doing the taxpayer cold

Comrades,

I could not help but notice the uniform of the cads, bounders, shonks and shysters in Bermuda on this week's 4 Corners program, as they were looking very pleased with themselves doing the long suffering taxpayer cold.
Among the national costumes of the world, it is a very weird one.
That said, I'd be more than happy to slip on a pair for a squillion.
Scruples?
What scruples?
I'm guessing even the Prince of Wales would have been seen in them from time to time.
They are quite spiffing, wot ho?

Let's face it, who doesn't like Bermuda?
What's not to like?
181 islands to choose from, the sun shines 24/7, the palm trees sway, a warm gentle breeze blows, the ice tinkles in the glass, and there is no shortage of banana lounges surrounded by shady people to stretch out on.
Excuse my cynicism, but tax evasion has been going on since some dude thought up the brilliant idea of taxation back in ancient Roman times, and why should it be any different now?
It's been very effective for millennia, and laws are made to be broken.
Fact.
Jeez, just as a tiny example, it's all of 26 years ago now since Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer famously appeared before a Senate estimates committee and told them "I am not evading tax in any way, shape, or form. Now, of course, I am minimising my tax, and if anybody in this country isn't minimising their tax they want their heads read, because I can tell you as a Government you're not spending that well that we should be donating extra".
And that's the truth!
No fake news there.
Hyper-capitalism at its finest.
I remember one time many moons ago dropping by Kay Bros. winery in the McLaren Vale to sample some booze, and being told that egg whites were essential to the wine making process and the story of evading the "chook tax" during WWII, when there was a tax on eggs...so when the tax inspectors came to the Vale, vintners would let their flocks of chickens loose to run hither and thither through the vines so there was no chance of there being a head count to link individual birds to their owners for tax purposes, with the sneaky bastards knowing full well that their layers would return home at night to roost.
What a ruse!
While the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists [who run a marvellous magazine called The Global Muckraker] will never ever reveal their sources, it would be very interesting to know just who was responsible for the herculean task of scanning 13.4 million pages of documents, everything from the most magnificent elaborate spreadsheets right down to hand scribbled notes; the biggest "leak" from the Dodgy Lawyersville, ever.
It only suggests to me why being a legal practitioner is such a dang lucrative profession in Bermuda, Belize, the Cayman Islands, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Singapore, Ireland, Luxembourg, Curaçao, Hong Kong, Cyprus, Bahamas, Jersey, Barbados, Mauritius and the British Virgin Islands just to name a few.
Everybody knows justice goes to those who pay.
And all this talk about there being "paperless courtrooms" in the future, my arse.
Why do you think the legal system insists on original documents, and legal eagles have enormous industrial confidential paper-shredders for the copies?
It will be centuries before any of that goes "on-line".
Who wants the 'paper trail' to be any easier to trace?
I did think the monika "Paradise Papers" was a bit lame; how about "Champagne! Cocaine! Caviar! The full story revealed!"?
In any case, the coppers [the chronically under-funded and under-resourced ATO] are doing deals with tax evaders/avoiders/minimisers every day of the working week - just ask Paul Hogan, he'll tell you.
The modus operandi is the ATO does an audit, issues an ambit claim in the form of a Tax Assessment Notice, and then by no-fault negotiation, will settle out of court 99% of the time for a fraction of the assessment [typically 10-15%] on the time-honoured basis of legal dispute resolution - clauditis et vade aliquam - "shut up, and go get some".
Everybody's happy, the non-taxpayer gets away with blue murder, and the Govt. has more sacks of pineapples in Consolidated Revenue than they otherwise would have had.
Brilliant!
All anyone can do about it is to pity the poor working poor, who, in relative terms and without access to legal advice, carry a tax burden as big as an elephant...you know, the one that's in the room.