Pandora Papers expose world leaders’ offshore entities, Thai tycoon families among listed

[TheFishman1]

The rich can hide their money and pay no taxes

[Xonax]

It is hardly a surprise, that the richest families in Thailand have some of their money placed overseas. I am more curious how many Thai-politicians are doing the same?

[heybruce]

6 minutes ago, Joules said:

Posted just now

  3 minutes ago, Joules said:

Meanwhile, back in the good old US of A, the Biden Administration wants to put the spotlight on every American bank account worth $600 or more.  Hey man, this ain't no joke, there must be some unpaid taxes in there somewhere.  

Can you better explain, and defend, your claim that "the Biden Administration wants to put the spotlight on every American bank account worth $600 or more."?

 

Apparently, after the citizen outcry, the plan is being revised.  I am posting a link to Yahoo news, I hope that is legal.  If not, you can Goggle it.  Here's the link:  https://news.yahoo.com/democrats-raise-cap-biden-irs-110000327.html

Reckless hyperbole, while popular, is misleading. 

 

A proposed requirement, now shelved, to report bank transactions above $600 to the IRS is not "shining a spotlight" on such transactions.  It is very difficult to get the IRS to release the financial data of individuals and businesses.

[HaoleBoy]

15 minutes ago, heybruce said:

Can you better explain, and defend, your claim that "the Biden Administration wants to put the spotlight on every American bank account worth $600 or more."?

It is every transaction over $600 that will be scrutinized - that's incoming and outgoing transactions.  Buying a new couch ... they will look at this.

 

Bump it up to $9,900 per transaction ...

 

https://www.masslive.com/news/2021/10/biden-administration-proposing-plan-to-track-bank-transactions-of-600-or-more-to-fill-tax-gap.html

[Joules]

5 minutes ago, heybruce said:

Reckless hyperbole, while popular, is misleading. 

 

A proposed requirement, now shelved, to report bank transactions above $600 to the IRS is not "shining a spotlight" on such transactions.  It is very difficult to get the IRS to release the financial data of individuals and businesses.

Reckless apologist!  ???? ???? ????   How about the big leak?  https://news.yahoo.com/irs-investigating-leak-revealing-elon-203832974.html

 

Somebody got private data out of the IRS!  Lots of it.

[Acharn]

16 hours ago, 2 is 1 said:

Most of  offshore entities  are not illegal!

Funny, that's like the reason President Obama gave for the Department of Justice not prosecuting the bankers in 2009. Of course, "most of" implies that "some of" IS illegal. I don't know about Thai law,  or Finnish or Estonian law, but it's become known that under American law a lot of income that IS taxable gets hidden in Cayman Islands, Lichtenstein, Isle of Man, and Las Vegas. Yes, America provides some of the most opaque tax shelters in the world, but of course we never mention that. Sorry, I'm going off topic. From what I've been able to learn of Thai history, they have reasons to distrust people with foreign connections.

[heybruce]

8 minutes ago, HaoleBoy said:

It is every transaction over $600 that will be scrutinized - that's incoming and outgoing transactions.  Buying a new couch ... they will look at this.

 

Bump it up to $9,900 per transaction ...

 

https://www.masslive.com/news/2021/10/biden-administration-proposing-plan-to-track-bank-transactions-of-600-or-more-to-fill-tax-gap.html

 

3 minutes ago, Joules said:

Reckless apologist!  ???? ???? ????   How about the big leak?  https://news.yahoo.com/irs-investigating-leak-revealing-elon-203832974.html

 

Somebody got private data out of the IRS!  Lots of it.

Once again, reporting numbers to the IRS is not the same as "shining a spotlight" or "every transaction over $600 will be scrutinized". 

 

The fact that an IRS leak makes the news illustrates how rare it is.  The fact that former President Trump has still managed to keep his tax returns secret shows how difficult it is to get the IRS to divulge information without the consent of the parties involved.

 

If you had simply used "report to the IRS" instead of your ridiculous misrepresentations I would have paid no attention to your posts.  I don't like intentionally misleading post, so I commented.

[MrJ2U]

It must be the six families that own Thailand.

 

How surprising, NOT.

 

Its also the ones who own huge amounts of stock in Sinovac.

 

Of course it will all be just a "misunderstanding".

 

One has to wonder how long the people can put with this utter disregard and completely corrupted government and those 6 families.

 

There all intertwined.

 

Disgusting!

