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There was also this one: > For a modest 22% commission, the service will deliver suitcases of cash to New York or Vancouver. Guaranteed. Given that the author

There was also this one: > For a modest 22% commission, the service will deliver suitcases of cash to New York or Vancouver. Guaranteed. Given that the author leads with how the superwealthy aren't paying the 20-30% tax rate that he claims the average tax payer does, it seems weird to call a 22% service fee an effective avoidance mechanism.

blunte 9y ago
But you don't have all your assets delivered in cash. That's just something you do when you suddenly need a pile of cash. Most other means of transferring/delivering assets come with costs - costs which depend upon the urgency, the physical security, etc. Someone storing 1bn offshore doesn't bring it all home via such a service.
makapuf 9y ago
Suitcases of cash are often used for not so legal money (drugs, arms) for which the main issue can be anonymous transfers, not taxes.
- gozur88 9y ago
  Yeah, the big problem for people using a service like that isn't that they have to pay tax. It's that they can't say where the money came from. Still, I find it kind of odd it costs so much. I though Hawala banks transfer money for just a few percentage points.
baybal2 9y ago
Those guys target less sophisticated players. See, a random communist bum have just managed to illegally sell a part of a state company for n gazillions. He has not a single chance to make even as much as 1% of that in his whole life. If you were him, will you settle with that 1% and have 100% certainty that all traces are cut, or keep the whole sum and spent the rest of his life in fear.
logfromblammo 9y ago
With reportable transactions, you can theoretically be taxed whenever the money moves, or whenever it stays in the wrong place for too long. A suitcase of cash only pays the 22% once, and then you can buy as much cocaine and companionship as you like with it, without reporting any of it to the taxman, or filing 1099s on behalf of your grey-market friends, who would otherwise be charging you extra to pay for their sales tax, income tax, FICA, and social security. Or maybe you just need a quick $100k to keep an ex-lover quiet, but your spouse keeps too sharp an eye on the joint accounts, and you would rather pay extra to not answer any uncomfortable questions. That's not about the taxes; but about drawing a contrast between services extended to VIPs that are completely unavailable to mundane folk. If I want cash, I have to go somewhere else with a card and push buttons on a machine, which may still charge me $3 for my trouble. And I can only do that if I have already paid all applicable taxes on the money in the account. And I'm pretty sure that if I ever got an actual suitcase of cash from my bank, they would rat me out to the cops before I even touched it, who would then seize it during a pretext traffic stop about 100 m outside the bank parking lot, for their civil forfeiture party fund.

blunte 9y ago

But you don't have all your assets delivered in cash. That's just something you do when you suddenly need a pile of cash. Most other means of transferring/delivering assets come with costs - costs which depend upon the urgency, the physical security, etc. Someone storing 1bn offshore doesn't bring it all home via such a service.

makapuf 9y ago

Suitcases of cash are often used for not so legal money (drugs, arms) for which the main issue can be anonymous transfers, not taxes.

gozur88 9y ago
Yeah, the big problem for people using a service like that isn't that they have to pay tax. It's that they can't say where the money came from. Still, I find it kind of odd it costs so much. I though Hawala banks transfer money for just a few percentage points.

baybal2 9y ago

Those guys target less sophisticated players. See, a random communist bum have just managed to illegally sell a part of a state company for n gazillions. He has not a single chance to make even as much as 1% of that in his whole life. If you were him, will you settle with that 1% and have 100% certainty that all traces are cut, or keep the whole sum and spent the rest of his life in fear.

logfromblammo 9y ago

With reportable transactions, you can theoretically be taxed whenever the money moves, or whenever it stays in the wrong place for too long. A suitcase of cash only pays the 22% once, and then you can buy as much cocaine and companionship as you like with it, without reporting any of it to the taxman, or filing 1099s on behalf of your grey-market friends, who would otherwise be charging you extra to pay for their sales tax, income tax, FICA, and social security. Or maybe you just need a quick $100k to keep an ex-lover quiet, but your spouse keeps too sharp an eye on the joint accounts, and you would rather pay extra to not answer any uncomfortable questions. That's not about the taxes; but about drawing a contrast between services extended to VIPs that are completely unavailable to mundane folk. If I want cash, I have to go somewhere else with a card and push buttons on a machine, which may still charge me $3 for my trouble. And I can only do that if I have already paid all applicable taxes on the money in the account. And I'm pretty sure that if I ever got an actual suitcase of cash from my bank, they would rat me out to the cops before I even touched it, who would then seize it during a pretext traffic stop about 100 m outside the bank parking lot, for their civil forfeiture party fund.