to stash their riches in, out of sight of the public.

The US's wealthy's names were underrepresented in the Panama Papers - leaked from a single firm that set up thousands of fake compnies - US people were suspiciously absent from the shell companies papers because even though hundreds of Europeans had set up these shell companies - to hide their incomes and assets, Americans went elsewhere..

its been going on here in the US for some time, and the US wealthy have been able to set up shell companies here that hide their assets while letting them keep their accounts here in the US, much to the distress of other countries that need to know their incomes for taxation purposes. Its all a big joke for the wealthy. .

Americans are not in the Panama Papers news release because US citizens and corporations tax dodges are becoming more sophisticated. not because they are particularly any less common, Often hiding ones assets is legal under US law. Showing how well connected the wealthy and US banks are.

The spiders web got its start in the former British colonies.. WHich sheltered the ill gotten riches of dictaors and oligarchs and billionaires way back as far as the 1950s and 1960sSoon a huge amount of dirty money was stashed there. Safe from the taxpayers of the countries it had been stolen from. They got away with this and many crooks thrived.

Many US states, such as Delaware Florida and Texas go to great lengths to help the rich avoid accountability in various ways.

- The second two states let wealthy people shield up to 10 million dollars in a primary residence, if they lose a lawsuit against them. Even if its demonstrably stolen money.

This $10 million "homestead" exemption lets thieves of all kinds keep assets from those they took it from nomatter what.

Even if the debtors owe much more than that, good luck fining it as the laws shield the knowledge of who is the owners.

they get to shield the value of a home worth up tp TEN MILLION DOLLARS from anybody who has won an award against them. For example, when board members of Enron were convicted of bilking thousands of small investors and even heir own employees out of millions of dollars in retirement funds , their board members could keep a hefty amount of money even though they had been convicted of stealing millions of dollars, the life savings of thousands of energy investors, by means of frauds.

Tax shelters are asset protection schemes that often expose the darkest side of the wealthy and how many are basically parasites, not creating any real wealth, instead, manipulating various loopholes and buying and selling financial instruments that often turn out to be fraudulent. Sucking the life out of society in order to line their pockets and drain others. Its clear they plan well in advance to steal large amounts of money from people by the life choices they make.

Tax laws often are rigged to help rich people make essentially free money in corporate welfare..

Tax policy encourages the offshoring and outsources of entire departments in companies. Letting corporations get away with paying essentially no taxes by shifting the money around.
They are getting corporate welfare from the government. where the rich can often shelter their assets from creditors view or seizure, making it impossible for creditors to access. Even when they won lawsuits the savvy rich make it so costly to recover their money they often give up. Or they end up having to pay as much in attorneys costs as they can get back. Many lawyers charge $1000, $2000/hr. The US is the hardest country in the world for its people to afford to buy justice. The rich can hide their assets and get favorable tax treatment right here in the US. Corporate and other kinds of trusts are growing exponentially.

US is legalizing many tax dodges but fighting bribery. THe tax dodgers should NOT be given amnesty.

Pfizer was hoping to merge with Allergan so they could shift profits to Ireland . It would have saved them billions in profits, allowing them to shift their profits to very low tax Ireland.

It would have been
2nd biggest merger in history

Also here is a vpro documentary on corporations sheltering income from taxes.

Vpro, The Tax Free Tour.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4o13isDdfY]

Apple pays only 1.9% of their profits! Scandalosa!