Let's be clear: at any level of income, people pursue different tax minimizing strategies. At the lower end, you're looking at things like EITC. At the upper en

Let's be clear: at any level of income, people pursue different tax minimizing strategies. At the lower end, you're looking at things like EITC. At the upper end, you get into capital gains, tax-loss harvesting, etc. Separately, and at every income level, there are tax evasion strategies—like stashing money offshore and under-reporting your earnings, or taking all your tips in cash and "neglecting" to tell the IRS. Tax evasion is illegal, tax minimization is logical. (If you want to argue about the complexity and bias of the U.S. tax code, that's a different topic.) In of itself, an offshore bank account is perfectly legal. You're conflating income with illegal activities, and suggesting it's "common" for high-income or high-net-worth to be, effectively, criminals.