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12.14.01. British Attack Swiss. A-Letter.
THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY OFFSHORE A-LETTER
Your Link to Freedom, Prosperity & Privacy in the Offshore World
Friday, December 14, 2001 - Vol. 3 No. 98
In This Issue:
* COMMENT: Why the British Attack the Swiss.
* OFFSHORE: Bahamas Recession. Cayman Comment. Panama Debt Caution. Hong Kong Election. Canada's Best! Mondaq on Switzerland, Belize, Cook Islands. House of Lords Concerned About Gibraltar.
* WEALTH: Wall Street Restrictions. Danish Bankers Complain. South African Rand & Expectations Keep Sinking.
* PRIVACY & RIGHTS: UK-EU Crush Freedoms. FBI Wants Your PC to Spy on You. F. Bastiat Exposes Business Tariffs/Subsidies.
COMMENT: Why the British Attack the Swiss.
Dear Friend:
ITEM 1: At a meeting of European Union financial officials on Dec 4, officials from Austria and Luxembourg threatened to hold up plans for an agreement before year's end on the EU's controversial cross border withholding savings tax scheme.
ITEM 2: On Wednesday British finance ministry paymaster, Dawn Primarolo, charged, with no proof, that Swiss banking confidentiality allows UK citizens to avoid paying taxes on assets held in Switzerland. The Swiss Bankers Association immediately rejected her claim.
What's the real reason behind this unseemly British attack on the Swiss?
High tax UK Labourites know that unless and until Switzerland and other tax havens, such as Liechtenstein and Andorra, agree to end their bank secrecy, neither Austria nor Luxembourg will commit economic national suicide by agreeing to a pan-EU withholding tax on investments and savings. Nor will they agree to its practical equivalent, automatic tax information sharing concerning foreign account holders.
As we have noted before, both the EU-wide tax and the OECD's phony "tax harmonization," torpedoed by the Bush administration, seek to impose worldwide high taxes by insisting all nations have similar high tax rates. Information exchange achieves the same goal by allowing a taxpayer's home country to tax economic activity in another nation. That's been skillfully demonstrated by the Heritage Foundation's Dan Mitchell. (See LINK below).
No wonder British Labour wants the Swiss to collect taxes for them. UK taxes are at an all time high, having risen from 35.5% of GDP to 37.7% since Labour took office, equivalent to £20 billion a year in added taxes. The average Brit works until the middle of June each year just to pay taxes. In a rare moment of candor during the June elections, PM Tony Blair admitted high taxes were driving Brits to leave for tax havens.
The UK Labour left need only look to its neighbor across the Irish Sea in order to discover a solution to its own fiscal profligacy. Ireland leads all Europe in prosperity because it has cut taxes and attracted hoards of new businesses that do pay taxes and create jobs. But that would admit, yet another time, the failure of state socialism.
Tax competition is good. Let's hope there will always be a Switzerland.
That's the way that it looks from here.
Faithfully Yours, Bob Bauman, Editor
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P.S. Don't miss, now Online, the December special euro issue of THE SOVEREIGN INDIVIDUAL with articles on:
* Three Ways to Profit From the Euro
* Euro-Day Nears: Dangers & Opportunities
* Seven Essential Strategies to Cope with US Emergency Controls
* New US "Anti-Laundering" Law Curtails Offshore Privacy
* Is "Big Browser" Spying on Your PC?
To access immediately, Sovereign Society members click here.
Not a member? US$195/£119 for annual membership. Join Online here.
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COMMENT LINKS:
* Britain launches new broadside over banking secrecy
http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=6696
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/Swissinfo.html?siteSect=111&sid=949688
* E.U. Withholding Tax Plan Slowed,
LINKS:http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=6710
http://www.freedomandprosperity.org/Articles/bna12-05-01/bna12-05-01.shtml
* Mitchell Report on Tax Harmonization,
LINK: http://www.heritage.org/library/backgrounder/bg1460.html
* U.K. Taxes At All Time High,
LINK: ttp://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2000/10/01/stinwenws01008.html
* Blair Says High Taxes Boost Offshore Exodus,
LINK: Click Here.
