“And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.” – Luke 2:1, New Testament
“Since the beginning of recorded history, the business of government has been wealth confiscation.” – Ron Holland
It’s a common assumption that governments exist in order to serve the people of a country and that in order to do so, they must be accorded the necessary evils of power and taxation. I believe that the opposite is true, that in the perception of those who rule, power and the ability to exact tax are the very purpose of government, and service to the people is merely a justification for that pursuit.
This condition is perennial. Throughout history, rulers have maximised their power over their minions and, likewise, have exacted as much taxation as they have been able to get away with. Consequently (and quite understandably), it’s always been the norm for people to try to protect their wealth, however large or small, from confiscatory taxation.
Taxation is, of course, legalised theft. It is never collected voluntarily, as it might be with a charity or place of worship; it is taken by force. (If you don’t agree, try refusing to pay.)
Centuries ago, those who had acquired a measure of wealth might have hidden it under the floorboards or buried it in a field. However, over the last century, as long distance travel became increasingly possible, those who have possessed wealth have developed a more reliable method: store it in another country, one where the laws of confiscation are either not so rapacious, or—better still—don’t exist at all.
Editor's note:
"There is an inherent tendency in all governmental power to recognize no restraints on its operation and to extend the sphere of its dominion as much as possible. To control everything, to leave no room for anything to happen of its own accord without the interference of the authorities--this is the goal for which every ruler secretly strives."
Ludwig von Mises, Liberalism, p.67
[Editor's Note: The transparent, superficial, theatrically staged, choreographed appearance of debate, disagreement, and stalled legislation always resolves into more government and less FREEDOM for us. Most laws enacted by the envious comrades of CONgress since the tyrannical dictatorship of Teddy Roosevelt have only increased the power of the federal government to the extreme detriment of individual freedom. Citizens and businesses can't be free and grow without stifling taxes/regulations or some agency's theft of their property without Due Process because of Big Brother's perversion of Civil Asset Forfeiture Laws(also) passed to enable government theft.
We the People are told that America's current corruption of freedom is a "nation of laws". Since 1895 it is a corrupt fraudulent scam designed and developed to expand the powers of government under the guise of freedom and faux-legality. Two very good examples are the fraudulently ratified 16th Amendment (income tax) and the Federal Reserve Act (money from thin-air) signed into law 2 days before xmas, 1913 by Woody Wilson, another of the tyrannical dictators elected by progressives who 6 years later passed Prohibition (Volstead Act) over the veto of Woody Wilson. These domestic events are major contributors to America's imperceptible "slide" into totalitarianism.]
The Era of the Tax Haven Blossoms
Tax havens are not a new idea, but they didn’t come into their own until the 20th century—a time when they flourished. Deservedly, they’ve become increasingly sophisticated and serve their clients extremely well. So well, in fact, that they’ve become a threat to those countries (mostly much larger countries) that are oppressive in their tax regimes. Eventually, these countries joined together to form the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which, despite its euphemistic name, is charged with the dual goals of ending tax havens and creating forced equalisation of taxation in most of the world’s countries, whilst they allow the primary OECD countries to do as they please (to operate independently of the forced taxation equality).
In recent decades, the OECD have ramped up their campaign. First, they created propaganda describing tax havens as centres of “money laundering,” suggesting that money that had been obtained through criminal means was being transferred to overseas banks to disguise its source. (An excellent treatise on this subject can be found here.)
At the same time, the OECD made a concerted effort to avoid discussing the volume of tax-haven business that actually was caused by the fact that OECD member-countries operated oppressive tax regimes, and that tax-haven clients were merely seeking freedom from economic oppression.
The OECD have made great progress in their effort, with much of the world’s taxpaying public now believing that tax havens are merely for criminals and “tax cheats.” (More recently, the OECD have been working to create the belief that tax havens are linked to terrorism, and I predict that we shall see this effort increase dramatically in the future.)
But now, the OECD have a greater impetus to crush the economic liberty in the world that tax havens provide. Most of the OECD countries have squeezed their populations to the limit and, wanting still more, have turned to massive, unpayable debt as a solution.
Just like an addiction to heroin, this dependency on a level of money that’s beyond what can be taxed has led these countries to a desperate impasse: the economic system itself is on the verge of collapse and nearing the end of their ability to maintain the cost of their overreach. They are redoubling their efforts to limit the activities of the world’s tax havens.
In addition, governments are passing legislation that increasingly limit the ability for an individual to make currency transactions. Whether spending, receiving payment, depositing or withdrawing, the freedom to transact is attracting greater scrutiny. (The ultimate stage will be the need to request permission to make any transaction.)
Since the early 2000s, several associates and I have tracked this development and termed it “The Great Race.” The OECD countries hope to gain total control over tax havens before their over-taxation and debt cause their economies to collapse.
If they fail to gain complete control prior to that time, they may not economically be able to take control after that. Although we’ve watched developments closely over the years, I must confess, we’re no closer to knowing whether they’ll win the race… It will be close.
