Shorten, for all his faults, leaves with a substantial legacy
PwC to start tracking working locations of all UK employees
A once-sealed affidavit filed with the Tax Court of Canada and obtained by The Fifth Estate details how alleged scammers tricked the Canada Revenue Agency and made off with $37 million of taxpayers' money.
In the document, a litigation officer with the Canada Revenue Agency alleges that Toronto-area company Gold Line Telemanagement made "material misstatements" on tax returns and was "part of a group of companies that participated in sham transactions."
The affidavit, which lawyers at KPMG said could cause "irreparable harm" to Gold Line if it was released, was kept off the public record for 10 months …
Between these two cases, the CRA claims to have wrongly dispersed $100 million to carousel schemes, a type of fraud that has been well-known to Canadian tax authorities for many years.
Also known as "missing trader fraud," carousel schemes rely on complicated supply chains filled with fake companies and invoices to create the appearance that legitimate business transactions are taking place. The companies then submit bogus tax refund claims that are paid out by unwitting governments.
CRA paid out $37M to tax scammers, unsealed affidavit alleges
New Zealand to nearly triple tax on international tourists Aljazeera
The FT needs to improve its financial literacy on the tax gap
The FT has an editorial headline this morning that says: I was pleased to see it, given that the tax gap has been an issue
Read the full article…
Putin, cash and guns prompt ‘explosive’ rethink of Swiss neutrality Politico
Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative: “U.S. Faces Unprecedented COVID-19 Surge with 1.2 Million New Cases Daily As of August 26, 2024, the U.S. is grappling with an alarming surge in COVID-19 infections, with a record-breaking 1.2 million new cases reported each day. 1 in 41 people is currently infected.”
‘A very serious situation’: Volkswagen could close plants in Germany for the first time in history.
Volkswagen is weighing whether to close factories in Germany for the first time in its 87-year history as it moves to deepen cost cuts amid rising competition from China’s electric vehicle makers.
The Bookseller: “Academic publisher Wiley has revealed it is set to make $44 million (£33 million) from Artificial Intelligence (AI) partnerships that it is not giving authors the opportunity to opt-out from. The US publisher is the latest to capitalise on deals to give tech firms access to its authors’ content to train their Large Language Models (LLMs).
Wiley has already earned $23 million from AI deals and confirmed to The Bookseller that it is set to make a further $21m this financial year. A spokesperson confirmed that Wiley authors are set to receive remuneration for the licensing of their work based on their “contractual terms”.
In July, authors hit out another academic publisher, Taylor & Francis, the parent company of Routledge, over an AI deal with Microsoft worth $10 million, claiming they were not given the opportunity to opt out and are receiving no extra payment for the use of their research by the tech company. T&F later confirmed it was set to make $75 million from two AI partnership deals.
The Booksellerasked Wiley about opt-outs should authors not want their work used to train AI chatbots. The firm confirmed it offered “no specific opt-out for authors on these licensing agreements” should they not wish to participate.”
In the fairy tale, the economy is "strong" for all the right reasons: people are investing in new companies, spending lots of money, hiring more employees, and so on. In this fairy tale version of economics, the occasional spot of bother-- a "weakening economy"--is deftly resolved by the central bank lowering interest rates, which magically encourages everyone to return to their happy speculative, consumerist ways.
The La-La-Land Fairy Tale of a “Soft Landing” Of Two Minds
East Germany votes for right-wing AfD, against Ukraine war Asia
Mpox cases in Nigeria rise to 48, spread to capital, 20 states Anadolu Agency
How Pakistan’s Peshawar has emerged as mpox ‘epicentre’ Firstpost
The Mpox Global Health Emergency — A Time for Solidarity and Equity New England Journal of Medicine