Many Indians ,especially the younger generation including and especially my son, is never tired of telling me how bad India is and how good, orderly and Citizens are in the US and Europe.
I have agreed to the extent that India is corrupt and needs a Clean up and at the same time The West is not a Puritan either.
If the scams in India are in crores of Indian Rupees it is in Millions of US Dollars and Pound Sterling abroad.
This post is an eye opener for those who praise the citizens abroad for their Dutiful citizenship.
You dot evaluate a culture by mere standing in Queues and cleanliness on the road.
I have my brother’s Grand son living in Sweden for quite a few years now.
He used to tell me how responsible and helpful the Swedes are in helping out citizens in need of Government assistance, be it a form filling even.
Yes .
I agreed and informed him that he would find, in the course of time, how corrupt and morally decaying a Society Sweden is in terms of personal Life style and how it ruins family life over there.
Now,though he still appreciates the good things over there, he has realized that a Culture needs to be evaluated on the over all aspects of Life.
Having said this,let me add that if only we develop the Industriousness, attention to Detail, Public Spirit and responsible citizenship…!
The following information is not to justify our corrupt practices but to point out that the West is decaying excepting in a material comforts which is contributing to it s decay.
Corruption
“Tax evasion poses an acute challenge to developing and developed countries. From 2000 to 2010, illicit financial flows deprived developing countries of US$5.86 trillion. Tax evasion is not a victimless crime – for people in the developing world, the consequences of tax evasion can be a matter of life and death. If developing countries could recover this untaxed wealth, it could mobilise enormous resources for improving their public services and their citizens’ lives.
The new Eurodad report “Secret structures, hidden crimes” finds that the hidden ownership of companies and other legal structures facilitates tax evasion, corruption and related crimes. It outlines the different ways that individuals abuse companies, trusts and other vehicles in order to evade taxes.
It argues that better information about who owns and controls these companies and other set-ups is key to bringing trillions of dollars of offshore wealth back into the tax net and helping to prevent capital flight in the future.
It argues that all forms of tax evasion can be more effectively fought where they are recognized as a “predicate offence” of money laundering as this makes it a criminal offence to help someone to hide and shift tax-evaded money. For some countries tax evasion is already a predicate offence, but only in a limited set of circumstances”…
According Oxfam, tax evasion by
individuals costs developing countries
US$124 billion. Christian Aid has found that,
even using a very conservative estimate,
developing countries lose the equivalent of
US$160 billion per year to tax evasion by
multinational companies using false invoicing
and blatant transfer mispricing. If this sum
were channelled to developing countries’
budgets, with allocation unchanged it
would be enough to save the lives of 1,000
children every day. Over the past decades,
tax evasion by individuals has led to the
accumulation of US$21–32 trillion of untaxed
offshore wealth, according to recent research
by the Tax Justice Network (TJN). About
25-30% of this (US$5.3–9.6 trillion) is from
developing countries.
Money laundering is the process of
concealing the source of money obtained
by illegal means. It can be easier to hide
tax-evaded income because, unlike other
criminal proceeds, the money generally
comes from a legitimate source initially. This
money only becomes illegal later on, when
the full amount of tax due is not paid. This
generally involves the taxpayer concealing
or under-declaring their income. Tax evasion
and money laundering therefore go hand”..
Hidden ownership facilitates
corruption and crime
Beneficial ownership transparency would
also help address illicit capital flight, which
cost developing countries an estimated
US$859 billion in 2010. These flows comprise
proceeds of corruption, crime and tax
evasion. The United Nations Office on Drugs
and Crime (UNODOC) estimated the total
value of money laundering to be around
US$2.1 trillion in 2009 – equivalent to 3.6% of
global GDP.
The UN and World Bank STAR (Stolen Asset
Recovery Initiative) published some 150
corruption cases involving hidden ownership
of a corporate vehicle either to launder
money or as part of the initial scam. Global
Witness has produced a number of case
studies on corrupt officials laundering their
money abroad, while researchers have found
that sub-Saharan Africa has lost US$700
billion to illicit capital flight since 1970,
dwarfing its outstanding debt of US$175
billion. Corruption could also be curbed with
strong AML rules.
Hidden ownership masks
accountability for human rights and
environmental violations
When a human rights violation takes place,
those affected can find it difficult to take
a case to court if the parent company or
management further up the ownership chain
cannot be identified. The same goes for
environmental violations.”…
Use of complex structures to
circumvent financial regulation
Before the financial crisis, many banks
used complex and even illegal structures to
hide losses that would later be bailed out
by taxpayers. UK bank Northern Rock did
this using an investment vehicle based in
Guernsey registered in the name of a real
charity, without the charity’s knowledge. If
ownership information was made publically
available online people and organisations
would be able to check if their identity was
being abused in this way.
Tax avoidance
Greater organisational transparency and
beneficial ownership disclosure would
make it easier to understand aggressive tax
planning and avoidance schemes that exploit
legal loopholes when transactions take
place between jurisdictions with different
rules. Many of these schemes exist in a
contested grey area between what is legal
and illegal. One telling example of the impact
of tax avoidance in developing countries
is ActionAid’s case study of UK brewing
giant SABMiller.”
http://eurodad.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Secret-structures-hidden-crimes_summary-online.pdf
http://www.financialtaskforce.org/2013/01/14/secret-structures-hidden-crimes-urgent-steps-to-address-hidden-ownership-money-laundering-and-tax-evasion-from-developing-countries/
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