16.50 The Best Lawyer in Zurich

Slim Novel 16 - http://adventuresofkimi.blogspot.com - See Homepage

50. The Best Lawyer in Zurich
Eddie checks into a small hotel. He has the name, telephone number and address of a lawyer that his information highway has informed him is the best in Zurich. And Zurich is where Eddie's Swiss bank is.
   After shower and shave, and noting 4 PM, he picks up phone and digits a number. "Is Attorney Stoll there?" he asks the secretary. In a minute he is transferred and introduces self. "Dr. Stoll, can you spare time for supper with me 7 PM, at hotel? My shout, as they say in Australia." Dr Stoll says Yes. 
   He lies down, puts a pentagin quartered opioid pill under tongue and thinks good thoughts for the meeting.

Eddie at start of medical school, had not thought much about income taxes. His jobs - research assistant to Professor Edwardes and to Dr Leo Davidoff - had paid him in cash off the books.  But once he started as hospital intern, he had to file a yearly report in April and pay the extra his job's withholding tax did not cover. Like any educated person he knew the history of income tax and did not disapprove the idea that every citizen should pay their fair share toward expenses of government that came back as services. But over the years he became more and more critical of the method and purpose of the income tax. It seemed to him that the government in the new computer age ought to make a method of collecting income tax upfront. Here he got his idea from BF Skinner's Walden Two, which everyone who cares about healthful, good living ought to read. The method of deductions and end-of-year filing, it seemed, targeted salary persons and allowed contractors and entrepreneurs to easily cheat and it further advantaged off-the-book payments because of the burden the paper work puts on employers. So it fostered cheating and even for honest persons was so much a bother that it caused them to waste money on tax preparation.        
   Then Eddie noticed the federal government was spending more and more tax dollars on war and military activities that more and more included murder, torture and kidnapping; and, most importantly, these were doing nothing to protect the citizens from foreign danger, as they were touted to be doing by their doers, and as military expenditures ought to be doing. So he began to think: Why should I waste energy, effort, and my hard earned cash to pay for the useless government murder incorporated. And came to the conclusion that the right of a government to tax its citizens is limited by a government's morality and, most importantly, by its ability to enforce its tax laws.
   These thoughts and ideas are what might be called - subliminal - just at or a little below the level of consciousness. The event that got him into his present policy was his leaving for expatriate life. Becoming expatriate effectively removes one from the notice of the federal tax authority. At least this was the case in the 1980's when Eddie became expatriate. It is not an absolute. If an expatriate maintains a high profile - famous, big spender, outspoken political critic - he could get on the wrong wavelength. But if he is just small fry, he disappears. Beyond that he is, essentially, unavailable.  Unless he commits a crime or makes a real nuisance of himself (cf. the American chess champion Bobbie Fisher), as long as he does not go back to live in USA, it is hard to grab such a person or they may think it not worth it because too small and too many.
   Then comes the question of the bank for such an expatriate.
   It must be outside one's country. It must be trustworthy. And it must be convenient for one to use in that language, and its communication easy and with full services. In the 1980's, Eddie, having read Harry Browne's book on Swiss Banks, chose a recommended one. So that is where he is now, in 1985, on his trip to Zurich. And a purpose is to seek further wisdom on this question from an expert in legal lore and banking. Thus, Dr. Stoll, 
  The "Dr" title, Eddie understands to mean that the lawyer had achieved a Doctor of Jurisprudence, a more advanced degree than the usual attorney in USA and rather usual for any good attorney in western Europe.

A knock at door. Eddie gets up from side of the bed he is sitting and goes and opens door, and there is Dr Stoll. Younger than I thought!  He sports a brown salt & pepper jacket and matching pants looking as though customized by a Hongkong tailor; and his hair is parted to the right and deep black and he has a mustache that before 1945 would be Hitlerian but now more Chaplinesque.
  A German Swiss, Eddie thinks, expecting Dr Stoll to click heels. Instead he offers right hand in a hearty shake and says "Hello, I am Stoll. To what do I owe your kind invitation tonight?" Eddie makes a cliche and indicates Dr Stoll should sit on the sofa and explains his expatriate tax avoidance stance.
   The lawyer listens and, after the 5-or-so-minutes, replies. "May I give my advice? File and pay your income tax according to the law. Do not try to avoid. The authorities are smarter and stronger than we individuals." He stops to allow the advice to sink in. "However, if we take the hypothetical case you present: a US citizen hoping to avoid the tax by becoming expatriate - in effect becoming incommunicado to tax authorities of his passport status country - and by finding a bank here that preserves privacy, then I shall make a few points.
   "First, you are making a basic error in not diversifying. All eggs in one basket calls attention to it. Second, you are incurring high risk by keeping everything cash. Cash all in one place is very easy to locate and capture. Also a government may control or lose control of the value of its cash - as Mr Harry Browne showed in his book.
   "So you should find a few good banks. Switzerland is fine now in 1985 - but will it be fine in 2005? It is very vulnerable to bullying by the USA. Above all, do not ignore where you live, Japan. You will be safest there and in a real pinch the money will be most available and usable. Meanwhile buy landed property in Japan. And find a national to wife with  - of course she must be reliable and faithful - and then diversify your holdings in ownership with her." Eddie smiles. he has already, in his Kiss Me Kate language wived wise-ely with Ryo.
   Dr. Stoll stands and says. "Now, you have my advice - and if you will like it in formal script I shall send it - I think we do not need to have dinner. Expect my bill in the mail and, assuming prompt payment, you shall become my client." Then he does click heels and bows slightly and Eddie lets him out.
   The best lawyer in Zurich, Eddie thinks as he drops on the hotel bed and puts a quartered pentagin under tongue and thinks good thoughts.
                 End of Slim Novel 16.  17.0 Start of Slim Novel 17