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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (512799)	9/14/2009 1:53:00 PM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1577544

Tax evaders rush to beat amnesty deadline By Kim Dixon Kim Dixon 7 mins ago WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Rich Americans who have evaded taxes by hiding foreign holdings have about a week to turn themselves in to an Internal Revenue Service amnesty program or gamble they will not be caught. U.S. citizens with undeclared assets in tax havens such as Switzerland face a September 23 deadline to reveal their holdings, pay a fine and generally avoid criminal prosecution. When that amnesty program expires, any tax cheats found by the government could face criminal prosecution. The IRS expects to find some tax evaders soon. UBS AG, the Swiss banking giant, agreed to hand over to the IRS the names of about 4,450 secret accounts as part of a court settlement reached last month. "This is sort of their last, best chance if they are going to get off with lenient treatment," said Evan Stewart, a regulatory lawyer at the firm Zuckerman Spaeder. "If you're sitting there and you've sheltered $50 million from the U.S. government, are you willing to gamble with the (list of) 4,500 (names) and live in terror for a year?" Stewart said. The IRS said that, in one week of July, about 400 individuals turned themselves in under the amnesty program. That was four times higher than the number of tax evaders who stepped forward in all of 2008, according to the agency. The IRS declined to provide any other figures about participation in its amnesty program. IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman warned investors with money or securities in overseas accounts to step forward before the deadline. "Once the Swiss government turns over names, all bets are off," he said when announcing the UBS deal. It appears to be working. "They are all terrified," said Ken Rubinstein, who handles such cases in New York. Under the UBS settlement, the bank agreed to first hand over the names of 500 clients within about two months to Swiss authorities, who will review them before sending the list to U.S. officials. The remaining names will be submitted in a similar process by about May of next year. At the same time, IRS officials have said other foreign banks are being queried for possibly helping the wealthy evade taxes, although they have declined to be specific. Lawyers say their clients include UBS holders, but also those with funds at HSBC Holdings PLC Credit Suisse Group AG and in other offshore locations such as the Cayman Islands. By coming forward voluntarily, individuals significantly minimize penalties. "You can end owing more than is in the account when you add up all the liabilities," said an IRS official, who was not authorized to named. A taxpayer with about $1 million in an offshore account for six years would pay about $386,000 under the amnesty program, compared with $2.3 million under the normal regime, according to an IRS example. THREE-DAY TURNAROUND The approaching deadline has created a boon for tax lawyers. "We and pretty much every other practitioner I know are being swamped with calls from clients who have waited until the 11th hour," said Scott Michel, a lawyer who is handling about 250 amnesty cases at Caplin & Drysdale. Michel, whose clients have accounts valued between $1 million and $10 million, but with some reaching above $100 million, said they range from sympathetic Holocaust survivors to more typical tax dodgers. "There are some people who were just cheating on their taxes; there is no doubt about it," Michel said. The IRS began the program in March, part of an agency-wide focus on catching tax dodgers, to help make a dent in the $345 billion tax gap -- the amount the agency estimates goes uncollected each year. Steven Mopsick, who worked for the IRS for 30 years, said he is getting a three-day turnaround when he submits information to the IRS for the amnesty program. After checks on a client's passport or Social Security number to ensure there are no ongoing IRS probes, and a signature confirming that no income has come from illegal sources, the IRS grants a conditional approval before even looking at the tax forms. The agency "is interested in getting these things approved," said Mopsick, who is handling about 30 clients with accounts valued between $1 million and $2 million. "The acceptance letter says you have been conditionally approved for the program; sit tight and an agent will contact you," he said. Several lawyers involved in the program say many of their clients are immigrants who have inherited the funds. "The one thing that I'm noticing with some degree of surprise is how ordinary the clients are," Rubinstein said. "The vast majority of our clients are ordinary. We haven't seen many billionaires." (Reporting by Kim Dixon; editing by Dave Zimmerman and Andre Grenon)

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (512799)	9/14/2009 6:04:34 PM
From: J_F_Shepard	Respond to of 1577544

