“A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals, and you know it.” Ed Solomon, screenplay for Men in Black ... read more
The Commissioner of Taxation, Chris Jordan (pictured) has declared his vision for the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is to be among the most respected and efficient organisations in the world.
Delivering the ATO’s Corporate Plan 2018–19, Mr Jordan said he wanted the ATO to be “comparable with the best of any large organisation anywhere in the world with a large and diverse client base”.
“Where people in our community, key stakeholders, partners and Government have trust and confidence thaLt we are fair, effective and efficient in carrying out our mission,” Mr Jordan said.
“Each year, we present the ATO Corporate Plan that outlines our priorities for the year ahead. This year, we are taking a longer term view, with strategic objectives that reflect our ambition over the long term, through to 2024.”
ATO's Jordan has sights on the world
The Tax Office and a specialist behavioural economics research unit within the federal government used a randomised trial to target 2000 tax agents, specifically naming individuals lodging higher than expected work-related expense claims in a letter.
Alongside a control group of tax agents who didn't receive letters, the trial found individual clients identified by correspondence reduced their work-related expense claims by $191, compared with a $2 increase in group who received no letter.
Emma Husar cleared of lewd behaviour by Labor investigation
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The Husar case: Journalist claims there’s 'no obligation' to respect natural justice
The ongoing story of Emma Husar is shining a spotlight on the mediocrity and flaws in today's journalism, writes Dr Jennifer Wilson
The ongoing story of Emma Husar is shining a spotlight on the mediocrity and flaws in today's journalism, writes Dr Jennifer Wilson.
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Parties once again need to learn lessons of the 'faceless men'
The Liberals routinely mock Labor for its backroom factional deals but now embrace the same approach
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Anthony Castagna was a man of integrity and generosity to his friends. Not so when it came to the tax office
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"It would be difficult to think of a field that is more old-power than the arts. As the former executive director of a nonprofit theater company, I know that firsthand. Many arts organizations–particularly in the performing arts–are usually headed by an artistic director, music director, or general manager who has almost total control over the artistic content that is produced, and that artistic content is then marketed to the public by the managerial staff who has little or no say on these artistic selections. Closely connected with this old-power/new-power dynamic is the way that technology has been embraced in these organizations (or not)." … [Read More]
The reality of ill-health leaves little time to dwell on rights and justice,
or on what might turn out to be empty promises – as the Irish Examiner
reports. And while the experience of living with ill health
might be said to be something of a leveller, it is not. There is no ‘level playing field’ if health
services are a postcode lottery, or at the mercy of political
short-termism, or market forces.
Shortcomings in the quality of healthcare in Ireland are likely to be directly connected to the economic model which successive governments in Ireland have adopted. i.e. of low corporate tax rates and a belief in “trickle down” economics. While this has attracted business to Ireland, taxation revenue has often ended up elsewhere. J. Kenneth Galbraith explains it well: “It is the ‘horse and sparrow’ theory of income distribution and its taxation. If you feed a horse enough oats, some will pass through to the road for the sparrows.”
Tax avoidance often leads to the impoverishment of public services – our health care, our children’s education, our justice system – and undermines a fair society.
Ireland’s tax payers must be left wondering about the treatment of those with cervical cancer, in this particular case, compared with the treatment in terms of favourable tax rates given to the tech giants like Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple.
This coverage provides a stark illustration of corporate power and a dark tale of inhumanity in Ireland where this week there was “public outrage over the treatment of two very vulnerable groups — women with cancer having to fight for justice and humility in the courts, and distressed mortgage holders offloaded to a corporate vulture fund.” You can read the full article here of how the Irish government doles out special tax treatment for private wealth on the one hand, and on the other, social injustice for its ordinary tax payers.
J. Kenneth Galbraith explains it well: “It is the ‘horse and sparrow’ theory of income
distribution and its taxation. If you feed a horse enough oats, some will pass
through to the road for the sparrows.”
Public Services and Economic Injustice in Tax Break Ireland
Shortcomings in the quality of healthcare in Ireland are likely to be directly connected to the economic model which successive governments in Ireland have adopted. i.e. of low corporate tax rates and a belief in “trickle down” economics. While this has attracted business to Ireland, taxation revenue has often ended up elsewhere. J. Kenneth Galbraith explains it well: “It is the ‘horse and sparrow’ theory of income distribution and its taxation. If you feed a horse enough oats, some will pass through to the road for the sparrows.”
Tax avoidance often leads to the impoverishment of public services – our health care, our children’s education, our justice system – and undermines a fair society.
Ireland’s tax payers must be left wondering about the treatment of those with cervical cancer, in this particular case, compared with the treatment in terms of favourable tax rates given to the tech giants like Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple.
This coverage provides a stark illustration of corporate power and a dark tale of inhumanity in Ireland where this week there was “public outrage over the treatment of two very vulnerable groups — women with cancer having to fight for justice and humility in the courts, and distressed mortgage holders offloaded to a corporate vulture fund.” You can read the full article here of how the Irish government doles out special tax treatment for private wealth on the one hand, and on the other, social injustice for its ordinary tax payers.
