Tax Evasion

Big Company With Ties to White House Paid No Taxes; GE Also Got Corporate Welfare and Bailout on Special Terms

by Hans Bader on March 27, 2011

in Bailout Watch, Economy, Energy, Environment, Stimulus to Nowhere

“The top corporate tax rate in the United States is 35 percent, one of the highest in the world,” but General Electric, whose CEO was recently tapped to lead President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, pays no taxes at all, reported the New York Times.

The company reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, and said $5.1 billion of the total came from its operations in the United States.  Its American tax bill? None. In fact, G.E. claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion.

This negative tax rate is the product of lobbying aimed mostly at liberal lawmakers. “G.E. has spent tens of millions of dollars to push for changes in tax law,” such as “‘green energy’ credits for its wind turbines.” “Since 2002, the company has eliminated a fifth of its work force in the United States while increasing overseas employment.”

In his State of the Union address, President Obama called for even more spending on forms of energy that benefit GE.  Government energy spending and tax credits disproportionately benefit GE, which recently spent  $65.7 million on lobbying to get government subsidies.

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“How ACORN Destroyed the Housing Market”

by Hans Bader on November 16, 2009

in Bailout Watch, Economy, Legal, Personal Liberty, Politics as Usual, Precaution & Risk, Sanctimony

Federal affordable-housing mandates were a major factor in the mortgage crisis, fueling the housing bubble and the subsequent collapse of the housing and financial markets, which helped bring down the economy.  Even the liberal Village Voice has admitted that.  Who drafted those awful mandates?  ACORN, reports the Washington Examiner, in “How ACORN Destroyed the Housing Market.”

How did ACORN cause the “housing bubble” and “financial collapse”?  ACORN lobbyists drafted “affordable-housing” mandates to pressure the mortgage giants to buy up more risky loans and mortgages from low-income communities, loans that banks in turn were pressured to make by the Community Reinvestment Act, explains The Wall Street Journal.

ACORN also helped spawn the mortgage crisis by promoting “liar loans.”   It has a long history of  financial fraud, vote fraud, tax evasion, waste, and mismanagement.

Lawmakers and the Obama administration have studiously ignored ACORN’s role in spawning the financial crisis, because many liberal lawmakers have long had close ties to ACORN.  ACORN is a left-wing group that launched Obama’s career as a community organizer.  (ACORN stands for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.)  Obama has long-standing ties to ACORN, and an ACORN affiliate received received $800,000 from Obama’s campaign.

In recent months, lawmakers distanced themselves from ACORN, and cut off its federal housing funds, after it was caught on videotape in a child prostitution promotion scandal.  (ACORN is now suing the federal government in court, to force it to resume funding ACORN.  Earlier, it sued the private citizens who exposed its role in the scandal for $2 million).

However, in the long run, ACORN is likely to continue to benefit from its close ties to liberal lawmakers and the administration.  Entities related to ACORN stand to reap millions from Obama’s financial regulation proposals and health-care reform proposals.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration is busy promoting the junky, risky mortgages that fueled the housing bubble, showing that it has learned nothing from history.  One result is that the Federal Housing Administration, which is making many such loans, has gone into a “nose dive” and may need a multibillion-dollar taxpayer bailout, reports the Washington Post.

Obama wants to create a bureaucracy called the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. “The agency would be in charge of enforcing the Community Reinvestment Act, a law that prods banks to make loans in low-income communities.” The Community Reinvestment Act was a key contributor to the financial crisis.  Yet Obama’s plan would empower the CFPA to enforce the Community Reinvestment Act without regard for banks’ financial safety and soundness.

The mortgage crisis was also caused by the reckless government-sponsored mortgage giants (”GSEs”) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and by federal affordable-housing mandates.

But Obama’s proposed financial rules overhaul does absolutely nothing about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, admits Obama’s Treasury Secretary, tax cheat Timothy Geithner, even though he admits that “Fannie and Freddie were a core part of what went wrong in our system.”

Worse, Obama’s plan is “largely the product of extensive conversations” with two lawmakers responsible for the corrupt status quo, Chris Dodd and Barney Frank, and it expands the reach of regulations that have been used by left-wing groups to extort pay-offs from banks.

Recently, the administration got rid of the inspector general for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, after making Freddie Mac run up $30 billion in losses from the Obama administration’s mortgage bailouts, which bailed out even high-income borrowers who irresponsibly mismanaged their finances.  Earlier, Obama fired an inspector general, Gerald Walpin, who uncovered misuse of funds by a prominent Obama backer, smearing the inspector general with allegations that turned out to be false.

