"When more of the people's sustenance is exacted through the form of taxation than is necessary to meet the just obligations of government and expenses of its economical administration, such exaction becomes ruthless extortion and a violation of the fundamental principles of a free government." - Grover Cleveland, December 1886
"The west's leading industrial countries have agreed a set of core principles designed to combat tax evasion and reveal the true owners of shadowy companies.
A joint declaration by the G8 at their summit in Northern Ireland agreed to share tax information and to change rules that allow companies to shift profits across borders.
But the agreement fell well short of demands made by campaigners, with David Cameron failing to persuade any other G8 country to support Britain's call for registers of public ownership to be made public and resistance to the idea that a G8 plan for automatic exchange of tax information should be extended to poor countries..."
Read more:
http://www.guardian.co.u...gree-tackle-tax-evasion
The Swiss have stood up to the ruthless extortion of the United States.
"ZURICH—Swiss lawmakers dealt a serious blow Tuesday to a plan that could enable the country's banks to avoid the threat of prosecution in the U.S. by collectively coming clean about their dealings with suspected American tax evaders.
The lower house of Parliament voted 126-67 against even considering the plan, which would allow banks to skirt Switzerland's banking secrecy law and hand information to U.S. authorities about the undeclared holdings of their American clients, as well as the bank employees who assisted those clients..."
Read more:
http://online.wsj.com/ar...g=reno64-wsj.html?dsk=y