Thursday, March 12, 2020

A Surge In Online MEdia Dragon Services During Coronavirus?


“There must be a spice of mischief and wilfulness thrown into the cup of our existence to give it its sharp taste and sparkling colour.”
~ William Hazlitt, “On Depth and Superficiality”

 How COVID-19 is spreading across Sydney

 NSW government’s stern coronavirus advice


One-off payments for welfare recipients in $15b coronavirus stimulus package


The Federal Government will also seek to make sure apprentices can keep their jobs amid fears the spread of the coronavirus could have a crippling effect on employment.

Coronavirus updates LIVE: World Health Organisation declares COVID-19 a pandemic

COVID-19: Not Just A Bad Flu


COVID-19 Empties Out Public Spaces

France’s Culture Minister Falls To Coronavirus

The culture minister was supposed to meet Tuesday with representatives from the cinema and performing arts industries to assess the impact of new measures taken to counter the Covid-19 epidemic, following Sunday’s decision to ban any public gathering of more than 1,000 people. In France, more than 300 concert halls and theaters, including the Opera House, the new Philharmonie de Paris or Le Zénith indoor arena, have 1,000-plus seats. The Salon du Livre, France’s annual showcase event for publishers, which was expecting 160,000 visitors from 20 to 23 March, had already been cancelled along with a rock and roll festival planned a week before on the French-Swiss border. –The Art Newspaper





 The Tax Summit Setting the tax agenda for 2020 and beyond: Chris Jordan Key Speaker today - makes reference to Tim Dyce getting media coverage   former Second Commish Andrew Mills, and current one Jeremy Hirschhorn  were mentioned as being present ... there was no reference to sheep in wolf’s clothing
Chris Jordan gave his annual address a bit later this morning due to traffic as most people are avoiding buses and trains so the tunnel and bridge are filled more cars and as a result with over an hour delays. He reflected on our 2020 vision and highlighted ATO's priorities for the year ahead. The address was followed by a Q&A style session facilitated by The Tax Institute’s Senior Tax Counsel, Bob Deutsch. From tough tax topic to soft colourful socks - For someone who loves being sockless, the Commissioner was impressed with Bob's colourful socks ;-)
 

Business responsible for public scepticism on tax avoidance ...


Czech (sic) Out the wide ranging speech - "COMMISSIONER'S ADDRESS TO TTI CONFERENCE: MYGOVID, HIGH WEALTH TAX GAP"
When first appointed in 2013, Mr Jordan put forward a "2020 vision" for the ATO. The Commissioner self-assesses that this vision has largely been achieved, though obviously it is a work in progress. Given that Mr Jordan has had his term extended to 2024, he then set out what he termed the "Towards 2024" vision. This vision enhances a key ATO objective, namely to put the "client" (ie the taxpayer) at the centre of all the ATO does. There are 2 key aspirations as part of this vision:

 1. building a more streamlined, integrated and data-driven organisation; and
2. building greater trust and confidence in the system.
Much of the speech is devoted to setting how these aspirations can be achieved.
The Commissioner also drew attention to the high wealth tax gap: see [3] of this LTN. With a net tax gap of 7.7% (compared to 4% for the large market tax gap and 12.5% for the small business tax gap), the Commissioner said that there was clearly work to be done. He highlighted that this was the purpose of the 4 (current) tax gaps - they show the ATO where to focus its attention.
The Commissioner also confirmed that the AUSkey system will be decommissioned on 27 March. Specifically, that this was a hard deadline and there was no possibility of a deferral.


Ben Butler: Rich Australians paying about $960m a year less tax than they should be, ATO says

Tim Dyce: From July 1, the ATO will be expanding the work of the Tax Avoidance Taskforce with a new program focusing on high-wealth private groups, including partnerships and trusts.
  Nassim Khadem: ATO says wealthy Australians may be robbing $770 million from coffers due to tax avoidance


Phoenix Taskforce continues to put pressure on pre-insolvency industry

Media Releases: New Inquiry Commissioner of Taxation Annual Report 2018-19

 Parliamentary Reviews of Audits


 High Court confirms BHP ... Members are associates for tax-purpose

BHP BILLITON LIMITED (NOW NAMED BHP GROUP LIMITED) v COMMISSIONER OF TAXATION [2020] HCA 5

 Australian Securities and Investments Commission v King [2020] HCA 4

The Cultural Problem of Cheating & Lying
Cheating, and the lying that always accompanies it, is probably as old as the human species. At the same time, that is probably how long we have known that they are harmful traits. The Eighth Commandment (out of the famous 10) tells us not to bear false witness, which means, don’t lie. Most older societies had someone assigned to monitor the marketplace for reliable weights and measures — because left to themselves, most capitalists, of all times and places, cheat. This reality was and still is confirmed by the Roman warning “caveat emptor,” let the buyer beware.



