Carlos Cruz has a strategy for surviving the worst global recession in 60 years: pay less in taxes and pass the savings along to customers.
“I’m declaring half as much as I used to,” said Cruz, 29, who runs a painting business in Madrid. “Prices have fallen by 30 percent and customers will choose you for a difference of as little as 50 euros ($67.70),” said Cruz, an Ecuadorian who has lived in Spain since 2001.
Even as the U.S., Japan and Europe weather the first simultaneous recessions since World War II, some types of activity are expanding worldwide — just below government radar. The production of goods and services that are lawful, though not declared, may grow the most as a proportion of total output since 2000, according to Friedrich Schneider, a professor at Austria’s Johannes Kepler University of Linz.
The shift, measured by tax analysts and economists using surveys, money-supply data and anecdotal evidence, is caused by businesses going off the books to cut costs and workers taking informal jobs to survive rising unemployment. It offers a buffer against the ravages of the crisis and may help explain why the slowdown hasn’t prompted more social unrest.
‘Good News’
“The good news then is that the recession, as captured by the official statistics, may not be as severe as it appears,” said Edgar Feige, a professor at the University of Wisconsin- Madison who has studied the underground economy for 30 years. In past slumps, unregistered activity increased as a proportion of the official economy, he said.
March 27th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Well that’s smart. Putting your name in a mainstream news source saying you’re breaking the law.
Wow. I’ve never been first on any comment thingy anywhere.
lawman Reply:
March 27th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
People clearly need to understand how the law works, under COMMON LAW, paying TAX isn’t a law, COMMON LAW is the only LAW of the land and which can be ENFORCED on any man or women. COMMON LAW states that you can never harm or cause loss to any other man or women / a human being, that’s it.
Tax is a STATUTE LAW, which is different and can only be enforced on a “person” and is completely different to COMMON LAW. STATUTE LAWS CANNOT be FORCED on any man or women. STATUTE LAWS can only be ENFORCED if you CONFORM and give CONSENT to represent the “person” (you in legal form) with action or in-action.
You may need to watch this video to understand whats explained above.
http://www.tpuc.org/node/558
PATRIOT2009 Reply:
March 28th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
I’M OPENING A FARMERS BLACK MARKET..
PATRIOT2009 Reply:
March 28th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
ALL THE UZI’S ,HAND GRENADES AND ROCKET LAUNCHERS YOU WANT, 1/2 OFF.
March 27th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
You live up top you live Cockteau’s way…your other choice come down here maybe starve to death”… (Denis Leary as Edgar Friendly)
“Reliance Documents” anyone? It is in the IRS’s /government’s interest not to have any rulings with reference to the constitution and the IR Code duh? They would rather have some quiet “mountain demur” make this go away-acquittals to avoid a disastrous collapse of the tax-preparer industry that can’t get a Average Money Magazine subscriber’s tax return correct anyway. Is it human possible to understand all 16 thousand regulations of the “code”?
March 28th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Doger doger my a__, its becoming a free person from the mafia bs holding people in bondage.
Let the so called tax industry sink to bottom of the sea.
Glen.
March 28th, 2009 at 11:21 am
check out SEDM.org
April 9th, 2009 at 4:06 am
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