Infinite Unknown

A pedestrian enters the UBS headquarters on Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich (Bloomberg)

Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) — A Swiss court ordered tax officials to drop two more cases involving UBS AG account holders, adding urgency to the government’s effort to find a political solution that will preserve a data-sharing agreement with the U.S.

The Federal Administrative Court, in a decision published today, told Switzerland’s tax authority to comply with an earlier ruling that blocked it from sending the U.S. information on 26 UBS customers. The court in Bern said Switzerland may only lift bank secrecy rules when there is evidence of tax fraud.

The ruling increases pressure on the Swiss to find a way to salvage the agreement to hand over data on as many as 4,450 UBS account holders as part of a U.S. crackdown on tax evasion. Ministers said this week they will ask the parliament to approve the U.S. settlement to get around the court rulings. Continue reading »

Tags: Banks, Economy, Law, Politics, Switzerland, Taxes, Taxpayers, U.S., UBS

Taxman targets 100,000 top earners to claw back millions

More than 200 years after rules on tax status were introduced to meet the cost of the Napoleonic wars, a new battle is being waged against Britons and foreign workers.

Scrutiny of the tax affairs of wealthy individuals, foreign workers, entrepreneurs and celebrities has gathered pace since the Labour Government came to power. High earners are being pursued with new vigour by the authorities, which are under immense pressure to bolster Treasury coffers and deliver hundreds of millions of pounds.

Their persistence is paying off. According to data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by McGrigors, a law firm and tax investigation specialist, compliance activity focusing on high-net-worth taxpayers and wealthy foreigners resident in Britain by Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has yielded astonishing results: in 2008-09, tax teams netted £373 million. Four years before that they collected only £81 million.

The figures represent the work of the Revenue’s expatriate and complex personal returns teams, now replaced by one dedicated team. Launched last year, the high-net-worth unit is made up of about 500 staff, each dealing with just ten wealthy taxpayers.

The department has not specified the level of wealth for individuals to fall under scrutiny, but accountants suggest it could be in excess of £10 million. Figures published in 2007 showed that while about 400 people earned more than £10 million a year in Britain, only 65 of them paid income tax. Continue reading »

Tags: Society, Taxes, Taxpayers, U.K.

Prepare for collapse.

Here is a quick roundup with a general theme of “Hard Times”.

12th Grade Optional

Utah considers cutting 12th grade — altogether

At Utah’s West Jordan High School, the halls have swirled lately with debate over the merits of 12th grade. The sudden buzz over the relative value of senior year stems from a recent proposal by state Sen. Chris Buttars that Utah make a dent in its budget gap by eliminating the 12th grade.

Buttars has since toned down the idea, suggesting instead that senior year become optional for students who complete their required credits early. He estimated the move could save up to $60 million, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

The proposal comes as the state faces a $700-million shortfall and reflects the creativity — or desperation — of lawmakers all over.

“You’re looking at these budget gaps where lawmakers have to use everything and anything to try to resolve them,” said Todd Haggerty, a policy associate with the National Conference of State Legislatures. “It’s left lawmakers with very unpopular decisions.”

“The bottom line is saving taxpayer dollars while improving options for students,” said state Sen. Howard A. Stephenson, a Republican and co-chairman of the Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee. “The more options we give to students to accelerate, the more beneficial it is to students and taxpayers.”

Jordan Utah School District To Lay Off 500

Jordan District to lay off 500 employees because of $30M shortfall

The Jordan School District will lay off 500 employees by July 1 as part of an effort to make up for a $30 million shortfall.

By a 6-1 vote, the Jordan Board of Education approved options to reduce the 2010-11 budget, which include personnel cuts, programs and services cuts, transfer of expenditures to other programs, compensation adjustments, class-size increases, and possible tax increases.

Between now and the end of March, the board will determine which positions and programs will be eliminated. As many as 250 teaching positions and 250 administrative/support staff positions will be cut.

Not a single teacher need be cut. All it takes is unions to lower salary demands and/or pensions. Any cuts are the direct responsibility of the Teachers’ union.

Harrisburg Pennsylvania Heads For Bankruptcy

Harrisburg excludes debt payments from 2010 budget

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, moved a step closer to defaulting on a bond payment when its city council passed a 2010 budget that does not include $68 million in debt repayments on an incinerator. Continue reading »

Tags: Bankruptcy, Debt, Economy, Global News, Government, Healthcare, Medicaid, N.B.A., Nevada, Pennsylvania, Politics, Schools, Society, Taxes, Taxpayers, Unemployment, Utah

A rise in VAT is looming whichever party wins the general election, as Labour and the Conservatives draw up plans to balance Britain’s books.

