The big news this morning is the pending G7 agreement on a minimum 15% corporation tax and finally Amazon and others having to pay their fare share of tax
Full marks to Joe Biden for pushing this and Rishi as host endorsing it
And the BBC are reporting the irony that Ireland and some in the EU are anti
And another problem for Labour as the conservatives resolve the Amazon tax controversy
What are the odds of this actually being implemented, say by 2025? Presumably the Republicans block it, because it is proposed by a Democrat, and then the other countries say they will implement it when the US does?
Or is there a clear legislative pathway for this?
Republicans may want to block it because of Biden, but in the other hand they aren’t exactly on the same page as the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook... these days
Everyone is going to want to see the detail of what actually passes the US legislative process - a basic understanding of which suggests that they’ll either try and get large multinationals listed in the US to pay all of their global taxes there, will make an exception for companies who also sell physical goods, or own a theme park, will allow grandfather rights on existing offshore subsidiaries for ten years, allow US companies to offset taxes against US spending, and maybe something about abortion clinics, just because.
None of that matters though
From our perspective it’s the fact we can tax Amazon, Facebook etc based on UK sales rather than those taxes going to Ireland/Luxembourg.
The minimum tax thing is something Biden wanted so if it gets him to support the digital tax that is fine. The minimum tax is essentially a sweep mechanism - if you’ve done lots of clever things and reduced your tax below X then It gets rounded up to 15%. Benefits all normal tax countries vs the parasites (won’t really impact the tax havens).
Let’s hope so. I still think the devil is in the detail.
Barking and Dagenham Vaccine Centre, less than 5 mins from Dagenham East tube, sitting there waiting for people to book their jab. What more can they do?
Work email from NHS England tells me that no relaxation of infection control and social distancing in the health care setting on June 21st, and not for the foreseable future.
The big news this morning is the pending G7 agreement on a minimum 15% corporation tax and finally Amazon and others having to pay their fare share of tax
Full marks to Joe Biden for pushing this and Rishi as host endorsing it
And the BBC are reporting the irony that Ireland and some in the EU are anti
And another problem for Labour as the conservatives resolve the Amazon tax controversy
What are the odds of this actually being implemented, say by 2025? Presumably the Republicans block it, because it is proposed by a Democrat, and then the other countries say they will implement it when the US does?
Or is there a clear legislative pathway for this?
Republicans may want to block it because of Biden, but in the other hand they aren’t exactly on the same page as the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook... these days
Everyone is going to want to see the detail of what actually passes the US legislative process - a basic understanding of which suggests that they’ll either try and get large multinationals listed in the US to pay all of their global taxes there, will make an exception for companies who also sell physical goods, or own a theme park, will allow grandfather rights on existing offshore subsidiaries for ten years, allow US companies to offset taxes against US spending, and maybe something about abortion clinics, just because.
None of that matters though
From our perspective it’s the fact we can tax Amazon, Facebook etc based on UK sales rather than those taxes going to Ireland/Luxembourg.
The minimum tax thing is something Biden wanted so if it gets him to support the digital tax that is fine. The minimum tax is essentially a sweep mechanism - if you’ve done lots of clever things and reduced your tax below X then It gets rounded up to 15%. Benefits all normal tax countries vs the parasites (won’t really impact the tax havens).
Biden wants us to drop the digital tax (so all the revenue flows to the US), before this comes in - as soon as its agreed.
On the "low tax jurisdictions" as long as it's done globally it won't be a problem.
The US multinational I used to work for shifted from local European country companies to one Swiss company with local "service companies" several decades ago - I hope this catches them too, not just the Googles & Amazons
Work email from NHS England tells me that no relaxation of infection control and social distancing in the health care setting on June 21st, and not for the foreseable future.
Hate the phrase “foreseeable future”. Really really despise it. Just say “never”
Japanese response to speedy vaccination (video in tweet):
The vaccination at Umi, a town in Fukuoka, is done smoothly and effectively with a doctor & his team moving while elderly residents sit and wait. They can give shots to 120 people in an hour, 8 times faster than before
As a counter to the various stories of how swift and efficient the vaccine rollout is, I'd note that my first dose took an hour from door to door, and I was in 4 separate queues which all ended in a different dopey volunteer asking me exactly the same questions, before I was finally released to a aisle of largely idle jabbers. Very much too many volunteers but none of them willing to engage brains to increase throughput.