[eastendanto]

17 hours ago, 2 is 1 said:

Most of  offshore entities  are not illegal! Its only good tax planning. If you have several million's capital, why pay extra tax or tax over tax. I was doing tax planning, my Finnish company owner was my Estonia company whitch was owned company in Scotland. In Scotland i had only adress whit 3 other guy's, one room residence. But if want pay extra tax go for it. Have sold already all, dont know how this company "trik" works now days. But normal things, ofcourse if there is criminal money that kind need find.

The lovelys from the woke media seem to think that because you are tax wise and efficient in the handling of your own personal financial dealings you are fair game for naming and shaming with the inference that what you are doing is illegal.....which is in the main untrue. How said people earned their money is a whole different ball game. In the UK it's one of the wokey's favourite past times (many of whom are taking advantage of the same tax efficiencies with their own personal money), "do as I say, not do as I do". 

 

 

[JohnHans]

17 hours ago, 2 is 1 said:

Most of  offshore entities  are not illegal! Its only good tax planning. If you have several million's capital, why pay extra tax or tax over tax. I was doing tax planning, my Finnish company owner was my Estonia company which was owned company in Scotland. In Scotland i had only adress whit 3 other guy's, one room residence. But if want pay extra tax go for it. Have sold already all, dont know how this company "trik" works now days. But normal things, of course if there is criminal money that kind need find.

I don't think the important part is the actual overseas accounts, (as most of the accounts are probably quite legal) its the information attached to the off shore stashed cash, that information blows the lid off the corruption and ill gotten gains through corruption and illegal sources, stolen money, drug money and cheating. The information exposes names of people involved in bribes paid to politicians, corrupt business leaders and unusually rich <deleted>.
I just hope it allows citizens to be able to bring down the bad apples all the way to the top, (or at least blame & shame and change pubic opinions) especially those high up on the social scale who have been spending billions of the peoples money.

 

[sammieuk1]

Wonder how many police or army clans are on the list in the land of the unexplained wealthy ???? 

[Rimmer]

Troll posts in French have been removed

[MrJ2U]

17 hours ago, 2 is 1 said:

Most of  offshore entities  are not illegal! Its only good tax planning

I agree.

I think the concern is how did they accumulate this wealth.

 

Whatever the case nothing will come of it even if its illegal.

[Speedhump]

17 hours ago, 2 is 1 said:

Most of  offshore entities  are not illegal! Its only good tax planning. If you have several million's capital, why pay extra tax or tax over tax. I was doing tax planning, my Finnish company owner was my Estonia company whitch was owned company in Scotland. In Scotland i had only adress whit 3 other guy's, one room residence. But if want pay extra tax go for it. Have sold already all, dont know how this company "trik" works now days. But normal things, ofcourse if there is criminal money that kind need find.

Not illegal, many people think its immoral. And certainly selfish. 

[Misterwhisper]

And to think that I recently received a letter from the revenue department informing me that they had discovered a calculation error in my income tax filing and that I had to pay an additional 78 baht within 10 days -- or else! 

Edited October 5, 2021 by Misterwhisper

[natway09]

It seems that if you are somebody it is easy to send any amount of "funds" offshore to "tax havens"

but whwn the small man tries it (I know, I tried) the bank rejects the application.

I am all for minimizing tax liability for any person or organization but hiding non tax paid monies 

is a disgrace & clearly shows that Government Finance & Tax Dept's need to sharpen their act

[Marco100]

So' what is this Pandora News ? 

Since the AEOI ( authomatic exchange of information ) started , any bank , ( except some few places where I wouldn't suggest to deposit money ) , are subjected to report the beneficiary holdings to the state the beneficiary is resident .

Thailand is in the process to join .

[Marco100]

Most probably , thanks to the AEOI , diamonds and Bitcoins are in high demand for illicit transactions ...

[tingtong]

3 hours ago, hotchilli said:

Domestic travel should increase exponentially then?

Err, it was a few Thai names on the list, but the bulk is foreigners all over the globe....

 

[Anant72]

18 hours ago, 2 is 1 said:

Most of  offshore entities  are not illegal! Its only good tax planning. If you have several million's capital, why pay extra tax or tax over tax. I was doing tax planning, my Finnish company owner was my Estonia company whitch was owned company in Scotland. In Scotland i had only adress whit 3 other guy's, one room residence. But if want pay extra tax go for it. Have sold already all, dont know how this company "trik" works now days. But normal things, ofcourse if there is criminal money that kind need find.

Tax avoiders and money launderers that park billions in safe havens, especially dictators and other political crooks, are preventing millions from having better living circumstances. One can only hope these revelations cause some harm to those rapacious characters. Exposing them for what they are is already a good thing. 

