I support Swiss Miss and off-shore bank accounts!

Last updated on January 3, 2023

Today was tough. I couldn’t find anything I wanted to do a cartoon about!

Then I read this. According to Yahoo News:

Some 14,700 rich Americans, worried about a stepped-up U.S. crackdown on offshore tax cheats, have turned themselves in under the government’s amnesty program.

The Swiss Justice Department said it would hand over the names of wealthy American clients of UBS with accounts holding more than 1 million Swiss francs ($986,200) where there is a reasonable suspicion of tax fraud.

Accounts of a lesser size, as low as 100,000 Swiss francs, could be included in certain circumstances when there is a “scheme of lies” identified, according to the document.

“The threshold for disclosing accounts, in my opinion, is low,” said Kevin Thorn, a Washington-based tax lawyer. “Most believed the threshold would have been $1 million-plus but it appears the government is holding to its word and looking at conduct more than amounts and is going after taxpayers across the board.”

Senator Carl Levin, whose congressional panel has investigated tax evasion for several years, said the language leaves too many loopholes for the Swiss.

Is anyone surprised he’s a Democrat?

I truly believe everyone should pay taxes, and only bad people don’t. But enough is enough. I also believe people have a right to decide for themselves where to put their hard-earned money! Aren’t some people good taxpayers and yet also wise and thrifty investors? Are all off-shore accounts – they mentioned Hong Kong as another secret place- bad?

I think financial cartoons are a challenge – and yet they turn me on! It’s hard to include all the facts, the nuances, and also keep it simple enough for a drawing…

Here’s one I did a few months ago, when the IRS first cracked down on the Swiss banks:

Okay, this cartoon is a little confusing. I KNOW THAT! I did my best. Will explain more later today.

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Interpretation of both: All the people who had to turn themselves in to the IRS amnesty in October were scared sh!tless by the IRS that they would end up paying all their money, plus fines. I can’t believe that all these people are in the Mafia, so they must be people who either don’t support our government or have already paid too much taxes. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think people should be able to deposit big chunks of money elsewhere. Why should our incompetent gov’t – and I think everyone would agree, it’s extremely fiscally foolish – get it all?

At the same time, earlier this year the IRS filed a lawsuit against the biggest Swiss bank, UBS AG (oops, just noticed I drew ABS UG in the cartoon, which, actually, is a clothes designer I like!!) to FORCE them to hand over almost 5000 names of Americans who had deposited money with them.

THE IRS IS FORCING UBS AG  BANK TO BE A TURNCOAT AND TRAITOR TO ITS LOYAL CLIENTS!!! So Swiss banks – or at least this one -have lost their cachet! They’re no longer safe, or secret, or savvy. Hate the IRS and how it seems to control more than any other department in the government.

Thus, in the first cartoon, I had IRS dress like a pirate and shoot at UBS, turning it into Swiss cheese.

And in the earlier cartoon below it, I was trying to draw The Blob, from old movies, with dollar bills floating in it, but I’m very poor in Photoshop. :( So it doesn’t look much like a blob! I also added in the storm of bailouts, which is what the IRS should really investigate, to be fair to this country, but instead it surrounds Switzerland, threatening that it will eat it.

There may be additional comments here. CNN has more here.

Cartoon caption: America’s Pirate Problem: the IRS. Nearly 15,000 Americans confess to “saving” money overseas. And then the IRS steals their gold. ABS Bank, Switzerland.

Cartoon Caption of green blob cartoon: IRS, biggest bully in the playground. IGNORES suspicious bailouts. EATS Switzerland, a kind, neutral country.

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