Nick Fountain

She was at a meeting with another top IRS lawyer.

Yes, Malta, tiny island nation in the middle of the Mediterranean known for amazing beaches and apparently an attractive tax arrangement with the U.S.

that was helping Americans avoid paying piles and piles of taxes.

Hello and welcome to Planet Money.

I'm Nick Fountain here with Lauren Loricchio, reporter over at the nonprofit tax reporting outlet Tax Notes.

Lauren, hi.

Hi.

How are you?

I'm well, thanks.

Normally the world of tax can be kind of dry and procedural.

But Lauren, I have this theory about you.

And that's that you have this deadpan matter-of-fact way about you that somehow gets tax lawyers to open up and spill all of their dirtiest secrets.

What do you think about that theory?

All right.

Well, today, how do the rich avoid taxes?

We try to trace how a loophole is born and... How it dies.

And is maybe put on life support.

You might call this a tale of a tax shelter, an anatomy of an avoidance.

The life cycle of a loophole.

And you have secret recordings.