THE GREAT DIAMOND HOAX OF 1872: If you’ve ever been to NW Colorado, you may have seen Diamond Peak. If you’ve wondered if there are diamonds there, the answer, sadly, is no. But there is a story—one the San Francisco Chronicle called “the most gigantic and barefaced swindle of the age.”
Is HMRC finally cracking down on big business tax abuse?
I noted this in the FT this morning, with interest: The UK tax
authority has opened multiple criminal investigations after probing
whether large companies are
Read the full article…
Charity Rorts: how private schools and big business rob from the poor to give to the rich
It’s time to tackle charity rorts, writes William De Maria. The richest schools are charities, as are big businesses like Queensland Sugar Limited. Even the likes of AI Group and NSW Business Chamber Ltd, organisations which fight against higher pay and better conditions for workers, enjoy charity and tax exempt status. Why should taxpayers foot the bill?
Telegram Feature Exposes Your Precise Address To Hackers ars technica
A 25-Year-Old Bet Comes Due: Has Tech Destroyed Society?
In 1995, a WIRED cofounder challenged a Luddite-loving doomsayer to a prescient wager on tech and civilization’s fate. Now their judge weighs in.
A 25-Year-Old Bet Comes Due: Has Tech Destroyed Society?
Daniel Schaffa (Richmond), The Economic Efficiency Case Against Business Tax Privacy, 50 Seton Hall L. Rev. 27 (2019):
By statute, business tax returns are not publicly available. But with public access, investors would acquire useful information that would help them make better investing decisions; business tax compliance and planning would become more uniform, preventing tax-savvy firms from gaining an advantage over other relatively more productive firms; and businesses could learn from one another, which would spare firms the cost of redundantly developing the same tax strategies. In the long run, these efficiency gains could result in lower prices, higher wages, more innovation, more leisure, and better investment returns. In the debate over business tax privacy, these sorts of economic efficiency arguments have received surprisingly little attention. This Article argues that economic efficiency is central to the debate and may well change where we come out on business tax privacy.
Conclusion
Economic efficiency is paramount to tax policy, but on one important issue—whether businesses should be entitled to tax privacy—the efficiency criterion has received short shrift. This Article evaluates business tax privacy using the same efficiency criteria applied to other tax issues and argues that eliminating business tax privacy would be beneficial. Public access to business tax returns was a feature of the country’s first corporate tax legislation. Economic efficiency considerations commend a return to our original approach.
Blending electoral democracy with political meritocracy: Michael Lyons
“Democracies” come in many shades of grey, from liberal to illiberal, authoritarian to “managed”, and more. A convergence of East and the West towards something akin to “post-democracy” might bring a much-improved world order, and a safer planet.Continue reading
The dangerous intransigence of Gladys Berejiklian
Intransigence is too seldom called out. It should never be mistaken for strength. Nor is it an admirable quality in anyone who wishes to lead effectively. Yet is something felt by many of us daily; and may even dominate our own emotional repertoire.
Named for the late Tax Court Judge Theodore Tannenwald, Jr., and designed to perpetuate his dedication to legal scholarship of the highest quality, the Tannenwald Writing Competition is open to all full- or part-time law school students, undergraduate or graduate. Papers on any federal or state tax-related topic may be submitted in accordance with the Competition Rules.
Prizes:
- 1st Place: $5,000
- 2nd Place: $2,500
- 3rd Place: $1,500
