Thursday, July 20, 2017

Complicated Legal Landscape of Certain Taxing Matters


INK BOTTLE“A success that has outlived its usefulness may, in the end, be more damaging than failure.”
~Peter F. Drucker, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices


 “I believe my greatest service to honest men is to warn them against the imbeciles and bastards who cynically exploit their deepest fears.” – Georges

Quotes and links inspired by CL who is already in leisure filled mode ...

If you invest in a currency named Ethereum... and it doesn't work out for you... who is really to blame... but yourself...
We welcome Alan Futerfas to the party. This administration said it would create jobs, but I don't think any of us expected they'd all be jobs for criminal defense attorneys. [The Independent]

Is this Australia's first ever workable digital identity solution? Australia Post is the first federal entity to get a product to market in what is possibly the most important service delivery challenge of our era.

As Paperwork Goes Missing, Private Student Loan Debts May Be Wiped AwayNYT (AF). AF: “If only they’d wiped out the mortgage debt.”





Seattle's city council unanimously passed a pioneering income tax on the city's highest earners on Monday, a measure that has become a clarion call for Democrats there even though it is likely to face a swift legal challenge over violating state law.
Veronique de Rugy (Mercatus Center), Reforming US Corporate Taxes: 
The United States has fallen far behind other developed countries when it comes to corporate tax reform. In contrast to other developed nations, the United States has declined to reform the way it taxes corporations. Consequently, it now has the highest statutory corporate income tax rate of the G20 countries. The federal government needs to lower the corporate income tax rate-a reform that will improve the competitiveness of American businesses and encourage economic growth.


Four reasons why HMRC had a bumper year



Google Wins $1.3 Billion French Tax Case



A study on the impact of the Panama Papers recommends the EU to protect whistleblowers








Five trends reshape indirect tax landscape
EY, July 2017.  Useful read -  covers digital tax changes and increased use of digital solutions by revenue agencies. 

How to kill a corporate zombie
Economist, 15/7/18. An inability to kill off failing companies seems to have two main effects. First, the existence of the zombies drives down the average productivity level of businesses. Second, capital and labour are wrongly allocated to such firms. That stops money and workers shifting to more efficient businesses, making it harder for the latter to compete. In a sense, therefore, the corporate zombies are eating healthy firms. 





Geoffrey Johnson, originally from Forfar, Angus, played a leading role in an 18-strong crime gang involved in a complex VAT fraud. He was sentenced to 24 years in prison in his absence and both he and his son were ordered to repay £109m worth of criminal proceeds.

 HMRC said Johnson was apprehended in Dubai in early July after using a fake passport to travel from Kenya, where he had been lying low. He has now been returned to the UK and has appeared at Kingston Crown Court this week.








Mary McCarthy reserved the right to be “difficult.” What this meant in practice was that she was lacerating, supremely clever, and above all opportunistic Mary Imrichova  
“Not until bones have found a last resting place will shades be let across these gurgling currents, their doom instead to wander and haunt about the banks for a hundred years.” 


MEdia Dragon  Insider: “Google’s artificial intelligence company, DeepMind, has developed an AI that has managed to learn how to walk, run, jump, and climb without any prior guidance. The result is as impressive as it is goofy.” 

 Gupta tax and KPMG



Canadian, Alexandre Cazes, Found Dead In Thai Cell Was Wanted For Running 'Dark Web' Market







Corporate tax compliance and automation:  Tax in a digital world
Deloitte, July 2017. Key transformation opportunities include:
•Centralization: Enables the harmonization of tax compliance processes and protocols to potentially help address tax risks, increase quality, enhance value, and lower costs
•Data: High-quality data forms the foundation for analytics, automation and cognitive technologies
•Automation and A. I.: Automation may reduce time and costs, while AI reveals insights that can lead to improvements in tax operations, planning, and reporting
•Job taskification and talent cloud: Allows access to specialized talent pool, sourced in a variety of ways, whether internally or externally and at varying cost

    During the 24th Egmont Group Plenary Meetings that took place in Macau, the European Commission and Europol were awarded Observer Status of the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs).


    The decision will lead to increased cooperation not only between FIUs, but other competent authorities tasked with combating money laundering, terrorist financing and organised crime, facilitated by Europol’s role as an European hub in support of Member States on ongoing operations.


    The Egmont Group is a united body of over 150 FIUs that provides a platform for the secure exchange of expertise and financial intelligence to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. At the meeting, Ms Hennie Verbeek-Kusters (FIU Netherlands) was appointed as Chair of the Egmont Group for the coming two years.


    The European Commission and Europol strongly support the objectives of the Egmont Group by encouraging cooperation between FIUs at an EU level.


    Together with EU FIUs, the European Commission and Europol are actively involved in ensuring the integrity of European markets through work with the EU FIU Platform, FIU.net, the recently implemented Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive and the implementation of the EU Action Plan against terrorist financing.


    New EU rules that strengthen the role of and cooperation between FIUs came into force across Europe on 26 June.










     U.S. officials say Russian government hackers have penetrated energy and nuclear company business networks



    Tax Notes, 12/6/17.  The review team concluded that the taxation of labor should be made more consistent across forms of employment over the long term. “Worker” status should be retained and renamed “dependent contractor,” with additional protections for this group, the Taylor review said, and the distinction between “workers” and those who are legitimately self-employed should be made clearer.







    A typically Turnbullian piece of communications left observers scratching their heads. It took the Prime Minister and three other cabinet ministers over 3,500 words to explain the new MoG they plan to build, and that was before the questions. So today, we go over it, piece by piece.

    Posted by at