What were the Q's?
They do it all the time when you are in hospital, as protection against giving the wrong treatments to the wrong people. Even when your name is pinned to your bed, and they are doing a daily drug round.
Safety lessons from past mistakes.
Even giving blood, you’ll tell your name and date of birth to every new person you meet.
As you say, lessons learned from past incidents. The same reason air traffic controllers never refer to ‘take off’ except in the phrase ‘cleared to take off’.
Even so it doesn’t always work: the last time I was in hospital as more than an outpatient I was inA&E with a line in waiting to be sent up to a bed when I realised that the name printed on the bag at the top of the line wasn’t mine. I was not fully with it at the time so they might not have asked me my name, but someone hadn’t checked my wrist band either. Luckily it didn’t matter as it was the same treatment I should have had, but it could have been pretty serious.
Whoops.
It’s amazing how much effort goes into improving safety and learning from incidents in critical industries such as medicine and transport, but mistakes still get made and accidents still happen.
Apart from banning leisure travel to the entire rest of the world and then putting a green flag with a big arrow pointing to well known beach-and-sun destination Portugal, they did nothing to encourage it, at all.
"It's holiday time, folks! Here's where you can go:
- a few places that won't let you in anyway; - a few more places no sane person would take a holiday; - Portugal !! "
Work email from NHS England tells me that no relaxation of infection control and social distancing in the health care setting on June 21st, and not for the foreseable future.
That sounds pretty bad in therms of capacity.
It is, particularly in outpatients and daycase units, about 60% of throughput in the days BC, and we had waiting lists then.
The big news this morning is the pending G7 agreement on a minimum 15% corporation tax and finally Amazon and others having to pay their fare share of tax
Full marks to Joe Biden for pushing this and Rishi as host endorsing it
And the BBC are reporting the irony that Ireland and some in the EU are anti
And another problem for Labour as the conservatives resolve the Amazon tax controversy
What are the odds of this actually being implemented, say by 2025? Presumably the Republicans block it, because it is proposed by a Democrat, and then the other countries say they will implement it when the US does?
Or is there a clear legislative pathway for this?
I believe the next step is for the G20 to agree then I expect it would be quite quick
Certainly the G7 finance ministers are getting quite excited by it and of course Joe Biden has threatened sanctions on any country that dos not implement the agreement
Joe’s ancestral homeland might be a bit less keen on him if he does that.
I was just saying that to my good lady this morning
It is ironic that Ireland is representing the EU at this G7 finance ministers meeting and it is Ireland and some EU countries who are objected v the ROW
Yes, an example of how Brexit has lost us influence on European policy. We are outside the room where it happens now.
Lol, the opposite in fact. We're in the room with the US making this happen while the European countries are arguing amongst themselves. It doesn't matter anyway, the G7 will simply ignore the EU. Tax isn't an EU competence and all three of France, Germany and Italy are on board.
Rishi has got his global digital services tax. Apple, Google, Amazon and the rest of them will pay tax on revenue earned in the UK. We've worked with the US to make it happen. The EU has been trying and failing to block it.
Spectacularly tone-deaf letter by the Tory campaign on a number of fronts. Poor Dishy having his name attached to it.
And it is why the conservatives are 'winning here'
It is a demonstrable fact that the Tories throw cash at seats they have won - as have previous governments of different colours.
What is new here is the explicit threat to starve them of cash if they vote the wrong way. Government as mafia mob? They should just adopt the HYUFD tone and be explicit.
"We are in charge here. We will do what we like. We give money to our friends and starve our enemies. You want to be fed or go hungry? Think about that when you cast your vote"
They've done nothing about an urgently required major road in Priti Patel's constituency.
Travel companies are reporting that significant numbers of people are still intending to travel for their Portugal holiday, despite the new restrictions, and that bookings are holding up. Further evidence that we are approaching the point where many people have simply had enough.
I think that the Amber home quarantine will be widely ignored, particularly by the youngsters.
