Parking the bucks offshore

Recently, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton put aside her concerns about the “urgent threat” of climate change to fly in her private jet a mere 20 miles from Martha’s Vineyard to Nantucket—the summer playgrounds of the liberal one percenters to attend a fundraiser given by the Rothschild family, coinciding with husband Bill’s 70th birthday. The House of Rothschild is described by some as a centuries-old European financial institution but by others as the Leader of the Illuminati bent on secretly running the world. President Obama delayed visiting flooded out Duck Dynasty country in order to raise money from the ruling class he pretends to want to soak. Anyone could attend, so long as you had the $100,000 entry price. Reports are they raised $4 million.

Bloomberg News recently revealed the House of Rothschild has an office in the old Porsche building right here in Reno. It is staffed by many former state government officials, whose job is to help foreign clients stash their wealth in secret trust accounts. It seems the U.S. is replacing the Grand Cayman Islands and the Isle of Man as the world’s favorite tax haven.

It is perfectly legal to open a Nevada corporation, and Nevada competes with Delaware as the best state to incorporate in. The state makes close to $100 million by offering itself as a low-tax, low-regulation, easy-to-incorporate in state. I don’t have a problem with anyone, including the Rothschilds, using legal means to hide from the tax man.

What is appalling is the hypocrisy of Hillary Clinton, whose major campaign proposal is to punish corporate inversion, or the practice of U.S. corporations relocating their headquarters in a foreign country to avoid taxes, to raise money from the foreign one percent who want to benefit from a privilege she wants the U.S. to forbid our own corporations access to.

“How ironic—no, how perverse—that the U.S.A., which has been so sanctimonious in its condemnation of Swiss banks, has become the banking secrecy jurisdiction du jour,” wrote Peter A. Cotorceanu, a lawyer at Anaford AG, a Zurich law firm (“Hiding in plain sight,” Trusts and Trustees, October 2015).

In 2010, President Obama signed the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, which requires financial firms to disclose foreign accounts held by U.S. citizens and report them to the Internal Revenue Service or face steep penalties. Foreign financial institutions now treat expatriate Americans like Ebola carriers. It is no fun when you can’t open a bank account in your new foreign residence because of the banks’ fear such accounts might invite Uncle Sam’s unfriendly attention.

Sen. Rand Paul and five expats last summer sued the Treasury Department, the IRS, and the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network alleging violations of law and constitution for making life miserable for Americans abroad.

America is one of the few nations that even tries to tax its citizens’ foreign earnings. Ordinary folks have few rights against the IRS tax collectors. The Rothschilds of the world have many rights, now including the right to shelter their wealth in secret Nevada trusts.

Both Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump want to increase government spending to nearly 23 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Neither major party is serious about cutting spending. The problem is that historically has been very hard to squeeze more than 18 percent of GDP from American taxpayers, which is the reason for the deficits and debt burden, which constitutes the greatest security threat America faces. Punishing American taxpayers while privileging foreign wealth holders perfectly illustrates the moral rot at the heart of American tax policy.