TAX CODE -- RIGHT-WING GROUPS DECRY EXPOSING TAX HAVEN FRAUD AS 'BLAMING THE VICTIM':
A Senate investigation released yesterday, which took 18 months and sifted through 2 million documents, concluded that "sham companies hiding the assets of super-wealthy Americans and corporations offshore are costing the U.S. Treasury as much as $100 billion a year in lost taxes ." The use of offshore tax shelters is so extensive, the investigation found, that "law enforcement cannot control the growing misconduct. " In response to the report, a range of conservative groups -- including the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, and the Center for Freedom and Prosperity -- actually lined up to defend the tax shelters . "Clearly designed to criticize taxpayers who use low-tax jurisdictions for tax-planning purposes," a release from the groups said, the Senate's work was an effort to "blame the victim" -- i.e., the super-wealthy Americans -- who are suffering under "punitive tax rates." Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) said yesterday, "I get incensed by people who use tax havens to not pay their taxes while the average guy has to pay his taxes because they are taken out of his pay before he gets it." IRS Commissioner Mark Everson also conceded that "offshore abuses are a real problem," and that the challenges to the IRS are "acute and ever-growing ."
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