“It was known as the higher purpose…it was
certainly one of the reasons why I think the revenue service was able to over
the years grow and develop and become this world class institution that it did
ultimately become. It was not just a job. It was a heart and mind labour of
love.”
~ Johann van Loggerenberg,
formerly of the South African Revenue Service and author of Death and
Taxes: How SARS made hitmen, drug dealers and tax dodgers pay their dues
The Lumen database collects and analyzes legal complaints and requests for removal of online materials, helping Internet users to know their rights and understand the law.
Unlike throughout the last global crisis, Australia’s economic management is failing badly. Alan Austinreports.
Australia loses thousands of jobs needlessly
John Passant, 1953-2020: a contribution that lives on |
Malcolm Turnbull on the Murdochs, his Liberal opponents and the 2019 election
There is an established tradition in Australian politics that those in power or seeking power say nice things about Rupert Murdoch, while those distant from power or whose time has passed are more critical. Continue reading
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ANIMAL FARM: Those in power
believing themselves to be above the law jeopardises liberty in a far more
profound way than being instructed to wear a face mask does.
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A Song Criticizing A Politician Tops The Charts In Poland – And Moments Later, It’s Completely Disappeared
Kazik Staszewski is a rock legend in Poland, and his song, “Your Pain Is Better than Mine,” hit a chord last week – or perhaps too many chords when it hit number 1 on a popular show. “Within minutes of the show ending, the results disappeared from the website of the show’s state-run broadcaster. Mr. Staszewski’s anthem had vanished, along with the rest of the chart.” One of the radio station’s many now-resigned hosts says, “even the Communist regime had more respect for the freedom of speech at Trojka than the current government has.” – The New York Times
Assaf Harpaz (S.J.D. 2020, Duke), Taxation of the Digital Economy: Adapting a Twentieth-Century Tax System to a Twenty-First Century Economy, 45 Yale J. Int'l L. ___ (2020):
This article analyzes the tax challenges of digitalization and the solutions to address them. The article argues in favor of a multilateral approach and proposes applying a new tax based on a worldwide de minimis amount. As more companies conduct business online, current international tax law and its principles have failed to adapt to global commercial practicesIn full: 191 parliamentarians and policymakers from 23 countries slam Beijing for ‘assault’ on Hong Kong freedoms and rule of law.
The University of North Carolina and Tax Policy Center host a virtual conference onResponding to Income Shifting by Multinational Corporations today at 9:30 am to 12:00 pm EDT (register):
Over the past few decades, corporate income tax rates and revenues have eroded worldwide as multinational corporations have shifted their reported profits from intangible assets to low-tax jurisdictions. In its study of base erosion and profit shifting, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recommended ways to limit abusive transactions that shift profits to low-tax jurisdictions and to improve corporate income reporting worldwide
Young Ran (Christine) Kim (Utah), Digital Services Tax: A Cross-Border Variation of the Consumption Tax Debate, 72 Ala. L. Rev. ___ (2020):
The rise of highly digitalized businesses, such as Google and Amazon, has strained the traditional income tax rules on nexus and profit allocation. Traditionally, profit is allocated to market countries where consumers are located only if the business has physical presence. However, in the digital economy, profits can be easily generated in market countries without a physical presence, resulting in tax revenue loss for market countries
Remote Employee Monitoring Veriato Solutions
Senate Approves Ratcliffe As Nation’s Top Spy Defense One
Can Lindsey Graham Win Reelection as a Trump Enabler?Washington Monthly
Wall Street Journal op-ed: The Iron Lady and the Coronavirus Age, by Peggy Noonan:
What is essential now from our political class? I find inspiration in a monumental work, the journalist Charles Moore’s three-volume biography of Margaret Thatcher. It is a masterpiece of fairness and insight. It is also something new, a work of justice done to a woman in modern politics.
At its heart it is not a story about political survival but about seriousness—about the purpose of politics, which is to guide your nation safely through the world while creating the conditions and arrangements by which your people can flourish. It is about winning the argument about how to achieve safety and flourishing.
In his stirring epilogue, Mr. Moore sums up Thatcher’s career, legacy, and essential nature. She cannot be understood, he writes, based only on her public statements. She must be seen also in light of her character: “Its contradictions were striking. She was high-minded and highly educated, yet had a common touch. She was fierce, but kind; rude, and courteous; calculating, yet principled; matter-of-fact, yet romantic; frank, yet secretive; astute, yet innocent; rational, yet capricious; puritanical, yet flirtatious.” She “combined an immense assurance about following her own way with a permanent uneasiness in life.” ...
What at bottom drove her? “If there was one uniting force in everything Mrs. Thatcher did, it was her love for her country.” All truly great political leaders have this love, which involves a heightened vision of their nation. Thatcher’s love was not always requited. “But great loves such as hers go beyond reason, which is why they stir others, as leaders must if they are to achieve anything out of the ordinary.”