This NY Times article reports on the latest investor lawsuits that seek damages from German financial giant Deutsche Bank and several accounting, law and financial services firms — including American Express — for selling abusive tax shelters from 1999 to 2001. The investor plaintiffs in both cases, who collectively owe the federal government millions of dollars in back taxes as a result of the tax shelters being disallowed, are seeking to recover fees, interest and penalties.
Let’s see if I understand the theory of the plaintiffs’ case in these lawsuits. We rich people make speculative invesments in tax shelters to save big bucks from non-payment of taxes. We know that the deals are shady, but what the heck, we don’t like paying taxes. Now that the tax shelters have been disallowed, we should not have to pay the taxes that we owed in the first place. Rather, these financial institutions should have to pay for indulging our greedy desire not to pay our share of taxes. How dare they take advantage of us like that?
Only in America.