Micro‐ and macro‐economic effects: secreting assets to evade non‐business (private) obligations and responsibilities

Abstract

Investigates the effects on the family and society when an American business owner hides his wealth from creditors and family members, based on a case study where a non‐custodial father moved funds into highly secret jurisdictions to evade US tax, disappeared, and left his wife left liable for debts. Discusses the ethics of responsibility as they apply to this case of failure to act responsibly, comparing deontological and consequentialist approaches. Outlines the legal remedies for preserving assets: equitable remedy of a preliminary injunction, pre‐judgment attachment, garnishment of wages, transference of property titles, shifting tax burdens, recapturing property, invalidation of obligations, criminalisation of bankruptcy fraud, awarding attorneys’ fees, and contempt rulings. Moves on to the wife’s tax obligations and tax relief, including trust fund taxes and offers in compromise, and then to wider social and behavioural aspects of such cases like childrearing, divorce and remarriage, labour supply, and the feminisation of poverty.