"In the
same way that you wouldn't lie on your income tax assessment forms, you
wouldn't lie to the ATO about early release of superannuation."
Assistant Minister for Superannuation Jane HumeThousands of dollars disappear overnight as scammers use myGov to steal super
Scammers are taking advantage of the Government's early release superannuation scheme to steal money from Australians' nest eggs, and loopholes in myGov security could have something to do with it.
As the FT reported last night:
Online marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay face being forced to collect value added tax on UK sales made on their platforms by overseas retailers in an effort to combat fraud worth an estimated £1.5bn a year.In a leaked document seen by the Financial Times, HM Revenue & Customs revealed its plans to end the status of online marketplaces as mere facilitators of UK sales of overseas goods and instead treat them as the vendors that are responsible for handing over VAT to the government from January.The move suggests that the tax authority has accepted that its previous attempts to stamp out VAT fraud by overseas retailers on online marketplaces have failed.
About time, is all I can say. I wrote about this issue and the legal basis for addressing it in 2015. Why has it taken so long to address? I know that HMRC knew all that was happening by that date: I played a small part in ensuring that they did. The indefatigable campaigner, Richard Allen, played a vastly bigger part.
There has been no excuse for their inaction, the cost of which has been immense. The likely low-end estimate of the cost has been £1.5 billion a year.
As the Auditors are finally going to have to do their jobs - FT has noted this morning:
UK financial regulators are examining how many listed companies are set to issue warnings about their ability to survive the pandemic, as they seek to assess the impact on markets should share prices plummet.Auditors have warned that there is a backlog of annual reports that are likely to question the ability of companies in the retail, hospitality, leisure and travel industries to continue trading as a going concern for the next 12 months.A flood of going concern warnings or qualified audit opinions — in which an auditor says there are misstatements or that they could not obtain enough evidence to sign off the accounts with a clean bill of health — could spook markets. There is also expected to be a rise in “emphasis of matter” audit reports, which highlight serious uncertainties around matters such as property or inventory valuations.
This is, of course, exactly what auditors have always been meant to do. The job of an auditor is not to issue a boiler-plate report saying all is well in a company when it is not, although that has on far too many occasions in recent years been exactly what has happened. The job of an auditor is to highlight issues of concern, and whether the count likes it or not.
Now that is likely, and unprecedented. As the FT notes:
A senior accountant who is close to the government said that a cross-sector wave of warnings “didn’t happen during the last financial crisis, and as the future is far from certain there is lots of worry about this”.
And as they add:
The head of audit at one large firm said some major businesses had approached the government’s department for business in recent weeks to complain that their auditors were putting too much pressure on them. “They have complained that we’re being overly prudent,” the auditor said.
Every life matters. Today we are forcefully reminded that black lives matter, and rightly so. But all who are oppressed deserve our concern: there is no solution to any problem that is not inclusive.
Trump postpones G7 summit, seeks to expand invitation list Al Jazeera
Police Accountability Tool – “Use the data on this page to hold Police Chiefs and Mayors accountable for ending police violence in your city. The charts below use data from January 2013 through December 2019 to show which police departments are most – and least – likely to kill people. You can also compare police departments operating in jurisdictions with similar levels of crime to show that, even under similar circumstances, some police departments are much more likely to kill people than others. And after you’ve explored this tool, click here to learn about police violence in your state…”
The famous “wolf warriors” — an action-hero term used for Chinese diplomats as they aggressively defend their country in the COVID-19 outbreak — have developed a new battle tactic. They are now claiming to be fact-checkers.
Since April, in response to the flood of international criticism against China, Chinese embassies in several countries, the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the state-backed media have been publishing what they call fact-checks.
The Ramones were paying tribute to Paul McCartney, who used the pseudonym ‘Paul Ramon’ when checking into hotels
His and Hers Stories of Band NamesThe “shoe on the other foot test” sounds a lot closer to the Golden Rule than to the Rawlsian “veil of ignorance,” a fact which Dershowitz has sometimes come close to admitting. But that a Harvard Law School professor would choose to associate himself with Rawls rather than Jesus suggests the extent to which, in certain academic circles, Rawls is the point of divine reference—even as few Americans would recognize his name.
~ John Rawls’s work can take on the quality of a sacred text. Was his appeal related to the declining status of Christianity? Rawls
How to steal a Van Gogh or a Imrich : "Talk smooth, be cool, have a fast car, and never touch anyone” Never Touch Anyone
Looters smash shops across Washington DC and New York City as protests turn violent and policemen hospitalised
Clashes continue in some US cities, with protesters confronting police for a sixth night amid anger over the killings of black people at the hands of police.
Global Talent Independent Visa: Permanent residence in a week or two
The new Global Talent Independent (GTI) visa provides a direct permanent residence for ‘highly skilled professionals in high growth sectors’. According to the Department of Home Affairs, processing times range between two days and two months with many being decided within a week or two.
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George Floyd riots spiral out of control: Chaos in 25 cities from New York to LA as protesters torch cop cars, burn down buildings and clash with riot police on a fifth night of violence with hundreds of arrests and injuries Daily Mail
Before George Floyd’s Death, Minneapolis Police Failed to Adopt Reform, Remove Bad Officers Marshall Project
strategy + business – Powerful modes of reflection are crucial for leaders and their teams, especially when dealing with a crisis: “Reflection for seasoned leaders has always been a personal process. Step back. Regroup. Look in the mirror. Push the pause button. There is often an intuitive belief that reflection carries restorative powers and can even be transformational. In theory, it goes like this: On top of a mountain, a leader retreats to ask him or herself a set of questions about life, stress, and sacrifice, capturing the answers in a beautifully bound notebook. The questions don’t vary much. Where are you going? How are you living your values? What gives you meaning, purpose, or fulfillment? Are all the components of your life managed as you need them to be managed: career, family, friends, finances, health, and spiritual growth? The power of this reflection comes from digging deep and being in touch with your core. It is very much an affair of the heart. With the insights from this exercise, you come back to your role renewed, focused on what matters to you and clearer about how you will lead this year. Although this kind of deep reflection (on an imagined mountaintop) is a useful process, it may not be enough to tackle the range of problems a business encounters in the course of a year because it focuses solely on the leader. In our experience working together and independently coaching leaders, we find that they and their teams benefit from four ways of more targeted reflection that help refocus and reframe challenges (see “The four kinds of reflection”). This is particularly true when the world as we knew it has so dramatically changed and the challenges we face will be of a new kind.
In our experience, the leadership health check should be done twice a year. Its purpose is to refine how you lead in order to elicit better performance, engagement, or commitment from those around you. Rather than a look at yourself in a mirror, you distill the views of others concerning your words and actions. Informally or formally, you gather the answers to the following questions from people you trust, such as a coach, colleagues, and mentors. And you collect the perspectives of key critics…”