Thursday, November 26, 2020

Tax Havens

 

“A stupid leader is like a dog who’s in love with his own voice. He will bark incessantly believing that people admire his tune. A wise leader gets his point across in as few words as possible and then gets off the stage.”
Charbel Tadros 


The Crime and Corruption Commission has officially seized more than $4 million from a Queensland father after a routine traffic stop unearthed the cash in a car.

Simon Andrew Cross is facing a charge of tainted property.

Th e 37-year-old Strathpine man was pulled over at Eight Mile Plains in July by police, who discovered $4.35 million in cash, including $2.6 million in a box in the boot and $1.7 million in a bag on the front seat.

Investigators seize $4 million from Queensland father after cash was found in car


 

Samuel C. Thompson, Jr. (Penn State), Congress and Treasury's Federal Income Tax COVID-19 Initiatives, 167 Tax Notes Fed. 2067 (June 22, 2020):

Tax Notes FederalIn this article, Thompson principally focuses on the business tax provisions of the CARES Act.

The article is based on a chapter in a published special supplement (titled The Deal Lawyer’s Weapons in the War on COVID- 19) to Thompson’s Mergers, Acquisitions and Tender Offers: Law and Strategies — Corporate, Securities, Taxation, Antitrust, Cross Border(updated semi-annually).




Premier Gladys Berejiklian moved the Greater Sydney Commission under her control against the advice of a key departmental boss two months after a secret lobbying push by a group including big business and developers.

A group of prominent Sydney identities wrote a confidential letter to the Premier in March 2018 urging her to seize ministerial control of the commission, which then fell under the Department of Planning.

Premier's planning shake-up came after developers signed secret letter

One thing we know about Gladys Berejiklian is that she is not frightened of putting her hands where her fingers might get burnt. The Sydney Morning Herald disclosed this week that the Premier had taken control of the Greater Sydney Commission in 2018 against the advice of the Planning Department. Her infamous former confidant, Daryl Maguire, had advised Berejiklian that the commission was hindering his land development schemes near Western Sydney Airport. The Premier was also involved in making grants to Maguire’s electorate when they were together






Service NSW ran an advertising campaign immediately before the state election and then “inappropriately” used its post-campaign evaluation to measure sentiment towards the state government, according to the NSW auditor-general’s latest report.

In 2018–19, the agency delivered phases two and three of its Cost of Living campaign, which aimed to build awareness of the help available for people under financial pressure.

Under government advertising laws, campaigns must not contain the name, voice or image of a minister, member of parliament, or a candidate nominated for election to parliament. They also can’t contain the name, logo or slogan of a political party, and must not be designed to influence support for a political party.




This saga of the Craigslist Pig Couch—which has been circulating in various listings since at least 2016—is intriguing in its own right. But what really nails the story are the dry, perfectly shaped sentences, one after another


Italian police used a Lamborghini "with a refrigerated frunk" to transport a kidney for a waiting patient 300 miles in just two hours



The Conversation: “An endless flow of information is coming at us constantly: It might be an article a friend shared on Facebook with a sensational headline or wrong information about the spread of the coronavirus. It could even be a call from a relative wanting to talk about a political issue. All this information may leave many of us feeling as though we have no energy to engage. As a philosopher who studies knowledge-sharing practices, I call this experience “epistemic exhaustion.” The term “epistemic” comes from the Greek word episteme, often translated as “knowledge.” So epistemic exhaustion is more of a knowledge-related exhaustion. It is not knowledge itself that tires out many of us. Rather, it is the process of trying to gain or share knowledge under challenging circumstances. Currently, there are at least three common sources that, from my perspective, are leading to such exhaustion. But there are also ways to deal with them…”
 

A Barilaro Affair: how the Barilaros ended up with the Clubhouse when the Club went under

by Callum Foote

Without the knowledge of its members, Queanbeyan's Marco Polo Social Club was sold to a company controlled by NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro's father Domenico. Domenico was president of the Social Club, an institution of the Italian community. The new owners introduced tough financial conditions and eventually the members had to give up their rights, and the property was later sold to an associate of the Barilaros in 2004. Callum Foote reports.
 
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