FACTA: Rand Paul Blocking Treaties That Would Help Find Tax Cheats
I posted earlier about FACTA and the countries which have recently signed treaties with the US:
FACTA—Ireland and Caymens on board to TAX THE RICH —no more offshore bank accounts?
Here is a follow-up:
The “populist” Senator from Kentucky, having sold his constituents a sack of bullpucky that he’s just one of them, is once again showing his true colors, this time in the arena of tax dodging. He’s helping his rich buddies hide their wealth overseas by blocking three treaties that would help the U.S. government find them and make them pay their taxes. Hiding money in Luxembourg, Hungary and Switzerland is common practice among the very wealthy (so I hear) and these countries are very secretive about their clientele. The Obama administration has been trying to hunt down these tax dodgers to make them pay their fair share, running into opposition from… you guessed it, the party of the rich.
As we all know, as the filibuster rules in the Senate now stand, any Senator can block a bill (or treaty, as it turns out) by merely making his objection known. And that’s exactly what Rand Paul has done, citing a concern that they will:
… “allow the government to obtain a wide array of records without evidence that people may be hiding money.”
Never mind that this is exactly the purpose of these treaties: it’s how the evidence is gathered. The fact that only very rich people can hide money in these countries must have slipped his mind. But he must know that opening an account in any of these countries takes a huge amount of money - usually at least $1 million - and there are large monthly maintenance fees. Nope, ol’ Rand (not at all named after Ayn, mind you) is protecting the very rich while he claims to be protecting the average American. Meanwhile, he continues his agenda to cut Medicare and Social Security. Nice.
More: Rand Paul Blocking Treaties That Would Help Find Tax Cheats