End of Swiss Bank Accounts - Unthinkable

Quote from illinimatt81:
The bank admitted conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service and agreed to pay $780 million to settle a sweeping federal investigation into its activities.

In a striking admission, UBS said that from 2000 through 2007, some of its private bankers and managers had “participated in a scheme to defraud the United States” and the I.R.S. The scheme involved falsifying or not properly obtaining or filing certain tax forms required of both the bank and its clients.

UBS urged some American clients to destroy records . . .
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Nothing has changed with regards to protecting your money in legitimate offshore accounts for privacy. These guys CHEATED. These brokers cheated. They admitted to breaking the law. They were caught. 'Avoiding' taxes, which is what people will continue to do, is not a crime. Nothing has changed, you can't cheat. In this case, UBS was NOT protected under Swiss law. Below is a synopsis of Swiss law with regards to what has transpired here.

BANKING IN SWITZERLAND

Swiss bank secrecy does not protect private banking information; the protections afforded under Swiss law are similar to confidentiality protections between doctors and patients or lawyers and their clients. While secrecy is protected, in practice all bank accounts are linked to an identified individual, and a prosecutor or judge may issue a "lifting order" in order to grant law enforcement access to information relevant to a criminal investigation. International legal assistance is only granted with respect to tax fraud.
 
Swiss authorities should have stuck to their guns and told UBS to tell the DOJ to fk off. So what they lose the US securities license, the bank is already insolvent and is a de facto branch of the government
 
The US Government is prejudiced toward the wealthy. They are trying to tax <b>everyone</b> to death.

Quote from RiceRocket:

Is the US government trying to destroy the wealthy?
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Quote from Daal:

Swiss authorities should have stuck to their guns and told UBS to tell the DOJ to fk off. So what they lose the US securities license, the bank is already insolvent and is a de facto branch of the government
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LOL!
 
Tax evasion might be a crime but tax management is everyone's duty. If one is able to save taxes by investing with a competing government, why not? Governments are in business just as any other business and should compete for customers. I am not sure how it is today, but overseas investors to the US don't have (or didn't have to) pay certain taxes (e.g. dividend taxes) if they were not US residents or US citizens. This was so that the US could compete with other government which let you do this as well.
However, just as in any other business, competing on price alone is basically the lowest denominator and not good for the company/government. So you can offer better quality products or scare the customer into believing that the other product is unsafe. Guess what the US government is trying to do? Guess what Switzerland's business model was?
 
Quote from Beebers:

Tax evasion might be a crime but tax management is everyone's duty. If one is able to save taxes by investing with a competing government, why not? Governments are in business just as any other business and should compete for customers. I am not sure how it is today, but overseas investors to the US don't have (or didn't have to) pay certain taxes (e.g. dividend taxes) if they were not US residents or US citizens. This was so that the US could compete with other government which let you do this as well.
However, just as in any other business, competing on price alone is basically the lowest denominator and not good for the company/government. So you can offer better quality products or scare the customer into believing that the other product is unsafe. Guess what the US government is trying to do? Guess what Switzerland's business model was?
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Further, a lot of times the government gives tax breaks to encourage certain behavior, such as making your house more energy efficient. The feds want people to take advantage of these benefits.
 
Quote from Specterx:

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.
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Very well said.
 
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