UBS chairman says clients "not harmless victims": report

Source: Reuters

ZURICH (Reuters) - Clients of UBS facing disclosure of their accounts to U.S. tax authorities were not harmless victims and legal cases against former UBS bankers did not affect the bank, its chairman told Swiss Sunday newspapers.

"The clients are not just harmless victims. They knew what they wanted to evade," Kaspar Villiger, chairman of the world's second-largest wealth manager, said in an interview with SonntagsBlick.

"But they trusted the bank that it would work. Now we have to correct that," said Villiger, adding it was still not the responsibility of UBS to make sure clients paid their taxes.

Switzerland last week agreed to reveal the names of thousands of UBS's rich U.S. clients to Washington, settling a tax-avoidance dispute that had battered the bank's reputation and damaged Switzerland's prized bank secrecy.

Villiger did not believe systematic tax evasion had been a problem in countries other than the United States, he said in a separate interview with NZZ am Sonntag, adding that legal action against former U.S. bankers did not affect the bank.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE57M10Q20090823?sp=true

It cant be far behind.

makes me suspicious.

I just wonder how many of our esteemed politicians in Washington are on this dreaded list! It should be really interesting!

that no politician at the federal level is stupid enough to do this kind of thing.

But then REP. VIRGINIA FOXX (R-NC)and REP. PAUL BROUN and that idiot from Iowa opened their mouths and it became apparent that stupid is epidemic in Congress.

:hi: Welcome to DU! :hi:

in the tax dodgers are portrayed as "just harmless victims."

We've got prisons full to overflowing with poor sods that wrote bad checks for $40, but the IRS has been giving these super criminals a chance to go scott free if they fess up. Bullshit. Double Bullshit. Double turds.

If a decade in prison for tax evasion was good enough for Al Capone, it's good enough for these rich skid marks that don't feel obligated to pay their taxes like us "common" folks.

And I wonder how many of these "rich skid marks" made their fortunes off tax cuts ala Reaganomics! Imagine, lying to the "common" folks about the need for taxcuts that would be "re-invested" in the American economy therefore creating jobs, but yet putting all their ill-gotten swag straight into off-shore tax havens! Their contempt for the American middle class and the American worker knows no boundaries.

Pat Schroeder, former representative from Colorado, said it best when she referred to "trickle-down" economics as "trickle-on" economics.

I felt like I've been "trickled-on" for the last couple of decades...:grr:

Because the US alone taxes its citizens regardless of where in the world they live. American living in Europe? You'll pay double taxes on any income above your exemption limit (around $85-90K).

American citizens living abroad are required to declare foreign income to the IRS and to pay tax on any amount above that of the allowed exemption (which is around US$90K). This is rather fucked, honestly, as the US is the only country that taxes its citizens on the basis of citizenship and not residence; also, the IRS will still tax former US citizens who hold another citizenship and renounce their American citizenship if the renunciation is deemed to be for tax purposes.

decide that you're not going to pay your taxes because you don't think it's fair.

If you're out of the country for more than 18 consecutive months you don't have to pay taxes on money earned overseas. That sounds like a pretty fair arrangement to me.

The distinction between avoidance and evasion is pretty murky. What you're actually saying is can I get a lawyer to tell me that if I do X I don't have to pay taxes on the money.

Paying your taxes is patriotic.

It's your duty to arrange your business affairs in a manner to pay the least amount of taxes possible.