You don't know when to quit, do you..... of course you're not denying anything. I hope your RW friends read this.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (512799)	9/15/2009 3:22:51 PM
From: bentway	Respond to of 1577544

Intel Says Europe Erred in Levying $1.4 Billion Fine By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BRUSSELS (AP) — The Intel Corporation, the computer chip maker, is claiming in court documents that European Union regulators made serious mistakes in levying a record fine of 1.06 billion euros ($1.45 billion) last May on a charge of illegally restricting a competitor. In a legal plea published Tuesday in the European Union’s Official Journal, Intel is asking a European Union court to overturn the antitrust decision or reduce the “manifestly disproportionate” fine. It claims that the European Commission did not supply enough proof to back up accusations that Intel had used unfair sales tactics in the computer chip market to squeeze out a Silicon Valley rival, Advanced Micro Devices, the No. 2 supplier of microprocessors to PC makers. The European Union ordered Intel to stop illegal sales tactics such as rebates to the computer manufacturers Acer, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, the Lenovo Group and the NEC Corporation for buying all or most of their chips from Intel and paying them to stop or delay A.M.D.-based computers. Intel says regulators are mistaken to judge these discounts as illegal without checking if they had actually shut A.M.D. out of the market and had “immediate, substantial, direct and foreseeable effects” on sales to European customers. The company says A.M.D. increased market share and profit during part of the 2002-7 period and that A.M.D.’s “own shortcomings” were to blame for poor sales in some markets or with some computer manufacturers. Intel also claims that its rights were violated because regulators had not granted the company a second hearing to dispute charges in July 2008 and had not allowed Intel to see documents A.M.D. gave to the European Union executive. The European Court of First Instance has not yet set a date to hear Intel’s appeal. Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (512799)	9/18/2009 6:43:34 AM
From: Road Walker	Respond to of 1577544

Incomes of young in 8-year nose dive By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY The incomes of the young and middle-aged — especially men — have fallen off a cliff since 2000, leaving many age groups poorer than they were even in the 1970s, a USA TODAY analysis of new Census data found. People 54 or younger are losing ground financially at an unprecedented rate in this recession, widening a gap between young and old that had been expanding for years. While the young have lost ground, older people have grown more prosperous over the years and the decades. Older women have done best of all. The dividing line between those getting richer or poorer: the year 1955. If you were born before that, you're part of a generation enjoying a four-decade run of historic income growth. Every generation after that is now sinking economically. Household income for people in their peak earning years — between ages 45 and 54 — plunged $7,700 to $64,349 from 2000 through 2008, after adjusting for inflation. People in their 20s and 30s suffered similar drops. Older people enjoyed all the gains. The line between the haves and have-nots runs through the middle of the Baby Boom, the population explosion 1946-64. "The second half of the Baby Boom may be in the worst shape of all," says demographer Cheryl Russell of New Strategist Publications, a research firm. "They're loaded with expenses for housing, cars and kids, but they will never generate the income that their parents enjoyed." What caused the income gap: • Waiting line for good jobs. Older people are working longer, crowding out young people from the best-paying jobs while boosting the incomes of older workers and seniors. • Global competition. Low-income workers in other nations have pushed down wages in the USA. Newly hired workers — generally younger people — experience the wage decline first, says economist Dean Baker of the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal-leaning think tank. • Golden age of retirement. Social Security and private pensions have elevated the incomes of retired people to record levels and reduced poverty among the elderly. One bright sign: Women have boosted income by holding half the USA's jobs, working longer hours and narrowing the gender pay gap from 2000, when women made 25% less than men, to 2008, when they made 23% less. Older, college-educated career women have had the biggest gains. Terry Neese, founder of a human resources firm in Oklahoma City, says income shifts partly reflect changing gender roles and values. As women bring in more income, men can work less or stay home with children, she says. Neese says her own daughter, who now runs the family firm, worked less and went to more kids' soccer games. "My daughter says, 'I'm not going to work like you worked,' " says Neese, 60. Find this article at: usatoday.com