[Geir Rasch]

18 hours ago, 2 is 1 said:

Most of  offshore entities  are not illegal! Its only good tax planning. If you have several million's capital, why pay extra tax or tax over tax. I was doing tax planning, my Finnish company owner was my Estonia company whitch was owned company in Scotland. In Scotland i had only adress whit 3 other guy's, one room residence. But if want pay extra tax go for it. Have sold already all, dont know how this company "trik" works now days. But normal things, ofcourse if there is criminal money that kind need find.

Taxes are a country’s main source of income to build a good and safe country. When rich people do not want to contribute, that says a lot about them. Without a stable counrty you cannot do business. May be rich people who want to avoid tax don’t understand the consequences?   

[nobodysfriend]

8 minutes ago, Geir Rasch said:

May be rich people who want to avoid tax don’t understand the consequences?   

They know very well , believe me ...

[DefaultName]

Someone said "Taxes are the price we pay for civilized society.".

[Dogmatix]

That wealthy Thai business families are using offshore companies is a total non-story. There is nothing illegal about it and they are probably not even avoiding Thai tax.  The earlier Panama papers revealed Thai politicians and civil servants using offshore companies.  Now that was interesting but nothing was done to investigate it, other than probably some negotiations and brown envelopes passed to ensure no investigations. 

[spermwhale]

19 hours ago, 2 is 1 said:

Most of  offshore entities  are not illegal! Its only good tax planning. If you have several million's capital, why pay extra tax or tax over tax. I was doing tax planning, my Finnish company owner was my Estonia company whitch was owned company in Scotland. In Scotland i had only adress whit 3 other guy's, one room residence. But if want pay extra tax go for it. Have sold already all, dont know how this company "trik" works now days. But normal things, ofcourse if there is criminal money that kind need find.

Yeah okay. It's purely tax avoidance While it may not be illegal it shows you the extent the wealthy go to avoid paying their fair share in their home countries. And its' frankly despicable, particularly considering the <deleted> wages they pay while they benefit greatly from living in a low-cost country that desperately needs tax revenues to modernize. So yeah you go ahead and justify it. But they are raping their own country. 

[nobodysfriend]

26 minutes ago, Dogmatix said:

nothing was done to investigate it, other than probably some negotiations and brown envelopes passed to ensure no investigations.

yeah , quite possible ... when I moved here the container we sent ( full of household stuff ) , was to be inspected ( and opened ) by customs . But we were given the choice to pay a fee for ' non inspection ' ! When it arrived at our place , the container was still sealed . Amazing Thailand .

[moon47]

19 hours ago, 2 is 1 said:

Most of  offshore entities  are not illegal! Its only good tax planning. If you have several million's capital, why pay extra tax or tax over tax. I was doing tax planning, my Finnish company owner was my Estonia company whitch was owned company in Scotland. In Scotland i had only adress whit 3 other guy's, one room residence. But if want pay extra tax go for it. Have sold already all, dont know how this company "trik" works now days. But normal things, ofcourse if there is criminal money that kind need find.

I agree, ???? why should the rich pay taxes on their hard earned money.

 

That job is for the poor and middle class that can not afford an offshore account... =[

Edited October 5, 2021 by moon47

[nahkit]

When CP wanted to take over the Tesco Lotus business it was referred to the Thai Monopoly commission.

 

The Thai Monopoly commission cleared the deal, partly as a result of a statement from CP saying that the business would be run as a seperate entity from the existing CP holdings, which of course include 7/11 and Makro. (Laughable or extremely naive to say the least if the people from the commission really believed this).

 

Last week there was a stock market announcement to the effect that 100% of Lotus shares would now be transferred to Siam Makro - so much for being run seperately.

 

If they (CP) can be that blatant about flouting the rules, I doubt if any revelation by the Pandora papers will give them a single sleepless night. 

[rudi49jr]

19 hours ago, Artisi said:

Nothing wrong with tax avoidance

If you have a couple million dollars and want to hide it from the tax man, fine with me.

If you have a couple billion dollars and want to hide it from the tax man, I say hunt them down and make them pay their fair share of taxes. 

[chilly07]

18 hours ago, chalawaan said:

Well and good, but unless:

 

a) They've actually done something illegal outside of Thailand. and

 

b) an international court takes action.....

 

It's just a mild embarrassment, in fact some of them might even gain enormous face in the places that matter to them.

Any publicity being good publicity!