Panama Papers: How rich Americans avoid taxes and stay anonymous

More than 11.5 million records. About 2.6 terabytes of data. Roughly 200 Americans.

The red, white and blue has been surprisingly scarce so far in the Panama Papers, a giant leak of legal documents released this weekend linking hundreds of public officials and celebrities to tax evasion through an offshore company called Mossack Fonseca. McClatchy reported that at least 200 American passports were involved in the leak, but few reflected prominent names.

So why aren't there more Americans implicated in the Panama Papers? Well, there might be: An editor with Süddeutsche Zeitung, which has been leading the investigation of the records, tweeted Monday to "just wait" until more were released. But some tax experts suggest the reason is that executives simply don't have to leave the country to find places to make sly-but-legal business deals. The practices detailed in the documents are simply standard in many parts of the U.S., including Nevada and Delaware.

"A very small number of states are notorious for allowing pretty much anybody to start a company in the state without requiring even the most basic information," said Matthew Gardner, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy with Citizens for Tax Justice, a progressive think tank and advocacy group in Washington, D.C. "There are a few states that effectively make the U.S. a privacy haven in exactly the same way that Panama is being described here."

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/04/panama-papers-how-rich-americans-avoid-taxes-and-stay-anonymous/