Yet Another ACORN Scandal

by Hans Bader on September 23, 2009

in Healthcare, Legal, Politics as Usual, Sanctimony

ACORN, which had its housing funds cut-off by Congress over a recent scandal, is now embroiled in a tax-evasion scandal, reports the Washington Times.

ACORN has long received taxpayer money despite a history of financial fraud and voter registration fraud.  ACORN helped spawn the mortgage crisis by promoting “liar loans.”

ACORN is a left-wing group that launched Obama’s career as a community organizer.  He has long-standing ties to ACORN, and an ACORN affiliate received received $800,000 from Obama’s campaign.

ACORN stands to profit greatly from Obama’s financial-regulation proposals, which would strengthen the Community Reinvestment Act  (The Community Reinvestment Act is extremely harmful to banks and prudent lending, pressuring banks to make risky, low-income loans).  Its affiliates and related entities would also likely profit from Obama’s health-care plan.

UBS and IRS reach an “agreement”

by Gary Howard on August 13, 2009 · 1 comment

in International, Legal, Personal Liberty

Yesterday my colleague at CEI, John Berlau, released a statement about the recently announced deal between Swiss bank UBS and the IRS.  It is being reported that the bank may end up turning over at least a portion of the over 50,000 names just to get the U.S. off its back.  As it seems, any agreement reached in this case will be the result of UBS being bullied by the IRS to divulge its customers names simply because it says so.  The potential slippery slope is evident.  In this scenario, the Federal government can persuade foreign companies to ignore the laws of their home nations basically by force.  Berlau makes the point that I have  been making in all of my blog posts on this issue, that advocates of civil liberties:

“should be alarmed by the U.S. government’s sweeping disregard of privacy interests in its demands to the Swiss”

These actions by Federal authorities are setting a bad precedent for the privacy of American citizens.  When the government can demand to know every detail of your financial life, what is there to stop it from exerting control over it? In addition, as I have said in past posts (and here), the disregard for the sovereignty of fellow nations exhibited by these demands is also concerning.  I agree with Berlau in his assessment that being in a similar situation, the U.S. might not be so willing to allow American companies to ignore its laws in order to acquiesce to another nation’s demands.

If  UBS stood firm by making an agreement that doesn’t violate Swiss law or the privacy rights of those U.S. citizens,  maybe long-standing privacy protections will hold up for now.  But it is doubtful this is the case.  It is more likely that UBS has capitulated, at least to a degree, and the slope begins to slide into scary territory.  Unfortunately, some will frame this in class warfare terms, and declare that we should have no sympathy for folks with secret Swiss bank accounts.  Because its unfair, accordng to the feds, that they are cheating and getting out of paying taxes like the rest of us have to.  Except for the fact that we don’t know if that is completely true, and maybe the question we should be asking is whether the taxes we pay are fair at all.

UBS v. IRS saga continues

by Gary Howard on July 29, 2009

in International, Legal, Personal Liberty

Today, Wall Street Journal reports that a Miami court has set meeting Friday between the IRS and UBS to look at where they are in settlement negotiations over the case of the IRS demanding that the Swiss bank turn over the names of more then 50,000 U.S. citizens alleged to be tax evaders.

As I have said in past posts on this issue (in which I have been admittedly hard on UBS-but with a purpose), and as UBS seems to now be reiterating, turning over those names would be in contradiction of  Switzerland’s banking privacy laws and its legal view of tax evasion.  Banks in Switzerland are not required to ignore their country’s banking secrecy laws simply because another nation requests them to do so.  This is a sticking point for the IRS, who is using the DoJ to try and get after UBS.  Another factor in the fight to get UBS to crack is the growing pressure from other nations and international NGOs like the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) with its agenda, and Financial Action Task Force (FATF) with its “retaliatory measures,” mentioned in earlier posts. These groups are using the straw men of money laundering and terrorism to force Swiss capitulation.  It has reached a point of absurdity.  Aside from the U.S. government’s attempts at intimidation, the German government even suggested placing Switzerland on the international blacklist.  I guess “Everybody Hates Switzerland” now, until they can get their hands on that money.

Of course, the average citzen is not concerned about the rights of those who can afford to have swiss bank accounts.  Although they should be.  This not only raises concerns about financial privacy, it also raises concerns about sovereignty, civil rights, and a host of other things.  A person’s financial records should be considered as sacred as their medical records.  However, we may soon be entering an era where both are collected and archived by the government.  Only a person who believes Stalin was an OK guy would think that was a good idea.