Alistair Darling and George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, are both considering raising VAT to as high as 20 per cent — the European average — from the current rate of 17.5 per cent, The Times has learnt.

Doing so would raise an extra £13 billion a year at a time when financial markets are searching for signs that whoever takes power is serious about tackling Britain’s £178 billion deficit.

Though Labour and the Tories have denied having any current plans to increase VAT, neither will rule it out and The Times understands a rise in the tax is being considered by both parties.

One City source close to the Tory tax team said: “There is a view across the Conservative Party that VAT is going to have to go up.”

The Chancellor is also keenly aware that Britain needs to retain the confidence of the credit-rating agencies. He has privately ruled out either raising income taxes or increasing the scope of VAT, but has deliberately left open the possibility of increasing the sales tax in the next Parliament. Continue reading »

Tags: Alistair Darling, Government, Politics, Taxes, U.K.

“I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”

This footage was taken during than presidential candidate Obama’s speech in Dover, NH. President Obama pledges not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year.

Added: 4. Februar 2009

Change:

- Obama’s $3.8 Trillion Budget: Tax Rise of $1.9 Trillion for Richer Americans, Businesses:

Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) — The Obama administration proposed to increase taxes on Americans earning more than $200,000 by close to $970 billion over the next decade and take in an additional $400 billion from businesses even as it retooled a proposed crackdown on international tax-avoidance techniques.

More lies:

- MSNBC Exposes President Obama’s lies: FED GAVE Banks Access to 23.7 TRILLION DOLLARS NOT $700 Billion!

- Barack Obama’s Health Care Lies And Reversals

- Barack Obama Lies 7 Times In Under 2 Minutes!!!!!

Liar in Chief (Over 300 soldiers died in 2009 because of this lie!!!):
- Obama: ‘I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am President, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank.’

Continue reading »

Tags: Barack Obama, Government, Obama administration, Politics, Taxes, Taxpayers, U.S.

Related articles:

- Obama Proposes $3.8 Trillion Budget Focused on Jobs (Bloomberg):

Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama’s $3.8 trillion fiscal 2011 budget puts an emphasis on job creation with $100 billion in additional stimulus spending, along with higher taxes for the wealthy in an attempt to narrow the deficit.

This is just the beginning of the coming ‘Obamatax’ increases.

The US is totally broke:

- America’s Impending Master Class Dictatorship!

Obama Seeks $1.9 Trillion Tax Rise on Rich, Business

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks about the government’s 2011 fiscal year budget in Washington on Feb. 1, 2010. Photographer: Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg

Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) — The Obama administration proposed to increase taxes on Americans earning more than $200,000 by close to $970 billion over the next decade and take in an additional $400 billion from businesses even as it retooled a proposed crackdown on international tax-avoidance techniques.

The new budget released today would reinstate 10-year-old income tax rates of 36 percent and 39.6 percent for single Americans earning more than $200,000 and joint filers who make more than $250,000 as part of a broad $1.9 trillion tax increase proposal. It proposes to eliminate preferences for oil and gas companies, life-insurance products, executives of investment partnerships, and U.S.-based companies that operate overseas.

“The administration proposes to restore balance to the tax code by providing tax cuts to working families, returning to the pre-2001 ordinary income tax rates for families making more than a quarter of a million dollars a year, closing loopholes, and eliminating subsidies to special interests,” the budget says.

In all, Obama proposed $143.4 billion in new tax cuts for individuals who earn under $200,000. While the budget sets out $93.5 billion in gross tax reductions for businesses, overall they would face a net tax increase. Continue reading »

Tags: Barack Obama, Debt, Economy, Global News, Government, Obama administration, Politics, Taxes, Taxpayers, U.S.

“The collapse of the financial system is still in its early stage.”

“The social unrest will illicit cries for the government to exert unusual force to head off a complete breakdown of law and order. The ultimate trap will be set for a system of government claiming to protect a free society.”

“If more power and police authority are not given to the Federal government, it will be argued that only anarchy will result. If more government policing power is given, it will mean a lethal threat to civil liberties.”

“We are rapidly moving toward a dangerous time in our history. Society as we know it is vulnerable to political and social unrest. This impending crisis comes as a consequence of our flawed foreign and domestic economic policies, a silly notion about money, ignorance about central banking, ignoring the onerous power and mischief of out of control intelligence agencies, our unsustainable welfare state and a willingness to sacrifice privacy and civil liberties in an attempt to achieve safety and security from an inept government.”