I had a foreign friend who stayed at my place for the quarantine in March. They called him once a day to check he was home. It didn't take him long to realise he could wait for the call (usually about lunchtime) then do what he liked.
Given that more and more people only have a mobile contact number, how do they know where you are when they call, anyway?
I think they judge by things like whether there is ambient noise etc.
I don't see why people can't just ignore the calls and say they were napping or in the shower or something.
I suspect the truth is that the measures are largely designed to deter people from travelling in the first place.
For those that have travelled regardless, they're not really bothered about seeing the home quarantine measures are strictly enforced - because it's massive overkill given the tiny risk and the fact that the majority of people take precautions when away from home anyway - and are only making token efforts like the daily phone call to avoid people realising the whole thing is a sham policy.
I ignored all the calls whether I was at home or not and precisely nothing happened. See also census and TV licence.
census are still calling door-to-door on the no replies; I saw one of them at it last week
Let's hope they will enjoy getting told to fuck off.
Or you could do something unexpected, like inviting them in for tea
Travel companies are reporting that significant numbers of people are still intending to travel for their Portugal holiday, despite the new restrictions, and that bookings are holding up. Further evidence that we are approaching the point where many people have simply had enough.
I think that the Amber home quarantine will be widely ignored, particularly by the youngsters.
I had a foreign friend who stayed at my place for the quarantine in March. They called him once a day to check he was home. It didn't take him long to realise he could wait for the call (usually about lunchtime) then do what he liked.
Given that more and more people only have a mobile contact number, how do they know where you are when they call, anyway?
I think they judge by things like whether there is ambient noise etc.
I don't see why people can't just ignore the calls and say they were napping or in the shower or something.
I suspect the truth is that the measures are largely designed to deter people from travelling in the first place.
For those that have travelled regardless, they're not really bothered about seeing the home quarantine measures are strictly enforced - because it's massive overkill given the tiny risk and the fact that the majority of people take precautions when away from home anyway - and are only making token efforts like the daily phone call to avoid people realising the whole thing is a sham policy.
What is particularly idiotic is that vaccinated travellers must quarantine while unvaccinated Brits can do what they like.
Spectacularly tone-deaf letter by the Tory campaign on a number of fronts. Poor Dishy having his name attached to it.
And it is why the conservatives are 'winning here'
It is a demonstrable fact that the Tories throw cash at seats they have won - as have previous governments of different colours.
What is new here is the explicit threat to starve them of cash if they vote the wrong way. Government as mafia mob? They should just adopt the HYUFD tone and be explicit.
"We are in charge here. We will do what we like. We give money to our friends and starve our enemies. You want to be fed or go hungry? Think about that when you cast your vote"
They've done nothing about an urgently required major road in Priti Patel's constituency.
The trick is to be a marginal. Safe seats, no matter the party, can go whistle.
The big news this morning is the pending G7 agreement on a minimum 15% corporation tax and finally Amazon and others having to pay their fare share of tax
Full marks to Joe Biden for pushing this and Rishi as host endorsing it
And the BBC are reporting the irony that Ireland and some in the EU are anti
And another problem for Labour as the conservatives resolve the Amazon tax controversy
What are the odds of this actually being implemented, say by 2025? Presumably the Republicans block it, because it is proposed by a Democrat, and then the other countries say they will implement it when the US does?
Or is there a clear legislative pathway for this?
Republicans may want to block it because of Biden, but in the other hand they aren’t exactly on the same page as the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook... these days
Everyone is going to want to see the detail of what actually passes the US legislative process - a basic understanding of which suggests that they’ll either try and get large multinationals listed in the US to pay all of their global taxes there, will make an exception for companies who also sell physical goods, or own a theme park, will allow grandfather rights on existing offshore subsidiaries for ten years, allow US companies to offset taxes against US spending, and maybe something about abortion clinics, just because.
None of that matters though
From our perspective it’s the fact we can tax Amazon, Facebook etc based on UK sales rather than those taxes going to Ireland/Luxembourg.
The minimum tax thing is something Biden wanted so if it gets him to support the digital tax that is fine. The minimum tax is essentially a sweep mechanism - if you’ve done lots of clever things and reduced your tax below X then It gets rounded up to 15%. Benefits all normal tax countries vs the parasites (won’t really impact the tax havens).
