• ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    The rich use a multiparty trick to stay rich:

    1. Put their money in an offshore account that doesn’t tax them based on wealth in the country. Typically the deal is the managers get some very small amounts, single digit percentages, to charge the customer for moving money in or out of the country. Then they never touch this money again unless it is an emergency.

    2. The rich then use their bank account full of money as collateral for a loan that is much smaller, like a few million borrowed with a secured loan linked to the millions/billions in the account. The banks easily accept the terms because they can’t lose - if the loan defaults the amount is pulled from the account. But the rich usually try to make their payments so that account money isn’t touched.

    3. The rich spend their loaned money and make payments from the dividends, annuities, funds, and/or interest on their principal amount. This way the bank gave the person money that they can spend and it’s not income so they aren’t taxed on it, unless there is a sales tax. It’s basically free money.

    As they spend this free money, the government for the country that they live in doesn’t know how much money the rich person actually has so they are unable to create an accurate amount to tax them. This is partially why folks like Bezos and Buffet pay a few hundred thousand dollars on hundreds of billions in actual wealth. Stock valuations are an entirely other beast but functions roughly the same way as having wealth to borrow money against.

    The rich stays rich and get free money because the banking system was made by them and they are educated by their accountants and financial advisors on how to pay the least amount of money they can to get the most out of each cent.

    • WxFisch@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      In addition, all the secured loans they take make them look on paper as though they are deeply in debt and that debt then is a tax write off. This further lowers their tax brackets so they pay even less. Add to this that in the US at least only income is taxed, all of the stocks, options, and other assets they hold are non-taxable since they aren’t cash; technically their value can (and does) change regularly and they can become worthless just as easily as they can gain value and so it was determined they aren’t income since nothing is realized until they are sold.

      • scaramobo@lemmynsfw.com
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        9 days ago

        This. Why is this system not exploitable by us? What do we need ti make this work for us? Also: if the system is known, why is nothing done about it?

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          It’s not that easy to do something about it. Generally you’re taxed in the country where you earn money, but corporations have options in where they count income and where they count losses, to most benefit them.

          A regular person in the US can’t do this because their employer reports salary income to the IRS as US income. What income do you have that you can claim was earned in a low tax country? Have you done all the legal work and paid appropriate taxes in that country?

          Sometimes you’ll read about repatriating money. How do you legally use that money you have in a low tax country without incurring taxes bringing it back to wherever you are?

          • SL3wvmnas@discuss.tchncs.de
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            5 days ago

            I personally know someone who uses something he calls “Dutch reach-around” and while I’m hazy on the details, I know it starts with some complex setup of a charitable foundation in your home country, with real people and real money and a network of firms and other foundations in the Netherlands that are somehow interwoven. He told me “setup is cheap, only 5 million dollars up front, you can ask my tax attorney for the deets”…

            That was a nice move, but no thank you, this is not the kind of money I have lying around.

            Bonus how us firms do it, I imagine this costs also a lot of money up front…

    • YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca
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      10 days ago

      I believe they also write off as much as they can as income losses to reduce their tax bill. Minimal or no income? No taxes.

      • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
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        9 days ago

        A lot of the expenses are NOT substantiated but limp dick IRS won’t do their fucking job. Same with SEC…

        Useless regime whores

          • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
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            9 days ago

            Amazing how party for the “working people” never deliveres anything for them as if it was designed that way by a regime

  • Nomecks@lemmy.ca
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    9 days ago

    So let’s say you own an insurance company, and you want to offshore all the profits. You establish a reinsurance company in Bermuda to underwrite all your policies and charge your insurance company billions for the privilege. Now it’s a business expense so it doesn’t count as income for the insurance company. You have successfully offshored billions of dollars.

    • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      I’ve worked for big companies before that opened up shell companies in tax havens like Dublin. They literally just moved the payments to there. When they floated it to us, they said hey, we’re just not going to owe taxes anymore. We’ll save billions.

      We all looked as each other and said Jesus that sounds illegal. And yet there it was and it passed muster and they went public and IPO and everything

  • ultranaut@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    There’s law firms that specialize in this sort of thing. If you remember the Panama Papers from a few years ago, those were internal documents from one of these firms. Banks don’t catch on because they like making money and pretending its not happening is often more profitable than calling the cops.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      Why would banks care? If they’re getting a cut they care, otherwise it’s someone else’s business. Usually it’s the tax authorities who would care.

      • SplashJackson@lemmy.ca
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        8 days ago

        Banks were the only ones still able to fuck people over en masse during the pandemic, and oh boy did they know it

    • jeffw@lemmy.world
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      10 days ago

      Just to be clear, it’s not like the bank explicitly says “yeah, we’ll hide your money for x%”

      Banks make money on fees, active management of investments, etc.

  • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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    10 days ago

    First, 99% of it is completely legal. Rich people write the tax laws. It’s only when the money is coming from an illegal source that it becomes a crime and most big criminals know how to get around that.

    • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
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      9 days ago

      While rest of us get get flagged for feds when we want to do something with 9k dollars because it close enough to 10k 🤡

      • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        Isn’t that $9k limit against pure cash deposits? As in an ACH, wire transfer or even old school paper cheque would be fine, but untraceable cash of $9k raises the eyebrows of regulators.

        • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
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          9 days ago

          9k cash aint that much money nowadays…

          But you are correct. I dont think 9k ach transfer would trigger SAR but god for forbid plebs use cash to buy a usef car 🤡

          • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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            9 days ago

            9k cash aint that much money nowadays…

            Where are you getting multiple handfuls of $9k in cash (and you aren’t a cash operating business which don’t apply) that you are running into this as a problem?

              • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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                9 days ago

                Bootlicker 🤡

                You’re creating your own problem, complaining about it, and somehow that’s my fault? If this is your regular pattern, I bet your life is a mess and you have no idea why.

                • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
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                  9 days ago

                  You dont understand what 10k limit is really about and confidentiality bootlicling while at it.

                  I bet your life is a mess and you have no idea why.

                  Pathetic