The Panama Papers

[thorsten]

Well, stating an obvious fact and saying afterwards "told you so" doesn't seem to add much to a discussion I haven't read from anyone here that Macri is a savior, but merely comparisons a la "better than K".

What's interesting regarding the Panama Papers: there are already a lot of people implicated (some of it might be legitimate offshore companies, but several cases already prove dirty business), more to come in the next few days/weeks. However, the company is assumed to be #4 in the offshore business, so there are three bigger players with more customers... I wouldn't be surprised if they are currently high on the target list of several hacker groups.

 

[ben]

That was my point. He is not the savior, nor the devil. He is a normal, typical Argentine politician. He is the norm. The Argentine norm.

He represents the return to the Argentine status quo, after 12 years of the Ks.

OK, so I wasn't clear about lumping in 'Argentine normal' with 'the devil incarnate'. While not quite the same, we can agree that the former is much closer to the latter than to 'savior'.

Why must he be either transformational or typical Argentine? What's wrong with just plain 'normal'?

 

[Noesdeayer]

ben and thorsten :
Absolutely!
camberiu:
.Please,lower the usual alarm bells and exaggeration.
Why don't you give us your take on the Brazilian kingmaker Michel Temer and if you think -like he does-that it is a good idea to "change horses in midstream" and with the Brazilian Olympics only 4 months away .This could backfire on Brazil big time.
What about "sticky fingers".Ed Cunha?

 

[thorsten]

duplicate

 

[Dada]

What's the big deal about having some business activity in a fiscal paradise anyway? If I had that kind of money, of course I would consider protecting my investments. It's not only and always mafias and dirty money they are "hiding". If there is a legal way to invest my honestly earned money without feeding half of it to some warmongering government, why would I not? All these papers say about the names on them is that they are financially literate. It says nothing about where their money come from.

 

[ben]

What's the big deal about having some business activity in a fiscal paradise anyway? If I had that kind of money, of course I would consider protecting my investments. It's not only and always mafias and dirty money they are "hiding". If there is a legal way to invest my honestly earned money without feeding half of it to some warmongering government, why would I not? All these papers say about the names on them is that they are financially literate. It says nothing about where their money come from.

It does strongly suggest that taxes were not paid on that money.
If you work not as a drug mule but a software engineer, and hide your income so as not to pay taxes, that is tax evasion.

 

[thorsten]

It's nothing wrong per se with having an offshore company. However, they are often used not only for legal tax "optimization", but also for illegal tax fraud, bribes, illegal business, etc... Also, the anonymity can cover conflicts of interest as the cases of the PM from Iceland or the Uruguayan FIFA member shows.

 

[r2d2]

What's the big deal about having some business activity in a fiscal paradise anyway? If I had that kind of money, of course I would consider protecting my investments.

What the big deal is? Macri is head of the federal government. AFIP is an agency of the federal government. Macri was hiding undeclared income in a shell cooperation for himself, for his father, his brother, or most likely for all three. Evading taxes. Ever heard of leading by example?

Now everybody in Argentina can say: Why should I pay my taxes? The president was evading taxes. So it is legit to work in negro...

 

[EJLarson]

Macri was hiding undeclared income in a shell cooperation for himself, for his father, his brother, or most likely for all three. Evading taxes.

What did you read that led you to believe that? Unless money enters Argentina it's not taxable here. Do you know that the Macri family's money in these accounts is Argentine-taxable and that they haven't paid, or are you just assuming?

 

[jbeas176]

I could be late to the game, but read that his father's trading company was closed in 2009. may be a problem from when he was mayor of Buenos Aires.