As Timothy Geithner has apty demonstrated, if you’re well commected, you get a free pass for tax evasion; and a promotion to manage the department that includes the IRS. In further evidence that being wealthy gives you a pass, the IRS is apparently going to give tax cheats who hide their assets offshore a free pass. According to a Times article, not only do these people not go to jail — the obvious outcome if they don’t come foward now before UBS is forced to disclose their names — but they get to keep most of their money, too. What kind of bullshit is this?
The new plan may be more likely to draw in tax evaders because the I.R.S. and the Justice Department are exerting significant legal pressure on UBS, the world’s largest private bank, to disclose 52,000 client names. Unless those clients come forward before their names are potentially turned over, they can face a heightened risk of being prosecuted, as well as the steeper Fbar penalties.
I have a better idea. How about, if you don’t pay your taxes, you motherfucking go to jail like everyone who isn’t a rich fucker. How’s that idea sound?