On the surface, it would seem that the outcome wouldn’t matter much one way or the other. After all, the collapse of these economies, although possibly not imminent, is nevertheless inevitable. Sometime in the next few years, one trigger or another will bring down the economic house of cards. So, if the tax havens are destroyed in the meantime, why could they not simply reinvigorate themselves post-crash?
The problem is that if the OECD nations win the Great Race, the last bastion of economic sanctity—the tax havens—would have fallen, and much of the wealth they now contain might already have been transferred to the dying empires.
Like gold going down in 17th century Spanish galleons, it would be a long time before that wealth would be likely to resurface in the hands of those who are productive. It would have been squandered by the rulers of the OECD member-nations in their last gasp of world economic domination.
This does not mean that the world would never recover. After all, wealth is never destroyed; it only changes hands from time to time. But it could very well mean that, as in the aftermath of the collapse of the Roman Empire, sufficient wealth was not in the hands of those who are by nature productive. Therefore, a return to a productive free market would likely be slow in developing.
Historically, whenever collectivism has become total, recovery in its aftermath has always been slow.
And so the race is on—in a very big way. The world’s tax havens are, today, the last bastions—the Alamo—for the free ownership of wealth, and no one can say for certain to what degree the OECD nations will succeed in their quest prior to their economic fall.
To be sure, many low-tax and no-tax jurisdictions have been taking the position that “The OECD have the biggest guns. If we can only placate them for a bit longer and remain in business in some form until they collapse, we’ll be poised for recovery once the dust has cleared.”
In the meantime, many residents of OECD countries, who are only now figuring out that their governments are closing in on their wealth, are questioning whether there is any point in moving their money to jurisdictions where the laws are less confiscatory. They tend to say, “But if the OECD are going after the tax havens, what good will it do for me to diversify my wealth? They’ll get it all in the end anyhow.”
There’s certainly logic in that reasoning, but as any long-term investor who is familiar with the benefits of tax havens will say, “There is no guarantee your government won’t strip you of your wealth, but there never was.
The whole point has always been to not be the low-hanging fruit. Get your wealth as far removed from countries whose objective is to take it from you. In doing so, you raise the odds that you’ll retain your wealth… At the very least, you’ll be the last to be victimised and you might escape altogether.”
In essence, the world’s tax havens are the economic Alamo—the last holdout against world economic domination. In a few years, we’ll know whether they’ve succeeded in preserving economic freedom for the future.
Editor’s Note: Naturally, things can change quickly. New options emerge, while others disappear. This is why it’s so important to have the most up-to-date and accurate information possible. That’s where International Man comes in. Be sure to watch this free video to find out our favorite tax havens.
Check out the following links for related information:
[Editor's Note: what I have dubbed the "Legislative-Executive-Judicial Cabal" which the American People have caused by ignoring the generational transition from our Constitutional Republic to what now is, in effect, an "elected" dictatorship. Never mind who is elected. Never mind which bogus party is in power. The superficial, theatrically staged, choreographed appearance of debate, disagreement, and stalled legislation always resolves into more government and less FREEDOM. We the People still lose more freedom after every "emergency" or unnoticeably when CON-gress passes another general, open-ended law that enables the Executive (dictator) and its unaccountable agencies to formulate more freedom-restricting regulations (200 pages a day get posted to the Federal Register). The "Dictator's" agencies (police force) continue to pile-up more weapons to squelch uprising(s) when the People finally realize and understand their tyrannical government.
A Constitutional Convention is necessary to amend the Constitution for Congressional Term Limits to twelve (12) years and restrict time in DC to only six (6) months per year. Such an Amendment is only a FIRST step in restoring America to its Constitutional roots. Back in the day when the People still feared kings, the president's term was limited by Constitutional Amendment.
Currently, CONgress is just a group of socialists, progressives, and faux-conservatives (career politicians) that, on a daily basis, ignores the Constitution, many of their own past statutes, and cedes their responsibilities to the president ("elected" dictator). A comparison to the history of Rome becomes more and more credible with the Executive and its "featherbedded" lackeys gaining more power while CONgress sits back all fat-dumb-and-happy.
CONgress has made recent efforts to expose State Dept. failures in Benghazi (inept political leader), Fast-and-Furious gun-running (criminal AG), IRS 1st amendment violations, gov't union Veterans Administration fraud, and whining about Obama(Reid)-killer-Care, but these efforts are mostly politics as usual. Most "citizens" will forget about these infringements from our unaccountable, uncontrollable Executive branch with its tyrannical agencies staffed by socialist unions that extort "juicy" contracts from the "elected" dictatorship.
Most positions in the federal government whether elected, appointed, or hired are nominal, make-work jobs (confidentially) designed merely to grow government, bilk money from private businesses and citizens, and eventually fully transform America into a totalitarian state. When this happens, CONgress will have destroyed the economy and the country by their negligence and counter-liberty policies, and it will be almost impossible to Restore America. The 'Restore America' list is only a beginning too.]
