Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Tax Evasion for a Tax Break

It is nice to know that Congress is looking into curbing billions of dollars of tax evasion by the richest Americans... just to give it back to them in an estate tax break linked to raising the minimum wage.

Really, what is the use...

Tax Shelters Saved Billionaires a Bundle
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 1, 2006; Page A04

A Senate committee today plans to criticize multimillion-dollar tax-avoidance schemes used by four prominent individuals, to highlight what it concludes is a more than $40 billion-a-year drain on federal coffers by offshore tax scams.

The panel is scheduled to release a 370-page report, which it provided to The Washington Post, that details how these wealthy, politically connected people ducked hundreds of millions of dollars in tax payments by using secretive corporations and trusts on the Isle of Man. The billionaires who took advantage of this tax haven included Robert Wood Johnson IV, owner of the New York Jets football team; Sam Wyly and Charles J. Wyly Jr., longtime Republican donors and backers of President Bush; and Haim Saban, a Democratic Party fundraiser who made his first fortune promoting Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.


(Full Story)

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