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Tax the rich and better target the multinationals… this week, the IMF set off shockwaves in Washington by suggesting countries fight budget deficits by raising taxes. Tucked inside a report on public debt, worries about the American budget crisis mostly eclipsed the new tack, but didn’t escape the notice of experts and NGOs. Nicolas Mombrial, the head of Oxfam in Washington, said, “We had to read it twice to be sure we’d really understood it. It’s rare that IMF proposals are so surprising”. A guardian of financial orthodoxy, the IMF, which is holding its annual meetings with the World Bank this week in the American capital, typically calls for nations in difficulty to slash public spending to reduce their deficits. Nevertheless, in its Fiscal Monitor report, subtitled “Taxing Times”, the Fund advanced the idea of taxing the highest-income people and their assets to reinforce the legitimacy of spending cuts and fight growing income inequalities.
The IMF wrote, “Scope seems to exist in many advanced economies to raise more revenue from the top of the income distribution”, noting “steep cuts” in top rates since the early 1980s. According to IMF estimates, taxing the rich even at the same rates as during the 1980s would reap fiscal revenues equal to 0.25 percent of economic output in the developed countries. The IMF report stated, “The gain could in some cases, such as that of the USA, be more significant”, around 1.5 percent of GDP, which also singled out deficient taxation of multinational companies. According to the IMF, in the USA alone, legal loopholes deprive the Treasury of roughly 60 billion USD (1.94 trillion Roubles. 62 billion CAD. 63.4 billion AUD. 44.3 billion Euros. 37.6 billion UK Pounds) in receipts.
The 188-nation IMF said that it didn’t want to enter into a debate on whether the rich should pay more taxes. However, it said, “The chance to review international tax architecture seems to come about once a century; the fundamental issues shouldn’t be ducked”. The IMF managing director, Christine Lagarde, kept up the sales pitch for a more just fiscal policy. On Wednesday, Lagarde, a former French Minister of Economy and Finance, said in a panel discussion “It’s clearly something finance ministers are interested in; it’s something that’s necessary for the right balance of public finances. There are lost of wasted opportunities”.
After the country’s highest court overturned the French Socialist government’s proposal of a 75 percent tax on the wealthy last year, French Minister of Economy and Finance Pierre Moscovici cautiously welcomed the Fund’s new direction at a news conference in Washington, saying, “If the core idea is that fiscal policy is a policy that aims to reduce inequalities, I wouldn’t know how to protest against that”. Moscovici said that it was a “positive development”, but he downplayed that it marked a “significant change” for the IMF.
The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, which is leading the global battle against tax havens and tax evasion by multinationals, welcomed the IMF at its side. Pascal Saint-Amans, head of the OECD’s centre for tax policy, told AFP, “We’re happy to see this. There’s a place for everyone. The Fund can bring a real contribution on economic analyses”. In the corridors, however, a quiet skirmish is underway between the two organisations for the leadership of the tax-haven offensive ordered by the Group of 20 major economies. The IMF’s Copernican Revolution is still in the its early dawning stages. In its report, the IMF continued to push for a wider scope for value-added tax (VAT), a consumption tax that some say is inherently unfair, and on reductions in public spending. Oxfam’s Mombrial said, “These proposals are heading in the right direction, but a lot remains to be done”, calling notably for the IMF to do more against illegal capital flows which, according to the NGO, cost billions of dollars in fiscal revenues in developing countries.
12 October 2013
AFP
As quoted in Yahoo News
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/19361021/tax-the-rich-imf-sparks-a-mini-revolution/
Editor’s Note:
Let’s keep it simple. The Republican Party nominated Willard Romney… a man with millions in offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands. That means that GOP SUPPORTS the rape of the economy by multinationals and their stashing their boodle in offshore accounts so that the government can’t tax it. They’re godless Mammon worshippers, and all those who vote for Republicans toss a pinch of incense on Mammon’s altar. That means that contemporary Republicans aren’t only greedy, they’re unpatriotic to the bone, as they support those who rip up the USA’s economy for their personal benefit. Such sorts wrap themselves up in the flag. It makes me sick. It’s time to make the rich pay up… the scandal of our kids leaving college thousands of dollars in debt just so that we can coddle the Affluent Effluent has to end.
Orthodox people should reflect that Paffhausen, Lyonyo, Potapov, Whiteford, Dreher, and Mattingly all support the Greedster Right. They aren’t your friends… they all throw their pinch of incense on Mammon’s altar (what would St Polycarp say to that?)… it does put their rants in a new light, doesn’t it?
