Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Budget 2024/5 - ATO new powers - Shell sold millions of ‘phantom’ carbon credits

Federal Budget 2024: Winners and Losers


Budget 2024-25


The federal Budget is presented to Parliament in May each year.

The Budget website is the whole-of-government entry point for the Budget papers.

Past budgets papers are available at Budget archive.


more links … to budget



Show me the money: Tax emerges a serious 2024 budget winner in agency revamp

Budget 2024: robotax debts could be put on ice with ATO to be given new powers


ATO to receive $187 million to combat tax and superannuation fraud



Digital ID rollout accelerated, scores $288 million



This budget will make us better off now, worse off later

It’s said you can tell a government’s true priorities from what it does in its budget. If so, the top priority of Anthony Albanese’s government is not to have any priorities.



Don’t be fooled: this is an election budget with plenty of pork barrelling

This budget taxes more, and spends more, than any of the others for at least a quarter-century.

Peter Hartcher
Peter Hartcher

Political and international editor



The association would also like to see the government address the significant backlog of announced but unenacted measures that remain outstanding from previous budgets, reviews and announcements. This would provide certainty to taxpayers and their advisers, the Tax Institute said.

“Many decades of isolated measures, knee-jerk reactions and tweaks without consideration of the broader system have resulted in a tax system that is complex, inefficient and unfair,” the association said.

Business tax incentives, tax reform top of budget wishlist


A Shell-operated plant reported millions of carbon credits tied to CO₂ removal that never took place but were used by Canada’s largest oil sands companies, raising new doubts about a technology seen as crucial to mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. 

As part of a subsidy scheme to boost the industry, the Alberta provincial government allowed Shell to register tradable carbon credits equivalent to twice the volume of emissions avoided by its Quest carbon capture facility between 2015 and 2021, the province’s registry shows. The subsidy was reduced and then ended in 2022.

Shell sold millions of ‘phantom’ carbon credits FT



Major bail reforms for accused serious domestic violence offenders in NSW

 

The CEO Who Hired His Wife, Gave His Dog a Title, and Brought Down a Bank WSJ

 

South Korea finds illegal stock short sales by seven more banks Channel News Asia

 

I believe the public has the right to know the secret world."

For the first time ever, a former spy for China's notorious secret police – one of the most powerful arms of the country's intelligence apparatus – goes public, exposing the covert and illegal operations he was ordered to carry out on foreign soil, including in Australia.


China’s economy is headed for a ‘dead-end,’ and Beijing won’t do anything to stop it, scholar says.

“Years of erratic and irresponsible policies, excessive Communist Party control and undelivered promises of reform have created a dead-end Chinese economy of weak domestic consumer demand and slowing growth,” she wrote. “The only way that China’s leaders can see to pull themselves out of this hole is to fall back on pumping out exports.”

The result will be more tension with China’s trade partners as cheap manufactured goods continue to flood markets, while the Chinese people will turn gloomier, causing the government to get more repressive, Stevenson-Yang predicted.

The root cause of China’s economic problems is the Communist Party’s excessive control, which isn’t going away, while its strategies that focus on adding more industrial capacity are counterproductive, she said.

Most economists have recommended that Chinese leaders loosen their grip on the private sector and promote more consumption, which would entail reforming the government—” and that is unacceptable,” she added.

MEANWHILE IN SHANGHAI: China: Old And Busted: 1 Bed, 1 Bath. The New Hotness: 1 Bed In Bathroom.

FLASHBACK (From Ed) to November of 2019: How to Conduct Business with Chinese Companies That See a Dark Future.