Yup that's our big win and of it does happen then Rishi deserves a lot of praise. It's also something we've been able to do completey independent of the EU. Notice that Germany, France and Italy haven't been pushing for this because the EU is opposed but the UK outside of the EU has run rings around them and got Biden on board with it.
The big news this morning is the pending G7 agreement on a minimum 15% corporation tax and finally Amazon and others having to pay their fare share of tax
Full marks to Joe Biden for pushing this and Rishi as host endorsing it
And the BBC are reporting the irony that Ireland and some in the EU are anti
And another problem for Labour as the conservatives resolve the Amazon tax controversy
What are the odds of this actually being implemented, say by 2025? Presumably the Republicans block it, because it is proposed by a Democrat, and then the other countries say they will implement it when the US does?
Or is there a clear legislative pathway for this?
Republicans may want to block it because of Biden, but in the other hand they aren’t exactly on the same page as the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook... these days
Everyone is going to want to see the detail of what actually passes the US legislative process - a basic understanding of which suggests that they’ll either try and get large multinationals listed in the US to pay all of their global taxes there, will make an exception for companies who also sell physical goods, or own a theme park, will allow grandfather rights on existing offshore subsidiaries for ten years, allow US companies to offset taxes against US spending, and maybe something about abortion clinics, just because.
Exactly - I don't see this happening at all. Agreement at G7 level is not action, but intent of action with the US not in a position to implement it as agreed with the other 6.
So much for "Nordstream 2 will never be used as a weapon against Ukraine"!
Ukraine must show a good will if its wants Russian gas transit to Europe and related fees to remain, Russian President Vladimir Putin told a forum on Friday, as Moscow has nearly completed its Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany.
The big news this morning is the pending G7 agreement on a minimum 15% corporation tax and finally Amazon and others having to pay their fare share of tax
Full marks to Joe Biden for pushing this and Rishi as host endorsing it
And the BBC are reporting the irony that Ireland and some in the EU are anti
And another problem for Labour as the conservatives resolve the Amazon tax controversy
What are the odds of this actually being implemented, say by 2025? Presumably the Republicans block it, because it is proposed by a Democrat, and then the other countries say they will implement it when the US does?
Or is there a clear legislative pathway for this?
I believe the next step is for the G20 to agree then I expect it would be quite quick
Certainly the G7 finance ministers are getting quite excited by it and of course Joe Biden has threatened sanctions on any country that dos not implement the agreement
Joe’s ancestral homeland might be a bit less keen on him if he does that.
I was just saying that to my good lady this morning
It is ironic that Ireland is representing the EU at this G7 finance ministers meeting and it is Ireland and some EU countries who are objected v the ROW
Yes, an example of how Brexit has lost us influence on European policy. We are outside the room where it happens now.
Lol, the opposite in fact. We're in the room with the US making this happen while the European countries are arguing amongst themselves. It doesn't matter anyway, the G7 will simply ignore the EU. Tax isn't an EU competence and all three of France, Germany and Italy are on board.
Rishi has got his global digital services tax. Apple, Google, Amazon and the rest of them will pay tax on revenue earned in the UK. We've worked with the US to make it happen. The EU has been trying and failing to block it.
It has been alleged that 'big tech' conspired to help oust Donald Trump.
Japanese response to speedy vaccination (video in tweet):
The vaccination at Umi, a town in Fukuoka, is done smoothly and effectively with a doctor & his team moving while elderly residents sit and wait. They can give shots to 120 people in an hour, 8 times faster than before
As a counter to the various stories of how swift and efficient the vaccine rollout is, I'd note that my first dose took an hour from door to door, and I was in 4 separate queues which all ended in a different dopey volunteer asking me exactly the same questions, before I was finally released to a aisle of largely idle jabbers. Very much too many volunteers but none of them willing to engage brains to increase throughput.
What were the Q's?
They do it all the time when you are in hospital, as protection against giving the wrong treatments to the wrong people. Even when your name is pinned to your bed, and they are doing a daily drug round.
Safety lessons from past mistakes.
Even giving blood, you’ll tell your name and date of birth to every new person you meet.
