color: rgb(56, 56, 56); outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Pandora Papers</a>.”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: "Libre Baskerville", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Consisting of around <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-58780561" style="color: rgb(56, 56, 56); outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">12 million documents</a>, the data was obtained by the <a href="https://www.icij.org/" style="color: rgb(56, 56, 56); outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">International Consortium of Investigative Journalists</a>, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that worked with media organizations around the world to publish details of the leaked information.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: "Libre Baskerville", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">As well as giving an insight into <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/pandora-papers-expose-how-world-leaders-and-the-ultra-rich-move-their-money" style="color: rgb(56, 56, 56); outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">the wealth of world leaders</a>, former presidents and prime ministers, the Pandora Papers reveal how tax havens – including in the the U.S. – are used to hide money from tax authorities. Taxation expert <a href="https://law.vanderbilt.edu/bio/beverly-moran" style="color: rgb(56, 56, 56); outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Beverly Moran of Vanderbilt University</a> walked The Conversation through three takeaways from the leaked documents.<h2 style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 23px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: "Libre Baskerville", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">How the super-rich use tax loopholes</h2><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: "Libre Baskerville", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The Pandora Papers come five years after a similar leak of documents called the “<a href="https://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/" style="color: rgb(56, 56, 56); outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Panama Papers</a>.” Those documents showed how many of the world’s wealthiest people routinely avoided any type of tax by placing their assets in tax havens – nations or jurisdictions with low tax rates.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: "Libre Baskerville", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">In response to the Panama Papers, many countries took measures that made some of the techniques exposed in the Panama Papers obsolete. For example, after decades of offering rich people the greatest bank secrecy in the Western world, the Swiss forced their <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/oliverwilliams1/2019/10/05/secret-banking-secrecy-became-extinct-one-year-ago-today/?sh=51cd79055cb8" style="color: rgb(56, 56, 56); outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">banks to open their books</a>. The latest release also comes amid scrutiny over how little tax some wealthy individuals pay. The intergovernmental Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development recently pushed for <a href="https://www.hklaw.com/en/insights/publications/2021/07/agreement-on-global-tax-reform-what-happened-and-whats-next" style="color: rgb(56, 56, 56); outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">a corporate minimum tax of 15% as another way to attack the tax haven problem</a>.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: "Libre Baskerville", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The Pandora Papers reveal the tactics wealthy people developed to replace the no longer secret means they used in the past. In particular, the Pandora Papers shine a light on the role of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2021/jordan-abdullah-shell-companies-luxury-homes/" style="color: rgb(56, 56, 56); outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">shell companies</a> in making it harder to tax high-net-worth individuals. Included in the leak are documents revealing aspects of the finances of <a href="https://www.axios.com/pandora-papers-politicians-countries-d8ca46fc-8422-4d39-b354-aa1de2a24a9f.html" style="color: rgb(56, 56, 56); outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">hundreds of politicians from 90 countries</a>.<h2 style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 23px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: "Libre Baskerville", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The role of shell companies</h2><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: "Libre Baskerville", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">A <a href="https://apnews.com/article/leaked-pandora-records-show-how-powerful-shield-assets-b31daac39800f6a6423e24465df45ffc" style="color: rgb(56, 56, 56); outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">shell company</a> is a legal entity that exists only on paper. It produces nothing and employs no one. Its value lies in a certificate that sits in a government office.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: "Libre Baskerville", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">With this certificate, the shell company – whose sole purpose is to hold and hide assets – becomes one of a series of Russian dolls, each fit snugly into the next, creating a type of three-card monte in which the taxing authorities can never find assets nor owners. With a series of shell companies, a billionaire can house his or her assets far from the taxman’s prying eyes.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: "Libre Baskerville", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">For the billionaire to avoid the tax, the shell company must reside, for tax purposes, in a tax haven. In the past, that has meant a bank account in the Cayman Islands or Monaco. But as the Pandora Papers show, increasingly it could mean using <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pandora-papers-tax-haven-south-dakota/" style="color: rgb(56, 56, 56); outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">a tax haven in the United States</a>.<h2 style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 23px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: "Libre Baskerville", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">South Dakota as a tax haven</h2><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: "Libre Baskerville", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">South Dakota is mentioned throughout the Pandora Papers because many wealthy people use the state as a tax haven. Indeed, of the 206 U.S.-based trusts identified in the Pandora Papers – which combined hold assets worth more than US$1 billion – 81 <a href="https://www.icij.org/investigations/pandora-papers/us-trusts-offshore-south-dakota-tax-havens/" style="color: rgb(56, 56, 56); outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">are based on South Dakota</a>.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: "Libre Baskerville", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">South Dakota is a particularly good tax haven for a number of reasons. For one thing, it has strong secrecy protections thanks to its <a href="https://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/what-is-a-tax-haven-offshore-finance-explained/" style="color: rgb(56, 56, 56); outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">trust laws</a>, which makes it easy to hide the true ownership of property. Trusts are said to offer some of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/04/pandora-papers-reveal-south-dakotas-role-as-367bn-tax-haven" style="color: rgb(56, 56, 56); outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">most powerful legal protections</a> in the world.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: "Libre Baskerville", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">According to the Pandora Papers, trust-friendly legislation in South Dakota has resulted in <a href="https://www.startribune.com/foreign-money-flows-to-south-dakota/600103699/" style="color: rgb(56, 56, 56); outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">assets in trusts growing fourfold</a> in the state over the past decade to $360 billion.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: "Libre Baskerville", Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">But South Dakota also benefits from the same things all U.S. states have: comparatively strong rule of law, a stable currency and good infrastructure – especially when compared with other known tax havens outside of Europe. A wealthy person can easily fly to the United States, purchase property in the U.S., put assets in American banks and feel secure knowing that his or her contracts will be respected and protected by a stable and transparent legal system.