* Brits Work 6 Months a Year Just to Pay Taxes:
LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=3301
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* OFFSHORE *
BAHAMAS OFFICIAL MISMANAGEMENT HURTS
NASSAU. The former tax haven islands have fallen on hard times.
LINK: http://www.thenassauguardian.com/news_display.php?prid=2914
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CAYMAN ISLANDS COMMENT
A leading Cayman attorney gives us an inside view on what's wrong with the IRS information exchange treaty, a growing deficit and hikes in offshore banks and trusts fees; it's the government!
LINK: http://www.caymannetnews.com/stories.html#CurrentCommentary
Explanation of the Caymans-US IRS tax information exchange deal.
LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=6709
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DON'T CRY FOR PANAMA
Panama prepares a law that buys back debt and limits borrowing to avoid becoming another Argentina.
http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3BXGOY6VC
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HONG KONG ELECTIONS
Tung Chee-hwa, Communist Beijing's choice for Hong Kong head, says he'll run for a second term. HK liberty lovers not happy.
LINK: Click Here.
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ONE OF CANADA'S BEST WEB SITES
That's the site of Sovereign Society Council of Experts member Prof. Pierre LEMIEUX, libertarian economist and Quebec-based author.
Visit him at LINK: http://www.pierrelemieux.org/
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MONDAQ OFFSHORE NEWS
This UK web site requires free registration, but offers very useful information. Three recent offshore items worth note:
* Avoidable Pitfalls When Investing in Switzerland,
LINK: Click Here.
* Belize: Why It's an Offshore Haven of Choice,
LINK: Click Here.
* The Cook Islands Government Counters OECD Pressures, LINK:
Click Here.
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U.K. LORDS QUESTION GIBRALTAR DEAL
The House of Lords is concerned about Labour selling out The Rock.
LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=6707
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* WEALTH *
WALL STREET TO SPY UNDER MONEY LAUNDERING RULES
NEW YORK. American banks are already forced to spy on clients for the US government. Now it's the stock brokers turn to spy.
LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/11/business/11LAUN.html
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DANISH P.M. FIRES STATE APPOINTED BANK DIRECTORS
COPENHAGEN. A new conservative prime minister abolishes politically appointed 'watchdogs' who sit on all bank boards of directors.
LINK: http://cphpost.periskop.dk/default.asp?id=18856
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SOUTH AFRICAN RAND KEEPS SINKING
JOHANNESBURG. The currency crisis in South Africa confounds the experts and threatens the nation's future. It also offers bargains prices to foreign purchasers with US dollars.
LINK: Click Here.
The RSA government has created great expectations but failed to deliver.The net result: guaranteed disappointment and more unrest.
LINK: Click Here.
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* PRIVACY & RIGHTS *
U.K. & EUROPE CRUSH FREEDOMS
By comparison, the UK and the EU make US Atty Gen John Ashcroft look like a civil libertarian. European liberty is dying.
LINK: http://www.reason.com/hod/jm121101.shtml
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F.B.I. WANTS SOFTWARE MAKERS TO ALLOW SPYING
The government now admits its e-mail Trojan virus, "Magic Lantern," aims to turn your computer into an FBI transmitter.
LINKS: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,49102,00.html
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011210/tc/attack_tech_dc.html
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LIBERTY IMAGE ONLINE GALLERY
Use these images in your own freedom-related Web pages, or just enjoy them.
LINK: http://www.free-market.net/features/gallery/
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U.S. STEEL MAKERS TAKE NOTE
Frederick Bastiat's classic expose of tariff/subsidy business hogs.
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/343/oped/The_wit_and_wisdom_of_Bastiat%2B.shtml
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THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY OFFSHORE A-LETTER. E-mail to: info@sovereignsociety.com. * SUBSCRIBE FREE or send to a friend at LINK: http://www.sovereignsociety.com
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THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY Ltd., 5 Catherine St., Waterford, Ireland. TEL: 353-51 844 068 FAX: 353-51 304 561. Copyright (C) 2001. All domestic & international rights reserved.
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