Should the President of the United States have a Swiss bank account?

What some of the people around here are forgetting, is that there are facts, and then there are political facts.

In elections, only the latter matter.

 

That isn't what I'm arguing. Please quote where I said that. You may be inferring the wrong thing, but I'm not implying it.

The question was what tax advantages there are to having money in Swiss banks. It's pretty clear there are tax advantages, even if the advantages are gained "illegally," because the legality has not and possibly will not be tested.

 

The link you posted said it would be advantageous for "nonprofit institutions and large retirement funds" to set up shop there.

It didn't say anything about personal bank accounts. Unless I'm lazy and didn't read the whole thing.

 

OK, then. Just so we are clear ... you are saying that you can't think of any tax advantages to having a Swiss bank account unless you are trying to cheat.

 

Look, guys, here is what you are arguing: There is no tax advantage to having money in Swiss and Cayman banks.

I have shown some of the ways it happens. If you don't see it, and don't agree with the part of the New York Times article that says Mitt Romney "may have benefited personally" from an accounting technique that senators from both sides of the aisle want declared illegal, then we're at loggerheads here.

Just go on posting that it's all about the currency and nothing about the taxes. That notion makes no sense and isn't the way it's applied practically in the world, is your only problem there.

 

Right. And nobody ever tries to skirt the rules on their taxes so it probably really doesn't ever happen in the real world.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2012/01/24/romney-foundation-gives-210k-in-boston.html

But if Mitt had a charity, would it be financially wise to hold its accounts offshore?

 

I was kind of hoping for some more detail on this pargument, too ...

 

Yep, looks like the Obama campaign's hit a nerve.

 

Ragu, you're a much smarter financial mind than I, but reading that NY Times article, it appears pretty clear that by investing in an IRA in the Caymans, one can avoid paying the unrelated business income tax, which is something -- according to the article -- Romney has done.

That would qualify as a tax advantage that you as an American would gain by putting your money into an IRA in the Caymans instead of in the U.S. Am I misreading?

 

Oh, I dunno Doc, I guess I'm just naive in not thinking it would be an economic cure-all if all Americans "domiciled" all of their money in overseas banks.