Thursday, February 20, 2020

This map shows which companies have lasted hundreds (and even thousands) of years


“They say that when people jump from their own – or someone else’s – windows and balconies, they first take off their socks, shoes, trainers, slippers. They jump barefoot. With their hangnails, corns and hard heels. They go to join their barefoot ancestors.”



This map shows which companies have lasted hundreds (and even thousands) of years - Fast Company – “At a time when the average company on the S&P 500 only survives for two decades, it’s surprising to see that there are companies that have existed for centuries around the world. The oldest company still operating today is in Japan. It’s a construction firm called Kongo Gumi that dates to 578 and has specialized in building temples for 14 centuries. Today, though the company has been bought by a construction conglomerate, temples still account for 80% of its business. This is one fascinating insight from a series of maps published by the British publication Business Financing, which lays out the oldest companies still in existence in each country. The organization conducted its own research and did not work with any professional historians or academic institutions, so take their findings with a grain of salt. But in the broadest sense, they offer a glimpse into the industries that helped shape each country’s economy. In many cases, they also reveal the darker aspects of history, as nations accrued wealth through slavery and colonialism…”
Why does Japan have 33,000 companies over a century old?

 So Westfarmers are moving their IT operation of Bunnings (expect cheaper faster and more personalised cyber fraud) to India ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ  Attorney-General floats naming and shaming penalty for wage theft

 Probing Probe: inside the Government’s Robodebt collector


Communism, Totalitarism Or Feudalism? Public trust in government, business, charities and the media has collapsed in the wake of the national bushfire crisis with no institution seen as both competent and ethical.

Global communications firm Edelman's closely watched annual Trust Barometer, to be released today, was supplemented in the wake of the bushfires. Trust among the "informed public" fell nine points to 59 from an all-time high of 68 before Christmas.



Another Demise of a Storied Business at the Hands of Private Equity: Fairway

Fairway shows how private equity ruined a successful and much loved business

 Commonwealth Bank winds up tax shelter in Malta

Leaders from five international tax organisations have come together in Sydney, Australia this week to review the J5’s progress in their fight against transnational tax crime and set priorities for the year ahead.
J5 tax chiefs closing net on global tax evasion

'Greed is good': Trump just pardoned the man who inspired Gordon Gekko

Lesson From The Tax Court: IRS Automated Matching Program Not An 'Examination'


Tax Court (2017)Taxpayers think there is an audit lottery.  Tax professionals know better.  True, there is an audit lottery in the sense that only a very, very small percentage of returns are subject to human scrutiny.  But what most taxpayers overlook is that the IRS relies heavily on machines to process returns and, in that process, uses myriad automated programs to review all returns.  The truth is that every single return filed is subject to some level of review by the IRS.   One well known program is the Automated Underreporting program (AUR).  It matches information returns against taxpayer returns to catch under-reporting of income.
Last week’s case of Richard Essner v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2020-23 (Feb. 12, 2020) (Judge Marvel) teaches a lesson about what happens when machine and human review of the same tax return overlap.  There, the IRS issued an NOD based on an AUR review while the same tax year was, at the same time, under human review.  The taxpayer argued that this duplicative review violated the §7605(b) restrictions on unnecessary or duplicative examinations.  Judge Marvel sympathized but hewed to a long line of precedent holding that AUR review does not trigger the §7605(b) restrictions.  Details below the fold.

The House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on Tuesday on The Disappearing Corporate Income Tax with these witnesses:
House LogoJason Furman (Harvard), Testimony:
  1. Corporate tax collections are very low both in historical perspective and compared with other countries. This contributes to the overall low level of revenue.
  2. The 2017 tax law (Public Law 115-97) is a major reason for this revenue loss, with its total cost likely to be even larger than was estimated when the law originally passed.
  3. There is no evidence that the 2017 tax law has made a substantial contribution to investment or longer-term economic growth. In fact, business investment growth has
    slowed to nearly a halt while economic growth has been propped up by increases in government spending.
  4. Going forward, a well-designed business tax reform could both increase revenue and encourage more investment and innovation.
Rebecca Kysar (Fordham), Testimony:
  1.  TCJA has failed to live up to its promise of broadening the tax base on the foreign income of multinational corporations, which was the quid pro quo for a lower corporate tax rate.
  2. Treasury has weakened these already generous features of TCJA in the face of intense lobbying for business interests, which will further erode the U.S. tax base. Troublingly, many of these regulatory giveaways have no statutory basis
Douglas Holtz-Eakin (American Action Forum), Testimony:
  1. The jumping off point for the TCJA was a bipartisan agreement that the U.S. corporation income tax needed fundamental reforms;
  2. The TCJA, while imperfect, addressed many of the most important elements that harmed the tax-competitiveness of U.S.-headquartered multinationals, and it improved the growth incentives overall; and
  3. While there are limited data available this soon after the passage of the TCJA, there has been a U-turn on the loss of corporate headquarters, a dramatic shift in repatriated funds, and promising shifts in top-line economic growth, business investment, and wage growth.
Chye-Ching Huang (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities), Testimony:
Depletion of IRS Enforcement Is Undermining the Tax Code


2 tax breaks the ATO is begging you to take

Motley Fool Australia


Obeid lobbied premier to make Macdonald planning minister, court hears












Journalism Is Broken. Can It Be Saved?



What has happened in journalism in the twenty-first century is a version, perhaps an extreme one, of what has happened in many fields. A blind faith that market forces and new technologies would always produce a better society has resulted in more inequality, the heedless dismantling of existing arrangements that had real value, and a heightened gap in influence, prosperity, and happiness between the dominant cities and the provinces. – New York Review of Books


UK’s Broadcasting Authority Gets Responsibility For Policing Web And Social Media


It will be the job of Ofcom to “ensur[e] that firms such as Twitter and Facebook comply with a new legal ‘duty of care’ requiring them to protect their users from illegal material. … Under the government’s original proposals, outlined in last year’s online harms white paper, a website that does not fulfil that duty of care would face a fine, its senior managers could be held criminally liable or the regulator could demand access to the site be blocked entirely.” – The Guardian



These Two Made Millions On Scamming Online Arts Tickets

Peter Hunter and David Smith tricked selling sites over two-and-a-half years, buying £4m worth of tickets that they sold for £10.8m. They targeted events including Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift gigs and Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, Leeds Crown Court heard. – BBC

The Need For Civic Protest


Protest is meant to bring a reality that lurks beyond the sight lines of most people crashing down in front of them. When resistance to the current order arises, citizens are put to the test. We are forced to reveal where our allegiances lie. What are we willing to support, or do, in the pursuit of rightness and justice? – Maclean’s




In response to the above London Daily Mail headline, Bari Weiss of the New York Times asks: “So…@zerohedge was right?”

As this ZDNet article from February 3rd notes: ZeroHedge banned from Twitter over coronavirus bioweapon claims.

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