Iceland PM resigns over Panama Papers

[passiveporcupine]

27. I'm curious why it's called "tax evasion"

And still considered legal. Maybe someone can explain that to me.

If (I'm not suggesting they are) the Clintons were hiding millions in a tax evasion scheme, My concern, would be that the leader of a country like the US, knows there are so many poor people/children, knows the economy is great for the 1% but not so great for the middle and lower classes, knows wages are dropping for the middle class and ninimum wage is stagnant and higher education is leaving students in debt for their lives. Oh hell, they know it all, just not up close and personal, so why would they not only live in splendor, and make millions from wall street speeches, but still want to put away more millions in a tax evasion scheme. I mean taxes are what our country runs on and they know it better than anyone, yet if they feel they can evade them legally, that is morally OK?

No, it's not.

So how do the Clinton's live? They got a personal co-signer* to pay for their NY home, valued at 1.7 million, so they could live in NY when they left the white house and Hillary could run for senate. They claimed they were 5 million in debt at the time for legal fees for all the investigations against them. And I'm sure they were, but they had friends in high places, and they did not need to buy an almost 2 million dollar home right away...but they did. And then they bought a second home in DC. It was valued at 2.85 million and they said they struggled to pay mortgages on those two homes after leaving the whitehouse.

So if they didn't have the money to pay the mortgages, why did they invest in two such expensive and elaborate homes?

They knew they'd be making tons of money soon. They knew they'd be able to handle it. They immediately started fund raisers for her senate seat. If they were that desperate, maybe they could have gotten jobs? Oh yeah, the senate pays pretty well too.

They also lived in government mansions for 20 years and didn't have to pay a mortgage, and got paid 200K plus 50K for expenses while in the white house. I don't know how much the governor gig paid. Probably not that much.

Again, I'm not saying that hiding money offshore to avoid taxes is what they are doing. I'm just trying to point out how immoral it would be to lead a country where people are struggling so much, while they are living so well, and then hide millions for tax evasion.

It is immoral and it should be illegal.

*
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/03/nyregion/with-some-help-clintons-purchase-a-white-house.html?pagewanted=all

Here is their NY home:


and here is their DC home:

Mr. McAuliffe has amassed a personal fortune through his investments in a home-building firm, a title insurance firm and a mortgage servicing firm. Last night, he was at the Clintons' side again as they raised money in Syracuse, where, as it turns out, Mr. McAuliffe grew up.

Mr, McAuliffe is the one who put up the money for their NY home. Isn't it nice to have such good friends in high places?

I am hoping that they are not evading taxes this way, and the papers will not reveal anything about them. I don't like thinking the former President of my country would do that.

But the Icelander's probably felt the same way about their PM.

You never know what rich people will do. Something about all that money just clouds their morals.