Lagarde On Taxes And Diplomacy: It's All TurboTax To Me

Submitted by Tyler Durden:

What is it about IMF heads and inserting foot, or some other appendage, in mouth, or some other orifice?

The Forelash (sic): It's payback time: don't expect sympathy – Lagarde to Greeks

Using some of the bluntest language of the two-and-a-half-year debt crisis, she says Greek parents have to take responsibility if their children are being affected by spending cuts. "Parents have to pay their tax," she says.

Lagarde, predicting that the debt crisis has yet to run its course,  adds: "Do you know what? As far as Athens is concerned, I also think  about all those people who are trying to escape tax all the time. All  these people in Greece who are trying to escape tax."

She says she  thinks "equally" about Greeks deprived of public services and Greek  citizens not paying their tax."I think they should also help themselves collectively." Asked how, she replies:  "By all paying their tax.

"Asked if she is essentially saying to the Greeks and others in Europe that they have had a nice time and it is now payback time, she responds: "That's right."

And the Backlash: Christine Lagarde, scourge of tax evaders, pays no tax

Christine Lagarde, the IMF boss who caused international outrage after she suggested in an interview with the Guardian on Friday that beleaguered Greeks might do well to pay their taxes, pays no taxes, it has emerged.

As an official of an international institution, her salary of $467,940 (£298,675) a year plus $83,760 additional allowance a year is not subject to any taxes.

Lagarde, 56, receives a pay and benefits package worth more than American president Barack Obama earns from the United States government, and he pays taxes on it.

The same applies to nearly all United Nations employees – article 34 of the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations of 1961, which has been signed by 187 states, declares: "A diplomatic agent shall be exempt from all dues and taxes, personal or real, national, regional or municipal."

According to Lagarde's contract she is also entitled to a pay rise on 1 July every year during her five-year contract.

The managing director of the International Monetary Fund is paid a salary of $467,940 (£298,675), automatically increased every year according to inflation. On top of that she receives an allowance of $83,760 – payable without "justification" – and additional expenses for entertainment, making her total package worth more than the amount received by US President Barack Obama according to reports last night.

Other benefits include rent subsidies, dependency allowances for spouses and children, education grants for school-age children and travel and shipping expenses, as well as subsidised medical insurance.

For many years critics have complained that IMF, World Bank, and United Nations employees are able to live large at international taxpayers' expense.

Uhm, what inflation? Isn't the world drowning in deflation according to the central planner? Also, why not avoid all the unbearable hypocrisy and just use TurboTax: it works for the most prominent tax evader in the "free world."

Our only question: has Lagarde spent all her tax-free, hypocrisy-laden money purchasing spare containers of Agent Orange from Angelo Mozilo?

courtesy of William Banzai

Our advice madame IMF head - avoid presidential suites at New York hotels like any tanning lotion with a SPF less than 50. 


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