Little House on the Prairie
There is an address in Cheyenne, Wyoming -- 2710 Thomes Avenue -- where 2,000 companies are based. But it is not a skyscraper. Or even an office complex. It is a basic, 1,700-square-foot brick house. And it is the subject of an investigative report by Reuters called "A Little House of Secrets on the Great Plains." One of the reporters on the project, Brian Grow, says it looks like a typical home -- until you go inside. "Lo and behold, the corporate suites for the companies that are registered at that address are in fact cubbyhole mailboxes, floor to ceiling in the main room," Grow tells Guy Raz, host of All Things Considered.
http://www.npr.org/2011/07/02/137573513/shell-game-2-000-firms-based-in-one-simple-house
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Secrets of Swiss Success
The United States and Switzerland are in talks on a deal that would let several Swiss and European banks join a common settlement and avoid US prosecution for helping wealthy Americans dodge taxes, persons briefed on the matter said. As part of the agreement, the banks would pay a fine, exit their undeclared offshore banking businesses for Americans, and turn over client names to the Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department. The US agencies would drop an ongoing investigation into the banks.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/10/us-usa-taxes-swiss-idUSTRE75940920110610
The ABCD Four
The world's four largest grain traders, responsible for the vast majority of global corn, soya, and wheat trading and processing, have been accused of large-scale tax evasion in a landmark series of cases being brought against them by the Argentinian government. With the global food system and who controls it under intense scrutiny because of record prices, the legal battle with the "ABCD four," as they are known, has taken on heightened significance. Ricardo Echegaray, director of Argentina's revenue and customs service, Afip, has given a detailed account of the charges his department is bringing against ADM, Bunge, Cargill, and Louis Dreyfus. "These companies have gone into criminality," Echegaray said. "2008 was when agricultural commodities prices spiked and was the best year for them in prices, yet we could see that the companies with the biggest sales showed very little profit in this country." Echegaray said he had evidence from his detailed inquiry that all four traders had submitted false declarations of sales and routed profits through tax havens or their headquarters, in contravention of Argentinian tax law. He also alleged they had on occasion used phantom firms to buy grain. He further alleged that they had inflated costs in Argentina to reduce taxable profits or claim tax credits there.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jun/01/argentina-accuses-grain-traders-tax-evasion/print
The Angry Rich
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Anger is sweeping America. True, this white-hot rage is a minority phenomenon, but the angry minority is angry indeed, consisting of people who feel that things to which they are entitled are being taken away. And they are out for revenge. I am talking about the rich. If you want to find real political rage — the kind of rage that makes people compare President Obama to Hitler, or accuse him of treason — you will find it among the very privileged, people who are outraged, outraged, at the thought of paying modestly higher taxes.
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