Thursday, March 05, 2020

UK House of Commons Debate: Tax Avoidance and Evasion



The Oldest Company in Almost Every Country (That is Still in Business) Business Financing. Fittingly, Australian Post is the oldest company in Australia ... note that the oldest company in the United States is a plantation

Sadly, my great grandfather's pub and mill business did not survive the communist confiscations in Europe back in 1948 (The year Orwell penned and punned his 1984) ... However, even the communist could not touch his land which contains rich and healing hot springs ...
AI as ‘ultimate auditor?’ Congress praises IRS’ adoption of emerging tech

Contractors handling Australia's sensitive diplomatic mail dismissed for alleged misconduct

Federal bodies struggle to exit Chinese-owned data centre



U.S. charges two Chinese nationals in North Korea cryptocurrency scheme
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton will meet security ministers from the Five Eyes intelligence alliance in Wash­ington on Thursday, in a bid to finalise a global agreement that would force Facebook and Google to help shut down live streaming and sharing of child sex abuse.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton will meet security ministers from the Five Eyes intelligence alliance in Wash­ington 



EXCLUSIVE: FRC outlines plans for radical Big Four separation

The regulator is aiming for an operational split of audit practices by 2022 in major carve-up of firms. Sara White reports 




Strange and foreign' coronavirus powers activated to forcibly detain Australians

Australians will be able to dob on sick neighbours and large crowds at sport matches could be banned as the Morrison government activates sweeping powers.

 
How governments can enable the anti-money laundering system to have a real impact on serious, profit-motivated crime
CONQUERING DEFEATISM: Tired of following tedious processes and the staggering cost of obeying rules of almost zero impact? There are options.


What if the Government is Just Another Firm? (Part 1) Economics from the Top Down. Part 2.



Company 'never existed': Former ad agency contractor charged over $1 million fraud


The woman was arrested on Australia Day over allegedly committing the fraud as a financial director of the agency.



Five people charged in Sydney's second largest MDMA drug seizure


Five people have been arrested over a tonne of MDMA which was seized after police and Border Force officials realised all was not as it seemed with a consignment of tiling grout.


UK House of Commons Debate: Tax Avoidance and Evasion

Politicians are mulling a global tax rate to tame the tech giants  

Tax havens cost governments $200 billion a year. It's time to change the way global tax works  

Belgian companies sent €172.3 billion to tax havens in 2018

Will the UK backtrack on offshore public registers?  

HMRC defeats promoter Root2 Tax Ltd, who used their own avoidance scheme 

Money Laundering: FCA reports a drop in suspicious transactions  

DAC 6: tax evasion and avoidance across borders   


The winner of the International Fiscal Association's 2019 International Tax Student Writing Competition is David Rubin (Virginia), EB OR NOT EB? That is the Question Treasury Must Answer After Brexit, 49 BNA Tax Mgmt. Int’l J. 1 (2020).
Faculty Sponsor: Ruth Mason




A nation’s response to disaster speaks to its strength and to its dysfunctions


The Atlantic – Epidemics Reveal the Truth About the Societies They Hit– “..Epidemics, like disasters, have a way of revealing underlying truths about the societies they impact. The Chinese have already paid a high price for the secretiveness of their system, and for the top-down bureaucratic culture that led many, initially, to conceal the disease. By contrast, one of the reasons Italians aren’t panicking more is that they have confidence in the public-health system, and indeed the system in the broader sense of the word, despite Salvini and his disinformation campaigns. Italy has already tested many thousands of people for the virus—testing is free, of course—which is one of the reasons the numbers are so much higher there than elsewhere. People know this, and repeat it to one another, sometimes joking about it (“We Italians are too honest”) but it is a source of pride. Few others in Europe, so far, are testing that widely. And, of course, the U.S. is not doing anything of the sort…”
See also The New Yorker – Evan Osnos: How Political Spin Has Worsened Epidemics – “…This year, in the first months of the coronavirus epidemic, governments in multiple countries have tried to shape the truth in order to maintain control and deflect criticism…”
And Foreign Policy – Trump Has Sabotaged America’s Coronavirus Response – As it improvises its way through a public health crisis, the United States has never been less prepared for a pandemic.
and How to prepare for the coronavirus like a pro – Some of the smartest people I know are getting ready for a crisis—including me.




COMMUNIST FRONT CORPORATION: Leaked documents suggest Huawei violated Iran sanctions. “Internal documents reviewed by Reuters show that Huawei shipped computer equipment made by Hewlett-Packard to Iran’s largest mobile operator in 2010. The documents provide strong evidence that Huawei was involved in alleged trade sanction violations. They could potentially be used to strengthen the United States’ multifaceted case against Huawei.”




UIGHUR FACTORIES

More than 80,000 Uighurs have been forced to work in factories for global brands in China, including Apple, Nike, Gap and Sony, according to a new report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Conditions “strongly suggest forced labour” in factories “far away” from their homes, the report said. The new evidence comes just a week after the United Nations demanded “unfettered access” to Xinjiang.

GUILTY – AGAIN

A second person has pleaded guilty in the U.S. to crimes connected with the Panama Papers. Massachusetts accountant Richard Gaffey apologized to the court and to his country, friends, family and clients on Friday. Gaffey pleaded guilty to eight felonies and agreed to forfeit $5.3 million.

FOR THE PEOPLE


In the late 1980s, Yasuomi Sawa was frustrated with the way news media focused too much on “giving voice to those in power, and their version of events, rather than listening to the voiceless.” Yasuomi, now a senior writer with Kyodo News in Japan, has embraced data journalism – and taken on the fight of getting reporters, and the public, better access to court records and other information. We’re so glad to have him in our network! 

DUTCH WIN


After publishing their Luanda Leaks stories, our Dutch partners Het Financieele Dagblad were taken to court by United International Management – one of Isabel dos Santos’ advisers. Last week, an Amsterdam judge dismissed the case, ruling in favor of the investigative journalists and rejecting all of the claims made by United. The lawsuit “shows the determination of some parties in the trust sector to obstruct our work as journalists rather than to be accountable to the public for their actions,” said Prisco Battes, Het Financieele Dagblad’s deputy editor-in-chief.

Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato (Duke) presents Unintended Consequences of Eliminating Tax Havens​ at the University of British Columbia Peter A. Allard School of Law today as part of its Tax Law and Policy Workshop Speaker Series hosted by Wei Cui:

SuarezEliminating firms’ access to tax havens can have unintended consequences for their domestic economic activity. We study a policy that limited profit shifting by US multinationals and show it raised the tax cost of domestic investment. Firms affected by the policy responded by reducing investment and domestic employment. Firm-level responses were amplified to local labor markets through the establishment networks of profit-shifting firms. More exposed local labor markets experienced declines in employment, income, and home values and saw increases in government transfers. Policy proposals that limit profit shifting should therefore consider effects on economic activity in addition to tax revenue.





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