The only solution is to confiscate the bank accounts of these parasites and then hang them!

COMMUNISM NOW

Sweden have one of the highest taxes in the whole world and most of us ordinary tax payers (I don't buy people saying they don't get the meaning of this.) are fine with it. That's because we get it back with social welfare and other similar things. When wealthy and powerful people skip out on this while having the benefit of living in a ordered society that others with less means pay for people that do pay for it get understandable angry.

Democracy isn't nonsense. That and freedom of speech are the most important things that protect ordinary folk from oppression. There are degrees here and I won't argue that but by and far democracy IS mostly for the people.

Panama papers are fake. Exactly how all the countless fake-ass, absurd news *supposedly* from North Korea are.

Only the reports of the death sentences Kim ordered, equal to half a continent population and half his family. Both are still there.

I know I'm going to regret engaging you on this, but do you care to back up those statements with some facts or reputable sources? I doubt any exist.

Likewise. For the authenticity of those papers, i mean, too. So, the default "democratic" solution is to take the news with a grain of salt and consider everyone innocent, until proven guilty, as the law declares...

Right. So you're saying that you don't know at all that these are fake, you are just taking that position because... reasons.

There's a huge difference between a healthy skepticism of the news and outright denying it without proof one way or another. Skepticism is reasonable, denial is stupid. Denial in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary is just insane. What we have here is overwhelming, though only partially verified (by the perpetrators themselves), evidence that hundreds of world leaders and business people have engaged in business practices that while probably not technically illegal, are at the very least, extremely unethical. At least half of the 12 heads of state who are named in the Panama papers have admitted that the info contained in them is completely true, they just deny that they did anything wrong. You can't get much more reputable a source than the accused admitting the truth.

Sorry pal, nothing personal, but i can't take news seriously from the "sources" of the people (US) who declare "Russia is the greatest threat to europe", while they messed it up because of geopolitical prospect of gains themselves (like trying to enlist Ukraine in NATO). Or claim Kim murdered half a continent, while populace hasn't decreased there. From the very same people who armed and funded ISIS either indirectly and as a "mistake" (by the rebels they trained and instead of fighting ISIS joined it instead), or willingly by buying petrol from them. Sorry pal, your news are bad news, at best. Of course, if the panama case proves true, i will apologize. What are the chances, though, i wonder, for such a thing...

You realize the original source of this was not the US, it was a German news organization that brought the papers to an international journalism group who then worked with several news organizations, none of which were in the US, to investigate the claims. The US media didn't even pick this up until almost 24 hours after the rest of the world. Iceland was already protesting their Prime Minister, calling for his resignation before a single US news service reported anything. As much as people like to blame the US for everything that is wrong with the world, we were completely out of the loop on this one.

Tax evasion = bad (or so I've been raised), but then let the first non-sinner throw the first stone or whatever. When people here get angry over rich people trying to evade taxes (e.g. by moving from Finland to Portugal for their retirement days), I ask them how about:

- the Finns who go to buy assloads of cheap beer in Estonia to bring it to Finland (in order to evade the much higher alcohol tax in Finland)

- the Finns who drive across the border to Russia to fill up their tank with much cheaper gasoline (much less taxes)

- the Finns who buy an used car from Germany in order to bring it here, or drive a car registered to Estonia (to evade related taxes in Finland)

- the Finns who buy electronics and storage from online stores abroad in order to avoid the Finnish tax-like charges (like the Teosto payment) on any devices with storage space

- the Finns who try to buy cheaper medicine online

I believe the common people are just as morally corrupt as the rich people. If they can evade the taxes and get something cheaper without getting caught, they will. The only way to fight it, rich and common people alike, is to try to make it as hard as possible.

I can certainly understand why e.g. Icelanders were furious at their PM, as they've been forced to comply to very strict rules themselves (about getting hold of foreign currency etc.)... and then they learn their PM is not playing by the same rules.

To be fair, there is a huge difference between crossing a border to save a few bucks and moving millions upon millions into offshore accounts to avoid paying taxes on them. When you move that much money out of the local tax system, the rest of the population in that locality ends up shouldering more than their fair share of the tax burden. Public services like schools, hospitals, transportation and law enforcement are denied funding that otherwise should be helping everyone, just so some multi millionaire can be a muli-multi millionaire. We live in a world where just 62 people have as much wealth as half the entire world's population and these are the kind of people that are avoiding paying their share. They already own half of the world, but apparently that's not enough.