<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/south-dakota/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/south-dakota/</a>no lnx twt
How 'insanely corrupt' South Dakota became a magnet for the wealth-hoarding megarichBrett Wilkins and Common Dreams October 06, 2021Experts on the wealth-hoarding strategies and subterfuges of the world's superrich are weighing in this week on why "billionaires love South Dakota" after a bombshell report revealed that the Republican-led state is a leading global destination for plutocratic tax cheats.One of the biggest revelations in the Pandora Papers—a gargantuan cache of nearly 12 million documents revealing the hidden wealth and secret dealings of hundreds of the world's wealthiest people, published Sunday by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)—is just how much of a fortune-magnet South Dakota has become.Drawn by low taxes and some of the nation's most generous trust laws, "shady billionaires from around the world are going to South Dakota," said Chuck Collins, author of The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions, and co-editor of Inequality.org at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS).As a result, the Mount Rushmore State "now rivals Switzerland, Panama, the Cayman Islands, and other famous tax havens as a premier venue for the international rich seeking to protect their assets from local taxes or the authorities," The Guardian reports.Writing for Common Dreams Monday, Collins further explained:Findings suggest that South Dakota has sheltered billions in wealth linked to wealthy individuals previously accused of serious financial crimes and labor violations. Two examples: Brazilian orange juice baron Horst Happel was fined $88 million in 2016 for underpaying his workers. In 2017, he moved substantial wealth to a trust in South Dakota. Carlos Morales Troncoso was the former vice president of the Dominican Republic. He ran a sugar company called Central Romana... that was accused of human rights violations. He set up trusts for his daughters in the Bahamas that were moved, after his death, to South Dakota.Vehicles including granter-attained annuity trusts (GRATs) and so-called "dynasty trusts"—through which wealth can be sequestered for generations, even centuries—attract the über-rich to South Dakota by design.Suzanne Garment, author of Scandal: The Culture of Mistrust in American Politics, wrote for NBC News Tuesday that "spurred by economic need," South Dakota has become "a leader in abolishing the rule against perpetuities—the old doctrine that limits the lifespan of a trust. One version of the rule says a trust must vest—that is, it must distribute its assets—within a stated amount of time.""But not in South Dakota," she continued. "In South Dakota today, a trust can last, well, forever. The state couples this permissive regime with strict secrecy. As opposed to records in states like New York, court documents relating to South Dakota trusts are permanently private: Even the existence of such a trust is not public.""As a result, it is virtually impossible to discover who has established a South Dakota trust, who benefits from it, or whether legal challenges to it have been filed," Garment added.Collins is calling on Congress to address the issue."Lawmakers should act at the federal level to shut down or discourage the formation of dynasty trusts and GRATs for the purposes of tax avoidance and dynastic succession," he said. "Actions could include the passage of a federal 'rule against perpetuities,' banning certain trust arrangements, and taxing income and wealth in trusts."South Dakota isn't the only place in the United States where the rich are hiding their treasures. Other U.S. states named in the Pandora Papers include Delaware, Florida, Nevada, and Texas."The world is going to be looking at us differently after the Pandora Papers," said Collins. "They're going to see that the United States is the weak link now in the system of global financial transparency."===1021 an?the leak of an <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/10/03/pandora-papers-biggest-ever-bombshell-leak-exposes-financial-secrets-super-rich" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">enormous trove</a> of tax haven files over the weekend offered a further glimpse into the secretive world of offshore finance—a system facilitated by the U.S. and other rich nations—and prompted calls for immediate changes to global rules that let the powerful hide their wealth, skirt their obligations, and starve governments of crucial revenue."This is where our missing hospitals are," Susana Ruiz, the tax policy lead at Oxfam International, said in a <a href="https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/where-our-missing-hospitals-are-oxfam-reaction-new-expose-secretive-tax-havens" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">statement</a>. "This is where the pay-packets sit of all the extra teachers and firefighters and public servants we need. Whenever a politician or business leader claims there is 'no money' to pay for climate damage and innovation, for more and better jobs, for a fair post-Covid recovery, for more overseas aid, they know where to look.""Tax havens cost governments around the world $427 billion each year," Ruiz added. "That is the equivalent of a nurse's yearly salary every second of every hour, every day. Ordinary taxpayers have to pick up the pieces. Developing countries are being hardest hit, proportionately. Corporations and the wealthiest individuals that use tax havens are out-competing those who don't. Tax havens also help crime and corruption to flourish."Like the 2016 <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/05/09/panama-papers-goes-live-searchable-database-tax-evaders" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Panama Papers</a>, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists' (ICIJ) <a href="https://www.icij.org/investigations/pandora-papers/about-pandora-papers-investigation/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Pandora Papers</a> shine additional light on the functioning of a "shadow economy" that world leaders, celebrities, and billionaire business moguls—including some accused of egregious crimes—are exploiting to shield trillions of dollars in assets from transparency and