Resort owner Yong Huang accuses tax office of 'reckless' action over debt
Put wings on your car. “We call it a private jet for tax reasons really. Private jets don’t pay duty on fuel, so by adding wings to the vehicle, we should qualify for the same exemption.”
The Biometric Payment Revolution You Never Agreed To Reclaim the Net. Consumers need to say no. I refuse face scans at airline gates. Stuns me that no one else does.
Critics Call Proposed Changes To Landmark EU Privacy Law ‘Death By a Thousand Cuts’ Reuters
Redmond turns off Flock Safety cameras after ICE arrests Seattle Times
More and More Young People Disengaged from Work and Social Contact
Unemployment among young graduates has hit a sustained high level in many countries, which will produce further social and economic harm.
Inside London’s Smallest Apartments YouTube (resilc). ZOMG. The pricey one near Hyde Park looks to be in Belgravia.
Reverse mortgages edge up as US economy squeezes older Americans Financial Times
Is This The WORST TAKE On The Affordability Crisis? Young Turks, YouTube. It’s gratifying to watch Ben Shapiro self-destruct.
Even ICE Is More Popular Than Congress Now, Says Brutal Poll New Republic
How HR Took Over the World Economist. The Economist catches up with what a colleague has been complaining about for years, rule by HR ladies.
Cities Panic Over Having to Release Mass Surveillance Recordings
Time to cheer a legal win against the surveillance state, here the use of massive spycams by a vendor called
Cloudy Data, Costly Deals: How Poorly States Disclose Data Center Subsidies
Good Jobs First: “In the past year, four the biggest tech giants, Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft, spent an estimated $360 billion on capital expenditures, mostly building data centers across the U.S.; even more investment is projected in the next several years. Most of that will be spent on purchasing building materials and specialized equipment, such as chips, cables, and industrial-sized generators.
In at least 36 states, those purchases are exempt from sales and use taxes under incentive laws specifically crafted for the industry. This makes the data centers one of the most subsidized industries in the country. And yet, despite these subsidies costing states billions of dollars in lost revenue annually, the lack of transparency into what companies are getting what and where, and what communities are getting in return, is shocking.
A few states have computed their returns on taxpayer investments: they have determined that they lose between 52 and 70 cents for every dollar they spend on data center sales tax exemptions. Given drastic federal austerity that will significantly harm state and local budgets, states need to seriously consider ending or reducing such tax breaks (since states legally enable and regulate them)…”
