When you sell a man a book, you don’t sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue – you sell him a whole new life.
The thing is that miracles happen so often, they seem normal to us, the morning comes and then the night, the sun and the moon rise and set, the earth gives us harvest after harvest, and we say I’ll do that tomorrow and tomorrow we’re still alive to do it. …. Reality is a miracle.
MICROSOFT boss Satya Nadella has issued an ominous warning about the future of AI and the potential for a dystopian, 1984-esque future.
Jack Townsend, Lawyer, Alleged Offshore Account Enabler, Loses Motion to Dismiss Indictment. “I have previously written about Michael Little, a British and U.S. lawyer and U.S. permanent resident, who was indicted for enabling offshore evasion for U.S. taxpayers.”
Jim Maule, Judge Judy Tells Litigant to Contact the IRS
Lew Taishoff, NO GOOD DEED. “Remain vigilant. Especially when trying to do a good deed.”
"To a lawman
obsessed with independence, Mr. Trump was the ultimate loose cannon, making
irresponsible claims on Twitter and jeopardizing the bureau’s
credibility." ('Enough was enough': how festering anger at Comey ended in his firing. WashingtonPost)
Adam Thimmesch (Nebraska), Transacting in Data: Tax, Privacy, and the New Economy, 94 Denv. L. Rev. 145 (2016):
The
technological developments of recent decades have allowed data to
emerge as the functional equivalent of a currency in the digital
economy. One result is that individuals now have the ability to obtain a
wide variety of benefits, from cash discounts to access to news, social
media, and online software, in exchange for their personal data.
Scholars in a variety of fields recognize these personal-data transfers
as market exchanges and have questioned the functioning and impact of
the personal-data market. That market is currently invisible, however,
for tax purposes.
Paying a ‘Fair Share’: new brief on taxing multinational companies
In this new brief just published by the Sheffield Political Economics Research Institute authors John Mikler and Ainsley Elbra address the issue of global corporate tax avoidance and consider how multinational corporations can be made to pay their fair share of tax. They focus in particular on the strategies to avoid taxation deployed by Apple and Google and consider in depth the public enquiries undertaken in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom into the methods of avoidance adopted...
Estimates on illicit flows to and from developing countries
Our friends at Global
Financial Integrity have released their latest report
on what they estimate to be the latest figures from 150 countries on illicit
financial flows to and from developing countries for the period 2005-2014. Most
of these flows arise from fraudulent trade mis-invoicing which, as they point
out, adversely affects the lives of real people:
“The massive flows of
illicit capital shown in this study represent diversions of resources from
their most efficient social uses in developing economies and are likely to
adversely impact domestic resource mobilization and hamper sustainable economic
growth.” 
Rich List 2017: Britain has more billionaires than ever beforeDutch state railway sets up new Irish tax avoidance firm
Macau Introduces ATM Facial Recognition to Deter Chinese Money Laundering
Pew – May 3, 2017: Democrats’ confidence in country’s future declines sharply – “The 2016 election ushered in a new era in Washington defined by unified Republican control of the White House and both chambers of Congress. The changes in the dynamics of power in Washington have registered with members of both political parties. Somewhat more Republicans express trust in government today than did so prior to the election, while views among Democrats have moved in the opposite direction. For the first time since George W. Bush’s presidency, Republicans (28%) are more likely than Democrats (15%) to say they can trust the government in Washington to do the right thing just about always or most of the time. The share of Democrats expressing trust in government is among the lowest levels for members of the party dating back nearly six decades. The national survey by Pew Research Center, conducted April 5-11 among 1,501 adults, finds that the overall level of trust in government remains near historic lows; just 20% say they trust the government to do what’s right always or most of the time. Far more say they trust the government only some of the time (68%); 11% volunteer that they never trust the government to do what’s right…”
Convention broken: new Commonwealth Ombudsman an active SES
Stephen Hawking thinks that humanity must leave Earth in the next century, and colonise another planet to ensure their survival, considering the dangers that lie ahead of us
Swiss
Spy Agency Defends Practices After German Arrest in Tax Case
The
ATO is outsourcing sensitive tax work to a small army of labour hire
workers in an "accounting trick" designed to disguise the size of the
ATO workforce, .