And why does everyone whine about millionaires and billionaires stashing their money into them?

If you became successful by means of the US infrastructure then it seems unfair to avoid any and all means of repaying that establishment.

If you became successful by means of the US infrastructure then it seems unfair to avoid any and all means of repaying that establishment.

Yeah aren't offshore bank accounts a way that people use to avoid paying taxes? If so, couldn't you just force them to pull their money out of those accounts and bring it all back here by just putting a gun to their head?

Quote from: eggsalad on November 16, 2015, 06:31:41 PM

If you became successful by means of the US infrastructure then it seems unfair to avoid any and all means of repaying that establishment.

Yeah aren't offshore bank accounts a way that people use to avoid paying taxes? If so, couldn't you just force them to pull their money out of those accounts and bring it all back here by just putting a gun to their head?

Yes.
I don't think the Swiss would recognize coercion as legally binding agreement for withdrawal. They'd probably also consider that a crime against their person, as it's sort of extortion.

In the same way that foreign banking protects corrupt richfags, it also protects people from unjust government intervention and seizure. I won't pretend to know which is the bigger problem.

Quote from: Jagdtiger on November 16, 2015, 06:36:25 PM

Quote from: eggsalad on November 16, 2015, 06:31:41 PM

If you became successful by means of the US infrastructure then it seems unfair to avoid any and all means of repaying that establishment.

Yeah aren't offshore bank accounts a way that people use to avoid paying taxes? If so, couldn't you just force them to pull their money out of those accounts and bring it all back here by just putting a gun to their head?

That would be immoral

How else are countries supposed to close the tax loophole for the super wealthy?

2. There's a reason Switzerland has not been involved in any conflicts for the last hundred years. Tactically it would be a terrible decision to invade them; it's why Hitler never did. Armies much larger would easily be decimated trying to invade Switzerland.

I think with time this is much more a political deterrence, not a geographical. Nazis and Allies didn't have much trouble fighting legitimate standing armies in either the Caucasus or Italy, and that was 7 decades ago.

Quote from: Jagdtiger on November 16, 2015, 06:43:56 PM

Quote from: ObamaLover69 on November 16, 2015, 06:34:08 PM

Quite a few reasons.

Swiss banks are super confidential; so much so it could be equatable to a doctor-patient confidentiality agreement. Swiss law forbids bankers to disclose the existence of your account or any other information about it without your consent.

Switzerland is also incredibly stable. The fact that they haven't been involved in any kind of conflict for a few hundred years and have one of the most stable currencies and economies in the world also lends to the appeal of keeping your big bucks in a Swiss bank account.

The biggest appeal though is that your money is virtually untouchable from your home country's government. For example doctors who might be sued for malpractice might have money in a Swiss account to prevent them being totally wiped out in the event of lawsuit.

Really? Why would the Swiss allow for such confidentiality in banking? Especially when rich people from other nations are using it to their advantage by not paying taxes in their home countries? Wouldn't Switzerland be a little nervous about that aggravating bigger, more powerful nations for the allowance of such blatant tax evasion for the wealthy in those other countries?

1. Switzerland get's rich off of it. It's one of the reasons they have such a stable economy and high GDP.

2. There's a reason Switzerland has not been involved in any conflicts for the last hundred years. Tactically it would be a terrible decision to invade them; it's why Hitler never did. Armies much larger would easily be decimated trying to invade Switzerland.

3. The US doesn't really care that rich people are evading taxes using Swiss bank accounts definitely not enough to start a war with Switzerland. That's a ridiculous notion.

Wow seriously? Why isn't everyone else following Switzerland's example with their own banks then?

I agree that invading Switzerland would come at an enormous cost, but Switzerland is surrounded by Nato and the three very rich Nato countries that border Switzerland I imagine also have tax evasion problems with them. While any sort of invasion would be very costly, I just don't see Switzerland resisting a Nato invasion to be honest. And they wouldn't need to invade at all really. The three Nato countries that border Switzerland; Germany, France and Italy could just prevent Swiss trade from crossing their lands since Switzerland is landlocked.