Anyone who believes this country is free is an idiot!
Those who seek out positions of power tend to be paranoid, hypocritical wimps. Consider the issue of firearms. Politicians have many thousands of mercenaries (soldiers and "law enforcers") wielding all sort of deadly weapons--guns, tanks, missiles, drones, etc. Yet those same politicians pee themselves at the thought of the rabble owning semi-automatic rifles. From their twisted, elitist perspective, it's perfectly fine for them to swipe many billions of dollars from their subjects to spend on all manner of armaments, but if YOU want to possess a rifle, they think you should have to ask their permission, and register it, and make sure they always know what you own.
They also expect to be allowed to do things in secret, while claiming the right to spy on you and everyone else. As far as they are concerned, it's none of your business what they do, or what weapons they have, but it is their business to know everything that you do and everything that you have. Of course, they will pretend that their goal is to protect you from the "criminal element," but you'd have to be pretty dense to actually believe that. Why do you suppose they mostly whine about civilians having weapons that:
are used in only a tiny percentage of actual crime, and;
are the most effective types of weapon for resisting "government"
aggression?
You don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure it out. People who gravitate towards political office think they have the right to rule you. That's the job they applied for. And, of course, extorting you and bossing you around could be rather more difficult if you are better armed than their enforcers. So they hand out machine guns to their mindless thugs, but have tantrums about you having a 30-round magazine.
A new Congress has been seated, and it brings the prospect of perhaps, maybe, potentially, in a possible way doing something about the runaway federal deficits. And in other news, several New York area bridges are for sale, which you can acquire at a bargain price.
Excessive Spending Destroys!
Feds Have a Spending Problem — DO NOT RAISE THE CEILING!
Feds Have a Sewage Problem!
Becky Gerritson: "...government is out of control!" and "...our representative government has failed us."
A federal judge on Thursday ordered the IRS to detail under oath how some of former agency official Lois Lerner’s emails went missing, as well as any potential methods for recovering them.
Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court in Washington gave the Internal Revenue Service exactly a month — until Aug. 10 — to file a report, which he demanded as part of a lawsuit from a conservative watchdog, Judicial Watch, against the agency.
Judicial Watch is seeking a wide range of documents from the IRS, including Lerner’s emails, as part of a Freedom of Information Act request. It has complained that the IRS didn’t tell it that the agency couldn’t recover all of Lerner’s emails from 2009 to 2011.
Sullivan cast his ruling as a compromise, and a potential way for Judicial Watch to get answers without the court wading any deeper into the matter. Judicial Watch had asked the court to potentially compel IRS officials to testify about the lost emails, through a process called limited discovery.
The FairTax is a consumption tax unilaterally applied to all Americans at the same rate. For businesses, payroll taxes would no longer exist. Our exports would include a heavy tax for overseas buyers purchasing our products, while our imports would be cheaper for us to purchase. I'm not sure how this would affect GDP, as more information is necessary.
According to the FairTax website, "Under the FairTax, every person living in the United States pays a sales tax on purchases of new goods and services, excluding necessities due to the prebate." The prebate gives every legal resident household an "advance refund" at the beginning of each month so that purchases made up to the poverty level are tax-free.
So a family of four making something like $50,000/year should not have to pay taxes, thus preventing an unfair burden on low-income families. Since the FairTax eliminates both federal and payroll taxes, you get to keep your gross pay amount of each paycheck earned.
John Adams said, “Without [term limits] every man in power becomes a ravenous beast of prey”. That being said, here are some of the reasons we believe our country needs Term Limits.
Term Limits can help break the cycle of corruption in Congress. Case studies show that the longer an individual stays in office, the more likely they are to stop serving the public and begin serving their own interests.
Term Limits will encourage regular citizens to run for office. Presently, there is a 94% re-election rate in the House and 83% in the Senate. Because of name recognition, and usually the advantage of money, it can be easy to stay in office. Without legitimate competition, what is the incentive for a member of Congress to serve the public? Furthermore, it is almost a lost cause for the average citizen to try to campaign against current members of Congress.
Term Limits will break the power special interest groups have in Congress.
Term Limits will force politicians to think about the impact of their legislation because they will be returning to their communities shortly to live under the laws they enacted.
Term Limits will bring diversity of people and fresh ideas to Congress.
[Editor's Note: If you want to get rich, i.e. advance from a low paying government bureaucrat job on the local or state level, THEN GET ELECTED TO THE US CONGRESS (House or Senate). Once you're elected, it's easy to steal from your campaign contributions or the Congressional budget allocated to your seat and staff. You can go on a government-funded junket with 'lavishly' paid expenses. The list of ways to steal from the government while in office is inexhaustible. There are only a few Congressmen who left Congress just wealthy instead of a multi-millionaire. Of course, there are several who arrived in Congress as multi-millionaires and don't need to steal from the government.]
