The country that extended its hand to the Nazis and Islamic terrorist organizations to launder money sold out their customers! What a shocker! :eek: Any imbecile trusting a Swiss banker deserves what they get. LMAO. -Prof.
UBS pays part of the fine to repay the IRS for the unpaid taxes, fines and interest. then the IRS goes after the people and charge them the unpaid taxes, fines and interest again Typical of a big government
The whole thing goes back to when holocaust related victims (survivors or children of the dead) were suing in order to get their parents secret savings from numbered swiss bank accounts. I am saying secret because that was what they were. They were numbered accounts of maybe a German person, but in Switzerland, for the same reason people want to put it there today. It is only the US which has put that much pressure on Switzerland (for decades) - so that Switzerland finally gave in, but to the US only. But don't worry, there are many ways left to hiding your money legally, and plenty of offshore tax havens still available.
"U.S. law views tax evasion as a crime, Swiss law does not" - from Bloomy. I don't quite get this, tax evasion is a crime in the US, though a Swiss bank is penalised for opening accounts to US citizens? It is a different country is it not?
UBS is the bastard child of the industry, and there is Senate hearing scheduled for Tuesday. If they didn't settle, they would have been indicted. Simple. There are more of these coming, Curacao/Duess is a biggie. But, the biggest detriment to offshore tax havens are guys like Stanford and Madoff. If you put your money there, and it disappears, you can't squawk. Lie down with dogs..............
The feds are just getting ready to spring the wealth tax. First step is getting a record of all the wealth. Next step, block off any escapes. Then start floating the idea that it only applies to really rich folks who haven't paid "their fair share". And bingo, a whole new tax scheme to eventually layer on to any citizen who's foolish enough to work for a living. We gotta do something to come up with all these trillions we're spending now, plus all the trillions we spend already.
But what has all of this got to do with a foreign bank? They have their own laws in Switzerland don't they?
Tax evasion is a crime. The principal victim isn't "the government," it's the rest of us who pay our taxes in full and on time. UBS could've stuck to its guns and withheld the information, but then I'd be perfectly happy to see their U.S. operations seized, banned from conducting business with American firms, etc.