Anti-Tax Haven Smear Continues

The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the U.S. Senate will hold a hearing on Thursday and the announced title of this continuing witch hunt is: 'Tax Haven Banks and U.S. Tax Compliance."

The subcommittee is chaired by Sen. Carl Levin, (D-MI) a long-time, fanatical campaigner against financial privacy in general and offshore tax havens in particular. (Levin was one of the authors of the worst parts of the PATRIOT Act that destroyed financial privacy in America).

Repeating the PR formula Levin always uses to attack tax havens, the hearings again will serve as a propaganda platform for release of a subcommittee "staff report" based on "investigative findings" that will no doubt again blast tax havens with a host of fictitious numbers pulled from thin air that supposedly show lost taxes evaded by Americans who conduct business in tax havens.

Here We Go Again

In 2006 the same subcommittee conducted a hearing circus that capped off a year long investigation costing millions of taxpayer dollars. This so-called "investigation" produced a 401 page report that advocated curtailing century old legal rights to create trusts, corporations and other entities to protect assets. It also advocated an end to all financial privacy worldwide.

Subsequently Levin sponsored the infamous "Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act," S.681, that built on the trumped up hearing and report and went over the edge in its zealous advocacy of destroying American freedoms, all under the tired excuse of collecting illegally unpaid taxes.

Millions of Americans enjoy the freedom of offshore financial activity.

Nevertheless, in their 2006 hearing based on only six cases, Levin made the startling, illogical charge that US$40 to US$70 billion in U.S. taxes illegally was evaded each year by Americans' use of offshore financial activity. The Senator offered zero proof of such wild numbers, and even then IRS Commissioner Mark Everson declined to endorse such senatorial fantasies.

In more recent propaganda barrages in support of his inane bill (which Senator Barack Obama [D-ILL] co-sponsors), the supposed tax evasion amount magically has been boosted by Levin to US$100 billion a year. Again, no proof offered.

War on Switzerland, Liechtenstein

You can bet at the Levin hearing the Senator sanctimoniously will scream about the recent alleged crimes of exactly one UBS banker and his American client (both of whom have made bargains with the feds on charges of tax evasion) and the stolen Liechtenstein bank list as fodder for their unending attack on tax havens.

The subcommittee notice states primly: "The hearing will examine how financial institutions located in offshore jurisdictions, including Liechtenstein and Switzerland, may be engaged in banking practices that could facilitate, and in some instances have resulted in, tax evasion and other misconduct by U.S. clients."

How about the thousands of people in New York and London, the world's two leading tax havens, who daily engage in tax evasion? Not enough sexy headlines there, Senator?

Act Now

My advice to prudent planners is to employ the many offshore options now still available -- investments, currency trades, banking, and asset protection plans -- while you still can. How ironic, in the age of free trade and globalization, that demagogic politicians are trying to drag America back into the isolationist Dark Ages.

* While you still can, discover the legal ways to bank and save taxes offshore; I tell you Where To Stash Your Cash: Click Here.

* If you're interested in Switzerland, Click here for Swiss Money Secrets.