EDIT - And we haven't even touched on what the money they were hiding has been used for while it was winding its way through the money laundering jungle; bribery, terrorism, arms dealing, drug dealing. Basically any bad thing you can think that will keep the rich rich and the poor poor.

http://panamapapers.sueddeutsche.de/en/

The only difference I can see is scope. The idea is the same, to avoid paying taxes as much as one safely can. I am not convinced at all that that someone who saves "only a few bucks" would be any more likely to act more morally(?) as a millionaire.

From the rich guy's point of view, they feel it is unfair the whole welfare system is financed from their(?) money almost exclusively. Not saying that is the right or moral way to think, but that's how most people in the same position would most likely feel.

Show me a person who has e.g. earned a fortune during his lifetime, or even just won it in a lottery, and is willing to give most of it to finance the welfare system, rather than e.g. securing the lives of their own family and offspring, and I'll show you... my dick (sorry I couldn't think of anything else to show right now, I hope that'll do). I guess there is always Bill Gates and such, but I always feel they have some other agenda there like teaching their kids to earn their own fortune, or go to history books as a big benefactor...


EDIT: Oh yeah, that is also another thing I find funny. When I ask these concerned citizens isn't it wrong that Finns don't have to pay taxes if they win in the national lottery (ie. they get the whole sum to themselves), they don't see any problem with that. They don't also seem too concerned that e.g. a local Formula One hero like Kimi Räikkönen is not registered to Finland, but is registered to some other country where he doesn't have to pay as much taxes.

Double standards, the angry mob is more likely to give a free pass to lottery winners (especially knowing that they might become one as well at some point), local sports heroes, singers, actors etc.

That's easy:
http://givingpledge.org/index.html
130-odd wealthy individuals, including a few billionaires like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, who have pledged to give away half of their total wealth either within their lifetimes or in their wills through charitable causes and other philanthropy. This is on top of already paying their fair share of taxes.

EDIT - Oh, and please keep your dick out of this, for all our sakes.

EDIT 2 - After checking that site, apparently all of those people are billionaires, not just simply wealthy. Keep in mind, there are somewhere around 1600 people in this world that qualify as billionaires and so far, these are the only ones out of that 1600 who aren't dicks.

Yes I was reminded of them and added them to my message, but there I see the big difference in going to the history books as a benefactor (especially if you were formerly considered as evil, like Bill Gates).

People who pay high taxes don't, they are invisible benefactors, or not regarded as benefactors at all but evil rich people (just for being rich, no matter how much they paid taxes in their lifetime). Like how people here got outraged learning how the former short time CEO of Nokia (Stephen Elop) will be later in his life eligible to quite a nice Finnish pension, not paying attention to the fact that he had paid insane amounts of money to the Finnish pension system during those three years he was working in Finland.

Also as I recall, they quite often had some own agendas there, like they wanted to teach their kids to make their own fortune etc.

I guess a much more telling example is to look what common people do with their lottery jackpots. How many of them give most of it to charity, and how many want to keep as much as they can to themselves and their close relatives? I'm sure many give also to charity, especially those without offspring, but most?

Of course they aren't seen as benefactors, paying taxes is essentially a duty of all citizens, regardless of their income level. Why should they be hailed for doing what they are simply supposed to do anyway, just like everyone that isn't rich enough to afford offshore holdings?

Almost half (44%) of all lottery winners are broke within 5 years of winning. Most of that loss is because the winner didn't anticipate what the tax burden for suddenly becoming rich really is and just spent until they couldn't afford to pay the tax anymore. Depending on the laws and taxes in the country/region, up to 90% of whatever winnings you get will be gone in taxes, almost half of that just in the initial tax bill on winning in the first place. If you don't plan very carefully, you'll end up living in that new Bugatti supercar you wasted most of your actual money on. The other 56% of winners invest it wisely, including paying out a significant amount to charity, if only for the tax breaks that provides. Of course those people plan for their heirs and such, but planning for your heirs does not mean you have to move your money offshore where nobody can touch it, it just means you need to make wise investment decisions that will pay off over the long term (hire a financial adviser). Most of the time, that means setting up trust funds, money market accounts, bonds, stock investments... not off shore tax shelters.