taxation.The 11.9 million files obtained, analyzed, and leaked by the ICIJ reveal the closely-guarded financial maneuverings of more than 330 politicians and top public officials from nearly 100 countries and territories, including dozens of current national leaders."The secret documents expose offshore dealings of the King of Jordan, the presidents of Ukraine, Kenya, and Ecuador, the prime minister of the Czech Republic, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair," ICIJ notes in a <a href="https://www.icij.org/investigations/pandora-papers/global-investigation-tax-havens-offshore/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">summary</a> of its sprawling cache of documents. "The files also detail financial activities of Russian President Vladimir Putin's 'unofficial minister of propaganda' and more than 130 billionaires from Russia, the United States, Turkey, and other nations."The trove also links prominent athletes, models, and artists to offshore assets, including India's famous cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, pop music star Shakira, and supermodel Claudia Schiffer.But Alex Cobham, chief executive of the Tax Justice Network, <a href="https://taxjustice.net/2021/10/03/pandora-papers-shows-transparency-failure-is-an-accountability-failure/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">cautioned</a> that a narrow focus on the individuals who have made use of an international tax system rigged in their favor diverts attention from the institutions and countries that have done the rigging."These personal actions are shameful and will no doubt come under great scrutiny in the coming days, but it's important that we don't lose sight of one crucial fact: few of the individuals had any role in turning the global tax system into an ATM for the superrich," Cobham wrote in a <a href="https://taxjustice.net/2021/10/03/pandora-papers-shows-transparency-failure-is-an-accountability-failure/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">blog post</a> on Sunday. "That honor goes to the professional enablers—banks, law firms, and accountants—and the countries that facilitate them."Cobham observed that the Pandora Papers—the product of a nearly two-year investigation by more than 600 journalists in 117 countries and territories—confirm that the United States is "the world's biggest peddler of financial secrecy.""The biggest blockers to transparency are the U.S. ... and the U.K., the leader of the world's biggest tax haven network," Cobham wrote. "We need full transparency so we can hold tax abusers accountable, especially when our politicians are among them. U.S. President Biden must match his own rhetoric on shutting down global illicit finance, and start with the biggest offender—his own country."<div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1f7b5d90893f18fb83b631d128066bb5" id="f9131" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="rm-embed-container rm-embed-twitter rm-loaded" style="position: relative; max-width: 550px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><div class="rm-embed-holder" style="height: 462px; width: 550px; display: flex; align-items: start; position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px;"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px !important; display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 550px;">As the ICIJ notes, the new files show in some detail "how the United States, in particular, has become an increasingly attractive destination for hidden wealth, although the U.S. and its Western allies condemn smaller countries for allowing the flow of money and assets tied to corruption and crime.""The Pandora Papers include documents from 206 U.S. trusts in 15 states and Washington, D.C., and 22 U.S. trustee companies," the ICIJ <a href="https://www.icij.org/investigations/pandora-papers/about-pandora-papers-investigation/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">points out</a>. "The documents provide details about the movement of hundreds of millions of dollars from offshore havens in the Caribbean and Europe into South Dakota, a sparsely populated American state that has become a major destination for foreign money.""We in the U.S. should be embarrassed that we've become a magnet for kleptocratic funds," said Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies.Conspicuously absent from the Pandora Papers is any mention of the wealthiest people in the U.S., including Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, and Jeff Bezos—the richest man in the world. But as the Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2021/pandora-papers-offshore-finance/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">explains</a>, that could be because "the uber-rich in the United States tend to pay such low tax rates that they have less incentive to seek offshore havens."In response to the Pandora Papers revelations, Oxfam called on world governments to crack down on tax havens by taking a number of steps, including:<ol class="ee-ol" style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 40px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li>Ending tax secrecy on individuals, offshores, and multinational corporations. Set up a public register on the real owners of bank accounts, trusts, shell companies, and assets. Require multinational corporations to publicly report their accounts where they do business, country-by-country.</li><li>Increasing the use of automatic exchange, allowing revenue authorities access to information they need to track the money.</li><li>Ending corporate profit shifting to tax havens via new rules, and by setting a global minimum tax under the OECD's BEPS deal, ideally of around 25%.</li><li>Agreeing a global blacklist of tax havens and taking counter measures, including sanctions, to limit their use.</li><li>Setting a new global agenda on taxing wealth and capital fairly; addressing tax competition between countries on high-net-worth-individuals, either on income or wealth, against agreed standards.</li></ol>"Governments' promises to end tax havens are still a long way from being realized," said Ruiz. "We cannot allow tax havens to continue to stretch global inequality to breaking point while the world experiences the largest increase in extreme poverty in decades."</div></div></div></div>