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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBattle Over Taxing the Rich Goes Global
Warren Buffett may be having mixed success in taking his Giving Pledge overseas. But his Buffett Rule on taxing the rich is quickly becoming a global rallying cry.
The latest chorus comes from Britain. After the Times of London exposed a legal tax-avoidance scheme used by close to 1,000 of the countrys top earners, politicians and pundits called out the wealthy as unpatriotic, unethical scofflaws.
The famous British comedian Jimmy Carr was one of the people outed by The Times as a tax avoider, after he reduced his tax rate to about 1 percent of his $5 million income by sheltering it through a firm based on the island of Jersey. Britains Prime Minister David Cameron called Mr. Carrs strategy morally wrong.
Lets recall that Cameron is a Conservative, so this isnt the usual class-warfare of the left. And Mr. Carr apologized for what he called a terrible error in judgment.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/47947073
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey
The island of Jersey is like a separate nation governed by Queen Elizabeth II, and it is the home of many tax dodges. SIVs domiciled there figured in the Enron collapse.
patrice
(47,992 posts)aquart
(69,014 posts)Andy823
(11,495 posts)If anything at all gets done about those who hide their money or find other ways to not have to pay, it has to be done on a global scale. If there is no place to hide your money because no matter where you put it you will be taxed, then something can get done. If all the major countries in the world start cracking down on tax cheats, making them pay their fair share, then we can start fixing the mess that the world is in now. Taking money from those who really need help and giving more to the rich is not the way to fix the problems and once the governments around the world see this, once the people "demand" a change, we can start doing what is right for the world, not what is right for simply the rich.