Oh I know our government doesn't care about offshore bank accounts, in fact they subtly seem to promote it. And I agree that invading and starting a war with Switzerland over confidential banking practices is completely insane. I'm just thinking of ways that countries might be able to get around the Swiss loophole.

Quote from: eggsalad on November 16, 2015, 06:59:47 PM

Quote from: ObamaLover69 on November 16, 2015, 06:57:01 PM

Quote from: eggsalad on November 16, 2015, 06:51:32 PM

Quote from: ObamaLover69 on November 16, 2015, 06:49:12 PM

2. There's a reason Switzerland has not been involved in any conflicts for the last hundred years. Tactically it would be a terrible decision to invade them; it's why Hitler never did. Armies much larger would easily be decimated trying to invade Switzerland.

I think with time this is much more a political deterrence, not a geographical. Nazis and Allies didn't have much trouble fighting legitimate standing armies in either the Caucasus or Italy, and that was 7 decades ago.

It's not even just the mountains although the country basically has a natural wall around it because of them. Not to mention the Swiss military has tunnels, bunkers, and booby-traps hidden everywhere in those mountains. The biggest reason is that every single citizen in the country is a member of the military and armed. That is such a tactical disadvantage in and of itself, it's one of the reasons the big US got so fucked by the Vietcong. Short of nuking any military would have a really hard time taking down Switzerland.

But Switzerland's value isn't in territory or in natural resources, it's in its capital and interests, which are static targets that you don't have to patrol an entire country to control. An international banking system can't be sustained with guerrilla tactics.

If Switzerland is occupied by a foreign entity those capital resources are no longer there. The capital investments and interests of the foreign nations supplying such will most likely be withdrawn in the event of a foreign power taking over unless I suppose it was a coalition of sorts then yeah I guess it might work in this hypothetical scenario. Invading a country for the interest of taking it's capital doesn't really work last I checked. It's not like strolling into a country to take acreage, oil, or any physical material. You can't really take capital, an economy, and GDP since most of it is superficial and not actually palpable material you can just seize. I mean there are physical aspects of capital such as the money that is physically in banks but I would highly doubt it's enough to justify a costly invasion.

I'm not sure I'm understanding what you're trying to say.

Well the only real reason to invade Switzerland is to dissolve its banking system.
You might not garner the capital, yeah, but they can't continue to do business if they're forced underground.

Quote from: eggsalad on November 16, 2015, 06:51:32 PM

Quote from: ObamaLover69 on November 16, 2015, 06:49:12 PM

2. There's a reason Switzerland has not been involved in any conflicts for the last hundred years. Tactically it would be a terrible decision to invade them; it's why Hitler never did. Armies much larger would easily be decimated trying to invade Switzerland.

I think with time this is much more a political deterrence, not a geographical. Nazis and Allies didn't have much trouble fighting legitimate standing armies in either the Caucasus or Italy, and that was 7 decades ago.

It's not even just the mountains although the country basically has a natural wall around it because of them. Not to mention the Swiss military has tunnels, bunkers, and booby-traps hidden everywhere in those mountains. The biggest reason is that every single citizen in the country is a member of the military and armed. That is such a tactical disadvantage in and of itself, it's one of the reasons the big US military got so fucked by the Vietcong. Short of nuking, any military would have a really hard time taking down Switzerland.

Well actually to address you previous comment about the Nazis not invading Switzerland- Germany and Italy did actually plan to invade and carve up Switzerland between the two. Since Switzerland had a large ethnic German population, the country was of profound interest to Hitler. Hitler wanted to incorporate the German-speaking regions of Switzerland into the Reich while the southern Italian-speaking portions would be ceded to Italy. I believe Hitler had planned the invasion after the Soviet Union was conquered. However since Operation Barbarossa wasn't going as planned and with the way the war was progressing, the plans of carving up and absorbing Switzerland never came to fruition. Eh, the more you know.