Avoiding taxes by squirreling away money offshore isn’t as easy as it used to be, notes this report in Forbes, but the fact that it remains such a popular dodge can be blamed in part on — you guessed it — the Internet.
The top federal tax rate is half what it was 30 years ago. Shouldn’t offshore accounts be on the decline? They probably would be but for the fact that the Internet and the globalization of business make these accounts so much more accessible. “It’s not just the highest-net-worth people anymore,” Hochman observes, pointing to the recent conviction of the owner of Buddy’s Carpet in Cincinnati for a tax evasion scheme that involved insurance and offshore accounts in Nevis, the West Indies and elsewhere.
Buddy (not his real name) would seem to be looking at some jail time. The Web she’s claimed another one.