“Dangerous times indeed.”

“The only way that we can prevent blood from running in the streets is to offer a better idea of the proper role of government in a society that desires, first and foremost, liberty.”

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Added: 21. Januar 2010

2 of 3:

Added: 21. Januar 2010

3 of 3:

Added: 21. Januar 2010

The Fed and the US government are destroying America:

- America’s Impending Master Class Dictatorship! (MUST-READ!)

- The CFR Controls American News/Media

- Senate Proposes Increasing US Debt Limit to $14.3 Trillion: “If Congress does not enact this legislation, and soon, then the Treasury would default on its debt for the first time in history,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus

- US: Unfunded Benefits Dig States’ $3 Trillion Hole

- Illinois enters a state of insolvency: ‘We’re close to de facto bankruptcy, if not de jure bankruptcy.’

- The No.1 Trend Forecaster Gerald Celente: Financial Mafia Controlling US and Wall Street

- Peter Schiff: The Lunacy of US Government Programs

- Former Dean of Harvard College Harry R. Lewis: Larry Summers, Robert Rubin: Will The Harvard Shadow Elite Bankrupt The University And The Country?
Continue reading »

Tags: Bailout, Barack Obama, Ben Bernanke, Bubble, Central Bank, China, CIA, Civil liberties, Congress, Constitution, Debt, Depression, Detention, Dollar, Economy, Fed, Federal Reserve, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Freedom, Global News, Government, Habeas Corpus, Herbert Clark Hoover, Hyperinflation, Inflation, Keynesianism, Military, Obama administration, Politics, Poverty, Real Estate, Recession, Society, Taxes, Taxpayers, Terrorism, Terrorists, Treasury, U.S., Unemployment, War

This article is a MUST-READ!

This is not a conspiracy. This is politics and economics.

Wake up America! You will lose everything, if you do not act NOW.

Prepare yourself for a complete controlled meltdown. The greatest financial collapse in world history.

A hyperinflationary depression. THE Greatest Depression.

The Fed and the US government are destroying America!

(More information at the end of the following article.)

“The people no longer have elected representatives; they have elected traitors.”

By Stewart Dougherty

Stewart Dougherty is a specialist in inferential analysis, the practice of identifying historic and contemporary patterns and then extrapolating their likely effects upon the future. Dougherty was educated at Tufts University (B.A., magna cum laude), and Harvard Business School (M.B.A. and an academic Fellow).

FOREWORD: At certain times, focusing on the big picture is important not just for investment success, but for personal welfare, and even survival. We believe such times are here. It is estimated that 98% of Americans have never held a gold coin in their hands. Yet 100% of Americans regularly handle Federal Reserve Notes. From a contrarian standpoint, the financial message from those two statistics is clear. Even so, gold is much more than money or an investment medium; it stands for liberty and throughout history has facilitated escape and ensured freedom. Never having touched a gold coin is the monetary equivalent to never having breathed fresh air, felt the warmth of sunshine, looked up at the stars or risen from the gutter. Fiat Federal Reserve Notes are becoming nothing more than sewage decomposing in the vast, toxic septic tank of predatory Washington politics, epic Federal Reserve arrogance and error, blatant Wall Street fraud and outright Master Class plunder. Below, we outline America’s troubling and compounding predicament, and urge you to think about how to protect yourself from its consequences, both financially and personally.

Thanks to the endless barrage of feel-good propaganda that daily assaults the American mind, best epitomized a few months ago by the “green shoots,” everything’s-coming-up-roses propaganda touted by Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke, the citizens have no idea how disastrous the country’s fiscal, monetary and economic problems truly are. Nor do they perceive the rapidly increasing risk of a totalitarian nightmare descending upon the American Republic.

One stark and sobering way to frame the crisis is this: if the United States government were to nationalize (in other words, steal) every penny of private wealth accumulated by America’s citizens since the nation’s founding 235 years ago, the government would remain totally bankrupt.

According to the Federal Reserve’s most recent report on wealth, America’s private net worth was $53.4 trillion as of September, 2009. But at the same time, America’s debt and unfunded liabilities totaled at least $120,000,000,000,000.00 ($120 trillion), or 225% of the citizens’ net worth. Even if the government expropriated every dollar of private wealth in the nation, it would still have a deficit of $66,600,000,000,000.00 ($66.6 trillion), equal to $214,286.00 for every man, woman and child in America and roughly 500% of GDP. If the government does not directly seize the nation’s private wealth, then it will require $389,610 from each and every citizen to balance the country’s books. State, county and municipal debts and deficits are additional, already elephantine in many states (e.g., California, Illinois, New Jersey and New York) and growing at an alarming rate nationwide. In addition to the federal government, dozens of states are already bankrupt and sinking deeper into the morass every day.

