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Monday, August 26, 2019

Abstract 'Spin': Nearly Half Of All Scholars Exaggerate Their Papers' Findings


Why Slavoj Zizek thinks political correctness is dumb Big Think. “Dumb” is charitable.


THERE IS NO 'TRY': Joseph Maltby, former US Department of Homeland Security chief of organisational culture and development, shows how to tailor your mindset to the practical reality of working in government and the public sector. Follow his path and secure a long and fulfilling career in public service, you will.


Federal fraud indictment: KU professor secretly worked for Chinese university 


How Uber Got Lost NYT. Deck: “The once-swaggering company is losing more money and growing more slowly than ever. What happened?” See Hubert Horan at NC here (2016), herehereherehereherehereherehereherehereherehereherehereherehereherehere, and here(2019). Series title: “Can Uber Ever Deliver?” Another victory for Betteridge’s Law.
Department stores make room for used fashion Associated Press. The economy is fine.



Rebecca M. Kysar (Fordham), Critiquing (and Repairing) the New International Tax Regime, 128 Yale L.J. F. 339 (Oct. 25 2018) 

Heather M. Field (UC-Hastings), An Introduction to Tax Careers for J.D.s, ABA Tax Times, Vol. 38, No. 3, p. 30 (Spring 2019):
To many people, the tax field seems like a very narrow niche. The tax profession does require specialized expertise, but tax professionals know that there is actually great diversity in the career paths available to law school graduates. Yet for law students and junior lawyers interested in the tax field, it can be difficult to appreciate the range of possible tax careers and to distinguish between what different tax practitioners do. Thus, to help aspiring tax professionals easily understand the range of tax careers they might pursue, this article offers a 3-pronged framework for describing tax careers available to J.D.s.

  Inside Higher Ed, Abstract 'Spin': Nearly Half Of All Scholars Exaggerate Their Papers' Findings:
We’ve all been told not to judge a book by its cover. But we shouldn’t be judging academic studies by their abstracts, either, according to a new paper in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine [Evaluation of Spin in Abstracts of Papers in Psychiatry and Psychology Journals]. The study — which found exaggerated claims in more than half of paper abstracts analyzed — pertains to psychology and psychiatry research. It notes that “spin” is troublesome in those fields because it can impact clinical care decisions. But the authors say that this kind of exaggeration happens in other fields, too.

  The insidious threat of biometricsFinancial Times ( 


Wall Street Journal Tax Report, The IRS Is Coming For Your Bitcoin:
Bitcoin IRSThe Internal Revenue Service is on the war path against Americans who haven’t reported income from cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.
In late July, the IRS said it had started to send warning letters to more than 10,000 people who may not have complied with tax rules on virtual currencies. Agency officials have said criminal tax indictments involving cryptocurrencies are expected soon, and other enforcement letters are going out.
Tax specialists are urging crypto users who aren’t in compliance to act quickly. While coming clean involves a maze of tricky decisions, ignoring the agency could cost a crypto holder dearly. ...

MYOB launches 'industry-first' corporate compliance integration

 

NBC News, IRS Staffer Pleads Guilty to Giving Michael Cohen Data to Stormy Daniels' Lawyer:
IRS Logo 2An IRS staffer who leaked confidential details about former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's finances to Michael Avenatti, ex-lawyer for adult film star Stormy Daniels, pleaded guilty Wednesday to illegally accessing and distributing that information.
John C. Fry was an investigative analyst with the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, the law enforcement arm of the agency, in May 2018 when he twice logged on to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) database and downloaded five Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) — reports filed by banks when they note potentially suspicious transactions — related to Cohen and his company Essential Consultants.
In court Wednesday, Fry admitted giving Avenatti the information via cellphone and emailing him screenshots of the SARs. He pleaded guilty to one county of unauthorized disclosure of SARs. ...
Justice DOJ March 2019  Presser
 Justice DOJ ... 
 



This case bears some close factual and historical similarities to Blank’s case (Blank v Commissioner of Taxation (No 2) [2014] FCA 517; 98 ATR 379; Blank v Commissioner of Taxation [2015] FCAFC 154; 242 FCR 96; and Blank v Commissioner of Taxation [2016] HCA 42; 258 CLR 439 where the High Court did not consider the present point), which explains the close attention paid to that case by the Tribunal and in this Court

Lochtenberg v Commissioner of Taxation [2019] FCA 1167 - Judg


Billionaires among the coal barons - Sydney Morning Herald


ATO TO PUBLISH CORPORATE TAX TRANSPARENCY REPORT LATER THIS YEAR
The ATO has advised [CORPORATE TAX TRANSPARENCY REPORT ] that it will be extracting data in September 2019 for the annual corporate tax transparency report which includes certain tax information of Australian and foreign corporate tax entities. An entity will be included in the report if it is:

1. an Australian public or foreign owned entity with a total income of A$100 million or more;
2. an Australian resident private company with a total income of A$200 million or more;
3. an entity reporting Petroleum Resource Rent Tax payable .
The published details will be taken directly from tax returns lodged for the 2017-18 financial year and, in accordance with the law, will not include any Commissioner initiated amendments.



Jane Howard, via The Conversation
Anyone can nominate an Australian book written in the last five years to their MP or senator, and one book will be picked for all participating representatives to read.


That lightbulb moment when a boss gets it, and displays how little he does
The CEOs of the world’s largest companies would like to think they are the masters of the universe: the seers of the modern world. Then
Read the full article…


MENTAL HEALTH: As the nature of work changes, psychosocial harm is likely to increase, says the World Health Organisation.

 
TIME'S UP: Bruce Lander warns that reports of corruption and workplace misbehaviour must not be swept under the carpet.

Commissioner's speech on importance of transfer pricing
In a recent speech, Second Commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn spoke on the ATO's views on transfer pricing: why it's important to the Australian tax system, its strategy of transparency in relation to transfer pricing risk, and what good transfer pricing advice looks like in 2019.
Transfer pricing continues to be a key focus of the ATO given it is critical to the tax system, with Australia's 1,500 large corporate groups contributing around 60% of all corporate income tax reported and more than 10% of total tax collections each year. Particularly, its focus is on related party loans, offshore marketing hubs and more recently, inbound supply chains.
Mr Hirschhorn generally spoke about:
· the importance of transfer pricing in the Australian tax system
· focusing on the whole-of-taxpayer profiling and risk assessment under the "justified trust" approach
· measures adopted by the ATO to help reduce transfer mis-pricing risk, through its practical compliance guidelines
· transfer mis-pricing traps, and
· importance of wise advice and being a good transfer pricing professional.
Source: Second Commissioner's address at the Tax Institute's National Transfer Pricing Conference, 14 August 2019

Billionaire industrialist David Koch has died