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You can't hide your indiscretions from the taxman

CARLY WEEKS

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

Latest comment posted at 10:53 PM EDT 16/03/08

Even the most savvy experts in the art of adultery can't escape the secrets contained within their financial statements ...Read the full article

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  1. Alistair McLaughlin from Canada writes: Bring on joint filing. That will be a riot.
  2. WILLY SIO from Brampton, Canada writes: I like the charge for flowers that the wife never got. Perhaps the deliveryman made it to the wrong house ! How is that for an explanation ? Good try.
  3. Steve Not an Alberta Redneck from Calgary, Canada writes: Its not the "Tax Man" that you have to worry about. Its the lawyer that your soon to be ex hires.
  4. Peter Stern from Mississauga, Canada writes: Hmmm... my post got deleted. Well here it goes again. I disagree with the statement that you 'can't hide indiscretions from the taxman'. All you need to do is eliminate any papertrail and/or use 3rd parties. In my post that got deleted, I mentioned all kinds of ways to acheive that... like always using cash, setting up a foreign shell company (or modeling agency perhaps for dealing with expenses related to 'modeling') and use that to pay for things. Hell... just watch the Sopranos and you can get plenty of ideas of how to hide stuff from the taxman... just pay attention as to how Tony hides his visits to the shrink and only pays cash. Spitzer got caught because he did some stupid things... like buy stuff using a credit card in his own name. Combine that with the fact that he's pissed off people with lots of money in the past (who probably hired private investigators to dig up any dirt on him) and is it any surprise that the police got tipped off regarding his indiscretions?
  5. Larry Hill from Canada writes: Peter Stern from Mississauga, Canada writes: Hmmm... my post got deleted. Well here it goes again. I disagree with the statement that you 'can't hide indiscretions from the taxman' Do you really think that any of these dodges are not already known to CRA/IRS? Does it really surprise you that they have professional collectors that aren't fully trained in all investigation techiques? I truly hope that you are not trying some of these dumb moves in real life, Peter.
  6. Mike L. from Canada writes: Once upon a time, many years ago, a large US airline had a promotion where a businessman going on a trip could bring his wife along at half-fare (we're talking the days when business was conducted by men, planes were flown by war II air force heroes, and cabins were attended by stewardesses, but I digress...).

    The campaign was a huge success. Until they took it one step too far. They decided to send the lucky spouses thank-you letters for having taken up the offer.

    Needless to say, in many cases, Mrs. Smith wasn't in fact, Mrs. Smith...

    Plus que ca change...
  7. Peter Stern from Mississauga, Canada writes: Larry Hill... Just because CRA/IRS know* about a method, doesn't necessarily mean they can do anything about it. For example, you can train a collector in all the techniques in the world... but what *jurisdiction will they have in other countries? And will they always get cooperation? Sure if I'm in Canada and try to hide something in the US, it's not gonna work because Canada and the US work together on these things. But what about other countries like the Cayman Islands or Switzerland or Russia? What about countries that don't like the US/Canada that much? If you're a collector from Canada or the US and you're trying to get info on someone in another country, who's also buddies with officials in that other country, how much cooperation do you think you'll get? Betcha didn't consider that, did ya? I'm not saying I have anything to hide (I don't), but if what you imply is true, there would simply be absolutely NO organized crime... because if merely training is all that is needed for the IRS/CRA for find ALL stockpiles of cash, there wouldn't be any. But that's not true, is it? Anyway, since when is using cash dumb? Since when is setting up shell companies dumb (something that gets done for investment purposes all the time and it's perfectly legal)? Please elaborate on YOUR knowledge of this subject.

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