The government continues to dig a deeper and deeper fiscal grave in which to bury its citizens. This year, the federal deficit will total at least $1,600,000,000,000.00 ($1.6 trillion), which represents overspending of $4,383,561,600.00 ($4.38 billion) per day. (The deficit during October and November, 2009, the first two months of Fiscal Year 2010, totaled $296,700,000,000.00 ($297 billion), or $4,863,934,000.00 ($4.9 billion) per day, a record.) Using the GAAP accounting method (which is what corporations are required to use because it presents a far more accurate and honest picture of a company’s finances than the cash accounting method primarily and misleadingly used by the U.S. government), the nation’s fiscal year 2009 deficit was roughly $9,000,000,000,000.00 ($9 trillion), or $24,700,000,000.00 ($24.7 billion) per day, as calculated by brilliant and well-respected economist John Williams. (www.shadowstats.com) Fiscal Year 2010’s cash- and GAAP-accounting deficits will likely be worse than 2009’s, given government bailout and new program spending that is on steroids and psychotic.

Putting Fiscal Year 2009’s $9,000,000,000,000.00 ($9 trillion) deficit another way, 17% of America’s private wealth, accumulated over a period of 235 years, was wiped out by just one year’s worth of government deficit spending insanity.

Given this, is it any surprise that Treasury Secretary Geithner has announced that the release of the nation’s FY 2009 supplemental GAAP financial statements has been delayed? Remember, this is the same Secretary Geithner who bullied people to cover up the sordid details of the AIG, or more accurately, the taxpayer-funded, multi-billion dollar, Santa Claus bailout and bonus bonanza for Goldman Sachs. Do you really think this government, characterized as it is by fiscal and monetary secrecy, lies, chicanery, cronyism and stonewalling, wants the people to know what is actually happening? Obviously, it does not, so it hides from the public the inexcusable facts.

Continue reading »

Tags: Al Gore, Alan Greenspan, Bailout, Bankruptcy, Barack Obama, Ben Bernanke, Bonds, Corruption, Debt, Dictators, Dictatorship, Dollar, Economy, Fed, Federal Reserve, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Fraud, Freedom, GDP, Global News, Gold, Goldman Sachs, Government, Health, Healthcare, Henry Paulson, Hugo Chavez, Hyperinflation, Inflation, Keynesianism, Larry Summers, New World Order, North Korea, Obama administration, Politics, Ponzi schemes, propaganda, Robert Rubin, Silver, Society, Taxes, Taxpayers, Timothy Geithner, Treason, Treasury, U.S., Venezuela, Wall Street

Tags: Banks, Barack Obama, Constitution, Economy, Fed, Federal Reserve, Goldman Sachs, Government, Healthcare, Obama administration, Politics, Taxes, Taxpayers, U.S.

Related information:

- Marc Faber on Coming Sovereign Debt Crisis: Next Countries to Default are the US, Japan and the ‘PIIGS’ (Yahoo Finance)

- Fitch: US Must Cut Spending To Save AAA Rating; US December Deficit Nearly Doubles (Telegraph)

- The Coming Sovereign Debt Crisis (Forbes)

- A global fiasco: Japan is about to blow up (Telegraph)

Surprise:

All that bailout and stimulus money has to be paid back by the US taxpayer through higher taxes or by the Fed monetizing US debt (= quantitative easing = printing money = creating money out of thin air), which creates inflation, which is nothing more than a tax on monetary assets!

Change you can believe in!

“Deficits mean future tax increases, pure and simple. Deficit spending should be viewed as a tax on future generations, and politicians who create deficits should be exposed as tax hikers.” - Ron Paul

(Reuters) — The United States must soon raise taxes or cut government spending to curb its debt, and failure to act will risk a crippling dollar crisis as investor confidence ebbs, a panel of experts said on Wednesday.

“It has got to be done. It will be done some day. It may be done with enormous pain. Or it may be done more rationally,” said Rudolph Penner, a former head of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget office who co-chaired the 24-strong Committee on the Fiscal Future of the United States.

President Barack Obama’s administration will present his budget for fiscal 2011 early next month amid intense pressure to live up to election campaign promises not to raise taxes on middle class Americans, while confronting a record deficit.

Continue reading »

Tags: Barack Obama, Debt, Dollar, Economy, Government, Obama administration, Politics, Taxes, Taxpayers, U.S.