BMD
Voices from Russia 
Sanity Strikes the Establishment… Tax the rich? IMF Sparks a Mini-Revolution
Tags: Affluent Effluent, cartoons, Christine Lagarde, editorial cartoons, IMF, International Monetary Fund, Non-governmental organization, Oxfam, political commentary, politics, Tax, taxes, United States, USA, Washington, World Bank
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Tax the rich and better target the multinationals… this week, the IMF set off shockwaves in Washington by suggesting countries fight budget deficits by raising taxes. Tucked inside a report on public debt, worries about the American budget crisis mostly eclipsed the new tack, but didn’t escape the notice of experts and NGOs. Nicolas Mombrial, the head of Oxfam in Washington, said, “We had to read it twice to be sure we’d really understood it. It’s rare that IMF proposals are so surprising”. A guardian of financial orthodoxy, the IMF, which is holding its annual meetings with the World Bank this week in the American capital, typically calls for nations in difficulty to slash public spending to reduce their deficits. Nevertheless, in its Fiscal Monitor report, subtitled “Taxing Times”, the Fund advanced the idea of taxing the highest-income people and their assets to reinforce the legitimacy of spending cuts and fight growing income inequalities.
The IMF wrote, “Scope seems to exist in many advanced economies to raise more revenue from the top of the income distribution”, noting “steep cuts” in top rates since the early 1980s. According to IMF estimates, taxing the rich even at the same rates as during the 1980s would reap fiscal revenues equal to 0.25 percent of economic output in the developed countries. The IMF report stated, “The gain could in some cases, such as that of the USA, be more significant”, around 1.5 percent of GDP, which also singled out deficient taxation of multinational companies. According to the IMF, in the USA alone, legal loopholes deprive the Treasury of roughly 60 billion USD (1.94 trillion Roubles. 62 billion CAD. 63.4 billion AUD. 44.3 billion Euros. 37.6 billion UK Pounds) in receipts.
The 188-nation IMF said that it didn’t want to enter into a debate on whether the rich should pay more taxes. However, it said, “The chance to review international tax architecture seems to come about once a century; the fundamental issues shouldn’t be ducked”. The IMF managing director, Christine Lagarde, kept up the sales pitch for a more just fiscal policy. On Wednesday, Lagarde, a former French Minister of Economy and Finance, said in a panel discussion “It’s clearly something finance ministers are interested in; it’s something that’s necessary for the right balance of public finances. There are lost of wasted opportunities”.
After the country’s highest court overturned the French Socialist government’s proposal of a 75 percent tax on the wealthy last year, French Minister of Economy and Finance Pierre Moscovici cautiously welcomed the Fund’s new direction at a news conference in Washington, saying, “If the core idea is that fiscal policy is a policy that aims to reduce inequalities, I wouldn’t know how to protest against that”. Moscovici said that it was a “positive development”, but he downplayed that it marked a “significant change” for the IMF.
The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, which is leading the global battle against tax havens and tax evasion by multinationals, welcomed the IMF at its side. Pascal Saint-Amans, head of the OECD’s centre for tax policy, told AFP, “We’re happy to see this. There’s a place for everyone. The Fund can bring a real contribution on economic analyses”. In the corridors, however, a quiet skirmish is underway between the two organisations for the leadership of the tax-haven offensive ordered by the Group of 20 major economies. The IMF’s Copernican Revolution is still in the its early dawning stages. In its report, the IMF continued to push for a wider scope for value-added tax (VAT), a consumption tax that some say is inherently unfair, and on reductions in public spending. Oxfam’s Mombrial said, “These proposals are heading in the right direction, but a lot remains to be done”, calling notably for the IMF to do more against illegal capital flows which, according to the NGO, cost billions of dollars in fiscal revenues in developing countries.
12 October 2013
AFP
As quoted in Yahoo News
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/19361021/tax-the-rich-imf-sparks-a-mini-revolution/
Editor’s Note:
Let’s keep it simple. The Republican Party nominated Willard Romney… a man with millions in offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands. That means that GOP SUPPORTS the rape of the economy by multinationals and their stashing their boodle in offshore accounts so that the government can’t tax it. They’re godless Mammon worshippers, and all those who vote for Republicans toss a pinch of incense on Mammon’s altar. That means that contemporary Republicans aren’t only greedy, they’re unpatriotic to the bone, as they support those who rip up the USA’s economy for their personal benefit. Such sorts wrap themselves up in the flag. It makes me sick. It’s time to make the rich pay up… the scandal of our kids leaving college thousands of dollars in debt just so that we can coddle the Affluent Effluent has to end.
Orthodox people should reflect that Paffhausen, Lyonyo, Potapov, Whiteford, Dreher, and Mattingly all support the Greedster Right. They aren’t your friends… they all throw their pinch of incense on Mammon’s altar (what would St Polycarp say to that?)… it does put their rants in a new light, doesn’t it?
BMD