Tesla's Musk Paid at Least $593 Million in Income Taxes in 2016
Jack Townsend, Three Offshore Account Holders Sentenced
New York Times, Trump Vows to Unveil Tax-Cut Plan Next Week, Surprising Staff:
President Trump promised on Friday that he would unveil a “massive” tax cut for Americans next week, vowing a “big announcement on Wednesday,” but he revealed no details about what is certain to be an enormously complicated effort to overhaul the nation’s tax code.
Mr. Trump offered his tax tease in an interview and again during remarks at the Treasury Department on Friday afternoon as he raced to stack up legislative accomplishments before his 100th day in office at the end of next week.
His announcement surprised Capitol Hill and left Mr. Trump’s own Treasury officials speechless as he arrived at the Treasury offices to sign directives to roll back Obama-era tax rules and financial regulations. Earlier in the day, when reporters asked Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, how far away a tax overhaul proposal was, he said he could not give an answer. “Tax reform is way too complicated,” he said.
Backstage to the Panama Papers: big data analytics and collaborative journalism
Post Panama Papers, call to name and shame people behind shell companies
Leslie Book, Arrests Made in IRS Scam Call Center Probe; Dark Web a Home for Stolen Tax Information (Procedurally Taxing). ” Last week Accounting Today in Tax refunds are selling cheap on the Dark Web discusses how there is a fully active market for sales of individuals’ W-2s.”
Here's an IRS Contract With a Dark Web Intel Firm
NY Times: The IRS Enlists Debt Collectors To Recover Overdue Taxes, 'Placing A Bull’s-Eye On The Backs Of Low-Income Taxpayers' And 'Putting Out Barrels Of Honey For Scammers'
Following up on Tuesday's post, The IRS's Use Of Private Debt Collectors Will Not End Well (Again): New York Times, I.R.S. Enlists Debt Collectors to Recover Overdue Taxes:
The Internal Revenue Service is about to start using four private debt-collection companies to chase down overdue payments from hundreds of thousands of people who owe money to the federal government, a job it has handled in house for years.
The New York Times tracks Google’s transition From Search to Sales: “In the 17 years since Google introduced text-based advertising above search results, the company has allocated more space to ads and created new forms of them. The ad creep on Google has pushed “organic” (unpaid) search results farther down the screen, an effect even more pronounced on the smaller displays of smartphones. The changes are profound for retailers and brands that rely on leads from Google searches to drive online sales. With limited space available near the top of search results, not advertising on search terms associated with your brand or displaying images of your products is tantamount to telling potential customers to spend their money elsewhere…Retailers are snapping up product ads. They accounted for 52 percent of all Google search ad spending by retailers in the first quarter of 2017, versus 8 percent in 2011, according to the digital marketing agency Merkle…”
by John Azarias
In the debate about temporary skilled migration visas, there are two separate issues.The first, and most fundamental one, is about the underlying governance structure of the program. The review I chaired in 2014 – on which many of the government's announced changes are based – found general agreement both on the intrinsic shortcomings of the system's previous architecture, and on the structural reforms we felt were necessary.
The second, and more controversial, issue relates to the way the program's governance structure has been applied in practice. The panel believed it was best to get the basics right first, so we focused on reforms to the program's governance structure 457 visa changes about restoring public confidence and trust
Are the 457 visa reforms an illusion act?
Minimum wage for temporary visa holders falls behind inflation - John Azarias
Will Scrabble Have the Last Word on the IQ Debate? The Unz Review
‘The Ideas Made It, But I Didn’t’ Politico
The Horrid Social and Cultural Consequences of Taxation
London's housing crisis is abetted by illicit funds
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Tax Rackets: Outlandish Loopholes to Lower Tax Liabilities (press release)
TaxGrrrl, Indian Police Allege IRS, FBI, Other Law Enforcement Not Interested In Phone Scam Arrests. “Singh said there was ‘not much’ collaboration with American officials, noting that ‘[w]e had a visit from one FBI agent based out of Delhi some time ago” but that there had been no follow-up.'” If true, that’s a crime, if only morally.
Bohemian Onion, IRS Announces Refunds Will Come In Form Of Forever Stamps This Year:
Stating that the policy change represented the kind of reform taxpayers have long demanded, the IRS announced Tuesday that all refunds for the 2016 fiscal year will be disbursed in the form of Forever stamps. “Persons anticipating a refund will receive a ream of Forever stamps equal to the expected amount within six to eight weeks of filing their taxes,” said IRS commissioner John Koskinen, explaining that someone with a $500 tax refund, for example, will receive an envelope containing 1,020 stamps, or roughly 51 booklets of the 49-cent postage.