Tuesday 5 April 2016

What the hell is happening to us...




 

That brilliant blogger No Right Turn penned the words below [in italics]  they prove just how far society has shifted from the concept of need and into the sphere of greed under successive right-wing governments over the past twenty years. It seems that we have lost our sense of honour to both our own citizens and even the worldwide community. For it would seem at least to me that success is now measured by the amount of cash you can rip off others by fair or foul means.  

This from No Right Turn:
 
There's an obvious question which arises from the recent money laundering exposes and the repeated revelation that New Zealand companies and foreign trusts are being used by powerful offshore networks for tax cheating, corruption and money laundering: why isn't the government seizing those companies and trusts and their assets?

Seriously The Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act allows property to be
restrained if there are reasonable grounds to believe that it is wholly or in part derived from "significant criminal activity" (which means "any crime which makes you more than NZ$30,000"), and forfeited on the balance of probabilities of same. Corruption, money laundering, and tax evasion are all crimes, and given that there's no real legitimate use for offshore banking arrangements other than these criminal enterprises, such reasonable grounds exist for every NZ-domicilsed offshore arrangement for which there is not an obvious, legal purpose. So why not seize them?

Or, to give a specific example:
Unaoil exists to channel bribes in the international oil industry. Taking a cut of those bribes is how they make their profits. And they've made a damn sight more than $30,000 from it. That media report alone constitutes reasonable grounds to believe that the company itself is tainted property, derived wholly or in part from significant criminal activity. Better: Unaoil is owned by a shell company in New Zealand. So why don't we restrain that shell company, and put the entire criminal network out of business?

I think the government owes us an answer on this.

I don't like asset forfeiture laws. But the government does. So why do they only use them against the little guy rather than the 1%? Why do they punish only minor league criminals, while letting the real criminals, the international super-wealthy, walk free?
Posted by Idiot/Savant at 4/04/2016 12:37:00 PM

Just imagine if all tax payers could rip-off the system as these bandits do…it’s no wonder why such scum just love wheeling and dealing in New Zealand…with a Prime Minister who is well versed in the manipulation of money transfers, and bonus taking for buying and sell ing derivative style raffle tickets…these criminals feel they have a companion brother who will allow their illegal behaviour to continue. And it would appear that they are correct because Key has more than once suggested that New Zealand school should become the largest tax-haven in the Pacific… 

The question is ‘how low can we go’ and how can we even futher spoil our so-called reputation for honesty in business…allowing this world-wide criminal behaviour here in New Zealand is both shameful and disgusting no matter how you look at it. 

It also shows just how gutless our PM is… where are his so-called principles, his honesty, and his trustworthiness? Does he actually have any of those normal human qualities? I think not. Is he more in the Donald Trump mold…you know where bullshit and jelly bean style intelligence indicators are the norm.

New Zealand is becoming famous for ripping off people by using weak kneed loop holes to allow people to do the strangest things, ex-PM Jenny Shipley combined with once Justice Minister and now Corrections Minister Judith Collins and a half dozen other weirdo’s have designed a deal to give Judith Collins fan club 'Oravida'
the rights to ship billions of gallons of New Zealand water to China…FOR FREE… check out this short video,          https://www.facebook.com/kriswgtn/videos/733791036722909/
This yet another example of how Key helps his mates make a fortune out of stealing our natural resources…and his mates in this case is a Chinese Company with really close ties to the National Party and its hanger-on’s
A massive leak of confidential documents yesterday revealed how hundreds of the world's wealthy and political elite used Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca to set up tax havens, some of them in New Zealand.
Opposition MPs and tax experts have criticised the fact New Zealand was being used as a tax haven, compromising its international reputation.
But Mr Woodhouse said that was wrong.
"Well, there are two features of a tax haven as far as I'm aware.
"One is a very low, or no, tax base and the other is secrecy. We have neither of those things, we have a requirement for all people who earn income in New Zealand to pay tax and we share with other jurisdictions."
Mr Woodhouse said as these were overseas trusts, they had overseas settlors, assets and income and the New Zealand Inland Revenue (IRD) had no interest in their obligations to pay tax overseas.
The fact that these trusts could be used by other countries to conceal, launder or hide money was a matter for those countries as was any tax owed in those countries, he said.
Mr Woodhouse said he did not have information about what activities were being carried out by these trusts.
"I really don't have the insight into what's going on at this stage. I'm aware of the existence of a number of foreign trusts, I'm satisfied that tax obligations here in New Zealand are being met and that IRD is contributing to an information-sharing arrangement to the degree that they can."
The IRD was living up to its legal obligations and was satisfied agreements and treaties New Zealand had with other countries were being upheld.
The minister said there were a very large number of countries implicated in the release of documents about Mossack Fonseca's clients.
"And to the degree that we are concerned that everybody pays the right amount of tax, this is a global issue.
"I think the best way to deal with those information-sharing requirements is through the OECD."
Mr Woodhouse rejected suggestions it was disingenuous to talk about New Zealanders' tax obligations when the revelations from Panama related to the role of overseas trusts.
"Well, no, it's not, but what you're asking is should the IRD be more proactive in sharing information - what I'm saying is they are doing that when they're asked for it," he said.
Some references on the subject:
  1. Mossack Fonseca tax haven claims - why NZ and why now?, Stuff.co.nz, Monday Apr 4, 2016
  2. Panama papers: NZ trusts at the centre of Malta money scandal, Mossack Fonseca papers show, Stuff.co.nz, Stuff.co.nz, Monday Apr 4, 2016
  3. Calls mount for tighter rules on foreign trusts as Key denies NZ a 'tax haven', Stuff.co.nz, Stuff.co.nz, Tuesday Apr 5, 2016
  4. Panama Papers: New Zealand is 'complicit' in tax avoidance schemes - expert, NZ Herald, Monday Apr 4, 2016
  5. Tax policy report: Taxation of multinationals, Inland Revenue, 15 August 2013
  6. Calls mount for tighter rules on foreign trusts as Key denies NZ a 'tax haven',
  7. Stuff.co.nz, April 4 2016

1 comment:

Anonymous said...



If you would like to go back a few years and have a little look at Wishart’s Book; ‘The Paradise Conspiracy’ You would see the legalised Rip Off Merchants were alive and well in those times and all. What has happened in the intervening years has been the scams have grown bigger, more sophisticated and more secretive. Reading the book seemed like a who’s who of the big money artists of NZ at that time.

There was a major financial crash shortly after the story was exposed. I was pleased to see the number of big money boys,
Frank Renouf (First mate on an Aussie Tramp) was one caught up in it with quite a few more, which for me was a real helping of Poetic Justice! Sure I had a few shares in NZ Forest Products and a couple of their offshoot property enterprises that simply disappeared. I didn’t feel so bad when I found the big time Wheelers and Dealers went down at the same time. I accepted that those guys knew about as much about risk as I did. Otherwise how was it so many of them were taken to the cleaners?

To hand today, I received a report issued by; forager funds.com about the Dick Smith business.

See http://foragerfunds.com/bristlemouth/dick-smith-is-the-greatest-private-equity-heist-of-all-times

This is quite unbelievable. Read the full story and then try to get your eyebrows back to their normal positions above you eyes from half way down your back! Supporting figures are included which for me, as a simple chippie, were way over my head!

Not a bad deal, making half a billion out of a shonky deal like that evidently was!

Peter G.