TAXES & THE WEALTHY.

Leona Helmsley, the notorious queen of mean, once put it right, when talking about her family's vast hotel empire fortune that, "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes."

The same is true for Mitt Romney, the front runner in the Republican Party nomination race, that the tax rate for his spiraling investments is only 15%, when ordinary secretaries and laborers are being stuck with higher tax burdens of around 30% or more.

Generally speaking, people have been thinking that, the more one makes, the higher one's tax rate, but that is not specifically accurate for many wealthy Americans, who can use debauchery and shenanigan methodologies to pay less taxes to the United States government; thus they do evade taxes.

They have professional lawyers, accountants and tax experts, who are using the loopholes in the tax system for them to evade paying "their fair share in taxes," at the expense of the regular guy or gal, who works from 9 to 5.

It is obvious that the government is doing all it can to close those tax loopholes, but with much opposition from the people that are benefiting from them, the idea is not catching enough fire. They say that so long as they (loopholes) are legal and stay in "the books", anyone has the right to make use of them.

There is the other side of the coin, when millionaires use offshore investment companies to stash away money, and do not pay a dime in taxes to the U.S. government on it. They would rather pay small taxes to governments in other places like Bermuda, the Bahamas and, of course, Cayman Islands.

This morning's report by ABC News, headlined "Romney Parks Millions in Cayman Islands." makes interesting reading, that the Republican candidate for the party's nomination, with respect to running against President Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election, is using the Islands as a safe haven for his sprawling investments.

Bain Capital that has come into question on the campaign trail lately, is involved in Offshore Funds that require no taxes to be paid directly in the U.S. Romney has left the company in 1999, but his connection with that equity establishment has not ended there. Part of his gotten gains still come from Bain as personal income.

"Although it is not apparent on his financial disclosure form, Mitt Romney has millions of dollars of his personal wealth in investment funds set up in the Cayman Islands, a notorious Caribbean tax haven." (ABC News, 01/19/12).

The question remains that Cayman Islands may just be one spot that is being mentioned as a place, where tax evaders, like Bain executives are known to patronize; but certainly, there may be others, which the news outlet (ABC) must still be on the prowl to trace some of these shady investment activities outside the U.S. and bring them to light and for future reference. The outlet is highly commended on that effort.

However, the piece of news about taxes so far makes it quite clear that Americans are being cheated by the wealthy, some of whom are in the habit of having huge bank accounts overseas, and it has been that way for many years. The only reason for them to do so is to refrain from paying their fair share in taxes to the government that protects them.

The country is learning a "new" lesson, although it has been going on right under the noses of its citizens for so long; but it now gives them a comparable new chance to thoroughly examine whoever shows up as a candidate for the president of the U.S.

They, citizens, must know where he or she (candidate) is coming from; or they stand to lose abundantly; politically as well as economically.

This piece has got nothing to do with party politics; it is about a real life episode that has come from a viable and reliable source, ABC News.