 CORONAVIRUS UPDATE: UK Health minister Nadine Dorries tests positive. 






Stop Comparing the New Coronavirus to the Flu. Weird, it was fine until Trump did it. 














   

 MIT Technology Review – The best, and the worst, of the coronavirus dashboards - There are dozens of sites that show you how coronavirus is spreading around the world. Here is our ranking. “If you’ve been on the web to learn more about the latest pandemic, chances are you’ve stumbled upon at least one or two coronavirus dashboards. These are the landing pages for interactive maps and visuals that show where the virus has spread, as well as numbers on the latest in infection rates and deaths, breakdowns of what countries are suffering from new cases and what regions are likely seeing new outbreaks, and much more. Not all dashboards are created equal, nor do all people have access to the same dashboards (for instance, US sanctionsprevent Iranians from accessing the one run by Johns Hopkins University). Some present data you won’t find elsewhere. Some are easier to navigate than others. Some are simply much more stunning to look at…”
  

BBC published a visual guide that you can post, share and discuss – please take a look – it answers many questions and provides sound guidance on how to protect yourself and others as well as how to identify if you may have the virus.

UNSURPRISING: Vitamin D: Deficiency May Increase Coronavirus Infection Risk. 

 Bespacific on coronavirus and health care

A Surge In Online Services During Coronavirus?


If the coronavirus continues to spread, analysts believe U.S. consumers will adopt behavior similar to that of Chinese consumers. China this year has seen a surge in people downloading apps on their smartphones in such areas as games and entertainment, according to San Francisco mobile data and analytics firm App Annie. Weekly game app downloads on Apple devices last month were up 80% in China, compared with a monthly average of downloads for 2019, the company said. – Los Angeles Times

BREAKING: IT’S SUDDENLY RACIST TO SAY ‘WUHAN VIRUS.’

TPM – Josh Marshall: “This seems to be the best and really only source of information I’ve seen with detailed and frequently updated data on the rate of COVID-19 testing and infections broken down by states within the United States. This is the breakdown by states. [Per the author – The    utility is that it is regularly updated with publicly released information from ALL states.] This is the daily cumulative update. In each case you have total tests, positives, negatives and pending. In a better world, the CDC or some other government agency would be publishing this information. But that’s not happening. A few more points about why this is a reliable source. Everything is moving quickly. I’m not involved with this project. So I can’t vouch for it directly. But I’ve looked at it closely. It’s run by serious, named people. The project combines one started by Jeff Hammerbacher, a data person from the biotech field, and another started by Alexis Madrigal of The Atlantic. They’re both now working together on the joint project. It’s being updated regularly. They’ve published a brief discussion of methodology along with links to state and county sources of information where most of the information is drawn from. There are also helpful notes in a comments field on sources of data and what different states are or are not reporting. (They’re actually looking for volunteers to work on the project.)…”
See also: The Atlantic – The Strongest Evidence Yet That America Is Botching Coronavirus Testing – “I don’t know what went wrong,” a former CDC chief told The Atlantic. It’s one of the most urgent questions in the United States right now: How many people have actually been tested for the coronavirus? This number would give a sense of how widespread the disease is, and how forceful a response to it the United States is mustering. But for days, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has refused to publish such a count, despite public anxiety and criticism from Congress. On Monday, Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, estimated that “by the end of this week, close to a million tests will be able to be performed” in the United States. On Wednesday, Vice President Mike Pence promised that “roughly 1.5 million tests” would be available this week. But the number of tests performed across the country has fallen far short of those projections, despite extraordinarily high demand, The Atlantic has found…”
See  also – Why We Should Care: Common Questions and Answers about Covid-19

COMPARE AND CONTRAST: Social Distancing During the 1918 Influenza Pandemic and Lessons for Coronavirus Disease 2019. The Philadelphia vs. St. Louis graph is striking.


France's top court has recognised the right of an Uber driver to be considered an employee, in a ruling that could upend the United States firm's business model and potentially require it to pay more taxes and provide its drivers benefits, such as sick leave.
The move comes as the coronavirus outbreak spreads through Europe and North America, where the ride-sharing app is very popular. ...


One chart shows how many coronavirus tests per capita have been completed in 8 countries. The US is woefully behind. Business Insider


Trial of Programmer Accused in C.I.A. Leak Ends in Hung Jury NYT

Google tracked his bike ride past a burglarized home. That made him a suspect. NBC
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