The intentional use of silence at work – Chris Marcell Murchison describes how impactful intentionally using silence can be as useful first step in coming to terms with our own feelings during difficult times.
The Dangerous Myth of ‘Taxpayer Money’ Splinter
Aerial bombardment, war ethics, and the bloodiest six hours in all of human history
Cloud based and still spending hours managing ATO documents? Industry innovators team up to help you make light work of tax correspondence
Commissioner Rettig Tax Gap Comments Relevant to Federal Tax Crimes
The IRS has a new web page titled “Impacting the Tax Gap” here. The page is a summary of Commissioner Rettig’s comments which are set forth in a linked pdf here. Commissioner Rettig’s comments are excellent. Highly recommended.
I will cut and paste the comments I think most relevant to readers of this Federal Tax Crimes Blog (footnotes omitted; I stated the categories of the report but only include the text under the category relevant to criminal matters so some comments will not be included; I do not state the page numbers but searching the pdf can get the pages):
Research on high wealth noncompliance
Several RAAS researchers recently participated in a study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) entitled “Tax Evasion at the Top of the Income Distribution: Theory and Evidence.” This study examined tax evasion at the highest income levels and estimated that the top 1 percent of Americans hide more than 20 percent of their income from the IRS. With more, specialized, and targeted enforcement resources, the IRS could significantly reduce the income tax gap for the top 1% and collect another $175 billion of taxes annually.
Meet the Swiss Billionaire Behind Arabella Advisors’ ‘Dark Money’ Empire. “New York Times reporter Ken Vogel recently revealed the efforts by Swiss billionaire and leftist mega-donor Hansjörg Wyss to purchase the parent company of the Chicago Tribune and other failing newspapers around the country. It’s laudable to see such genuine investigative journalism—especially since it likely led the billionaire to withdraw his $100 million bid. When so many framed Wyss as a liberal white knight bent on saving a venerable American industry, the reality couldn’t have been more different.”
Where are the right-leaning billionaires when there are big-name media outlets practically begging to bought up cheap?
Can You Trust LinkedIn With Your Personal Data?
MakeUseOf: “LinkedIn is still the most trusted social platform according to the 2020 Digital Trust Report. It has consistently ranked number 1, ahead of other social media giants like Facebook and Twitter, for years. According to many consumers, the platform for the world’s business community is the one people are most confident in storing their private data securely. But how much can you really trust LinkedIn?LinkedIn isn’t immune to data leaks. In fact, a monster breach in 2012 first believed to have leaked 6.5 million account credentials, turned out to be much worse. The initial leak that contained 6.5 million account passwords was initially posted in a Russian cybercrime forum in 2012. LinkedIn confirmed the breach and encouraged users to change their passwords. But years later, they found out that it was just the tip of the iceberg. In 2016, a hacker named “Peace” peddled the rest of the stolen LinkedIn credentials on the dark web. The hacker claimed to have had the information of 167 million LinkedIn users. It was reported that 90% of the unsalted passwords were cracked within 72 hours…”
Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, April 24, 2021 – 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: How Do You Retire Technology and Limit Risk?; Postal Service Cops Are Monitoring Social Media: Document; FTC Says Racist Algorithms Could Get You In a Lot of Trouble; and What are the different roles within cybersecurity?