Wealthy Client Avoids Paying $20 Million In Taxes

The debate over taxing the rich tends to focus too much on changing the official tax rates. The real issue is getting the wealthy to pay their official taxes in the first place.

This article, by David Twiddy of the Associated Press, mentions two attorneys in Kansas City, Mo., who have been accused of helping wealthy clients avoid millions of dollars in taxes. They allegedly did it through setting up sham companies in Nevada.

The sham companies "would receive payments for bogus management services to the clients' companies, which were then claimed as tax deductions. Other bogus corporations distributed the management fees as stock to the customers' Roth Individual Retirement Accounts, which are not taxable."

The most-shocking part of this story, however, is the example of one wealthy client who allegedly avoided reporting or paying taxes on more than $57.6 million, saving $20 million.

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Read the original AP article here.

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