The “fraud triangle”—a theory of why people commit fraud—is the preeminent framework for analyzing fraud in the accounting literature. It developed out of studies of fraudsters, including inmates convicted of embezzlement. The three components of the fraud triangle are (1) an incentive or pressure (usually financial), (2) opportunity, and (3) rationalization.
There is a separate, extensive legal literature on tax compliance and evasion. The fraud triangle is largely absent from this legal literature, although tax evasion is a type of fraud. This Article rectifies that oversight, analyzing how using the fraud triangle as a lens can inform the legal literature on tax compliance.
Ranking Australia’s billionaires as taxpayers
Which billionaires pay the most tax, and which pay the least?
Great Timing: inside the ASIC investigation into Westpac’s jumbo capital raising
ASIC investigates Westpac’s $2.5 billion capital raising, executed just before AUSTRAC’s lawsuit against the bank for 23 million breaches of money-laundering and terrorism-financing laws
These Devices Can Prevent Major Home Damage and Save You Money
The New York Times – Smart-home sensors can detect leaks, frozen pipes, and open doors so that small problems don’t turn into big expenses – “Smart-home sensors can be discreetly placed all around your house, don’t require any expertise to use, and leave you with some peace of mind knowing that if mayhem strikes, you’ll have enough time to act before it busts your repair budget. Some smart-home sensors can be set up by themselves, while others work best when integrated with Apple HomeKit or another smart-home hub like SmartThings or Wink, which let different smart-home devices work together. All can send notifications to your smartphone when triggered, and many work with smart speakers like the Amazon Echo or Google Nest Hub, letting you check their status just by asking or receive voice notifications through the speaker. In collaboration with Wirecutter, a product review company owned by The New York Times, here are some of the smart-home devices we think are useful for most people…”'Ideological contempt': Keating slams government pressure to sell ABC offices
Former
prime minister Paul Keating says the federal government's suggestion
the ABC should consider the sale of its inner-city offices is an attempt
to "fracture" the public broadcaster.
Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues February 29, 2020 – Privacy and security issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: Will tech companies prevent misuse of platforms in 2020 election? Few in U.S. are confident; Privacy Concerns Raised Over New Google Chrome Feature; Clearview AI, Facial Recognition Company That Works With Law Enforcement, Says Entire Client List of Customers Was Stolen; Firefox enables network privacy feature for users in US.
ars technica: Flaw in billions of Wi-Fi devices left communications open to eavesdropping: “Billions of devices—many of them already patched—are affected by a Wi-Fi vulnerability that allows nearby attackers to decrypt sensitive data sent over the air, researchers said on Wednesday at the RSA security conference. The vulnerability exists in Wi-Fi chips made by Cypress Semiconductor and Broadcom, the latter whose Wi-Fi business was acquired by Cypress in 2016. The affected devices include iPhones, iPads, Macs, Amazon Echos and Kindles, Android devices, Raspberry Pi 3’s, and Wi-Fi routers from Asus and Huawei. Eset, the security company that discovered the vulnerability, said the flaw primarily affects Cyperess’ and Broadcom’s FullMAC WLAN chips, which are used in billions of devices. Eset has named the vulnerability Kr00k, and it is tracked as CVE-2019-15126. Manufacturers have made patches available for most or all of the affected devices, but it’s not clear how many devices have installed the patches. Of greatest concern are vulnerable wireless routers, which often go unpatched indefinitely. “This results in scenarios where client devices that are unaffected (either patched or using different Wi-Fi chips not vulnerable to Kr00k) can be connected to an access point (often times beyond an individual’s control) that is vulnerable,” Eset researchers wrote in a research paper published on Wednesday. “The attack surface is greatly increased, since an adversary can decrypt data that was transmitted by a vulnerable access point to a specific client (which may or may not be vulnerable itself).”..
Use of facial recognition app is ubiquitous in all sectors
BuzzFeedNews: “Clearview’s Facial Recognition App Has Been Used By The Justice Department, ICE, Macy’s, Walmart, And The NBA – A BuzzFeed News review of Clearview AI documents has revealed the company is working with more than 2,200 law enforcement agencies, companies, and individuals around the world.”
The United States’ main immigration enforcement agency, the Department of Justice, retailers including Best Buy and Macy’s, and a sovereign wealth fund in the United Arab Emirates are among the thousands of government entities and private businesses around the world listed as clients of the controversial facial recognition startup with a database of billions of photos scraped from social media and the web. The startup, Clearview AI, is facing legal threats from Facebook, Google, and Twitter, as well as calls for regulation and scrutiny in the US. But new documents reviewed by BuzzFeed News reveal that it has already shared or sold its technology to thousands of organizations around the world…”
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The Daily Telegraph by John Rolfe
Saturday 29 February 2020
MORE than $100,000 of work expenses from former state minister Katrina Hodgkinson's time in parliament has been rejected by the Australian Taxation Office. The ATO slashed the longserving Nationals MP's deductions from more than $160,000 to about $38,000, The Saturday...
Enhanced TPB register protects consumers and practitioners
The Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) announced improvements today to support both consumers and professional tax advisers.Announcing the changes, TPB Chair, Ian Klug AM said, ‘Nearly three quarters of all taxpayers rely on tax practitioners to get their taxes right. The vast majority of these practitioners act with integrity and professionalism. We have updated our public register so that the community can more easily find registered agents who can be trusted.'
Anyone using the services of a tax agent, or considering engaging a new one, is urged to check the register to avoid the risk of potentially being exposed to fraud or unexpected tax liabilities and penalties, possibly running into thousands of dollars.
The new TPB register will improve transparency for the general public, including more details of practitioners who have been sanctioned for misconduct, and for others who have resigned or surrendered their agent’s registration.
The TPB register allows community members to make more informed choices about the right adviser. It also improves integrity, guarding against unregistered advisers and those who engage in misconduct.
The new register is available on our website.
The Sometimes Questionable Ethics Of True-Crime Films
Smithsonian Releases 2.8 Million Images Into Public Domain - Smithsonian Magazine – “Culture connoisseurs, rejoice: TheSmithsonian Institution is inviting the world to engage with its vast repository of resources like never before. For the first time in its 174-year history, the Smithsonian has released 2.8 million high-resolution two- and three-dimensional images from across its collections onto anopen access online platform for patrons to peruse and download free of charge. Featuring data and material from all 19 Smithsonian museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives and the National Zoo, the new digital depot encourages the public to not just view its contents, but use, reuse and transform them into just about anything they choose—be it a postcard, a beer koozie or a pair of bootie shorts And this gargantuan data dump is just the beginning. Throughout the rest of 2020, the Smithsonian will be rolling out another 200,000 or so images, with more to come as the Institution continues to digitize its collection of 155 million items and counting. “Being a relevant source for people who are learning around the world is key to our mission,” says Effie Kapsalis, who is heading up the effort as the Smithsonian’s senior digital program officer. “We can’t imagine what people are going to do with the collections. We’re prepared to be surprised.”
The database’s launch also marks the latest victory for a growing global effort to migrate museum collections into the public domain. Nearly 200 other institutions worldwide—including Amsterdam’sRijksmuseum, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago—have made similar moves to digitize and liberate their masterworks in recent years. But the scale of the Smithsonian’s release is “unprecedented” in both depth and breadth, says Simon Tanner, an expert in digital cultural heritage at King’s College London…”