As you say, lessons learned from past incidents. The same reason air traffic controllers never refer to ‘take off’ except in the phrase ‘cleared to take off’.
Even so it doesn’t always work: the last time I was in hospital as more than an outpatient I was inA&E with a line in waiting to be sent up to a bed when I realised that the name printed on the bag at the top of the line wasn’t mine. I was not fully with it at the time so they might not have asked me my name, but someone hadn’t checked my wrist band either. Luckily it didn’t matter as it was the same treatment I should have had, but it could have been pretty serious.
Whoops.
It’s amazing how much effort goes into improving safety and learning from incidents in critical industries such as medicine and transport, but mistakes still get made and accidents still happen.
Didn't the BBC have a report recently? Something nasty happened.
The big news this morning is the pending G7 agreement on a minimum 15% corporation tax and finally Amazon and others having to pay their fare share of tax
Full marks to Joe Biden for pushing this and Rishi as host endorsing it
And the BBC are reporting the irony that Ireland and some in the EU are anti
And another problem for Labour as the conservatives resolve the Amazon tax controversy
What are the odds of this actually being implemented, say by 2025? Presumably the Republicans block it, because it is proposed by a Democrat, and then the other countries say they will implement it when the US does?
Or is there a clear legislative pathway for this?
Republicans may want to block it because of Biden, but in the other hand they aren’t exactly on the same page as the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook... these days
Everyone is going to want to see the detail of what actually passes the US legislative process - a basic understanding of which suggests that they’ll either try and get large multinationals listed in the US to pay all of their global taxes there, will make an exception for companies who also sell physical goods, or own a theme park, will allow grandfather rights on existing offshore subsidiaries for ten years, allow US companies to offset taxes against US spending, and maybe something about abortion clinics, just because.
None of that matters though
From our perspective it’s the fact we can tax Amazon, Facebook etc based on UK sales rather than those taxes going to Ireland/Luxembourg.
The minimum tax thing is something Biden wanted so if it gets him to support the digital tax that is fine. The minimum tax is essentially a sweep mechanism - if you’ve done lots of clever things and reduced your tax below X then It gets rounded up to 15%. Benefits all normal tax countries vs the parasites (won’t really impact the tax havens).
Yup that's our big win and of it does happen then Rishi deserves a lot of praise. It's also something we've been able to do completey independent of the EU. Notice that Germany, France and Italy haven't been pushing for this because the EU is opposed but the UK outside of the EU has run rings around them and got Biden on board with it.
People wanted a brexit dividend.
Thought the EU wanted it as well. Someone on BBC News last night, IIRC, asking a senior EU Finance bod how they were going to cope with Ireland's views.
Barking and Dagenham Vaccine Centre, less than 5 mins from Dagenham East tube, sitting there waiting for people to book their jab. What more can they do?
B&D vaccination stats:
First dose 51.0% Second dose 30.9%
Havering First dose 66.6% Second dose 44.0%
Newham First dose 42.4% Second dose 23.4%
It will be interesting to see the relative effects when Indian variant reaches East London.
Barking and Dagenham Vaccine Centre, less than 5 mins from Dagenham East tube, sitting there waiting for people to book their jab. What more can they do?
The big news this morning is the pending G7 agreement on a minimum 15% corporation tax and finally Amazon and others having to pay their fare share of tax
Full marks to Joe Biden for pushing this and Rishi as host endorsing it
And the BBC are reporting the irony that Ireland and some in the EU are anti
And another problem for Labour as the conservatives resolve the Amazon tax controversy
What are the odds of this actually being implemented, say by 2025? Presumably the Republicans block it, because it is proposed by a Democrat, and then the other countries say they will implement it when the US does?
Or is there a clear legislative pathway for this?
Republicans may want to block it because of Biden, but in the other hand they aren’t exactly on the same page as the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook... these days
Everyone is going to want to see the detail of what actually passes the US legislative process - a basic understanding of which suggests that they’ll either try and get large multinationals listed in the US to pay all of their global taxes there, will make an exception for companies who also sell physical goods, or own a theme park, will allow grandfather rights on existing offshore subsidiaries for ten years, allow US companies to offset taxes against US spending, and maybe something about abortion clinics, just because.
None of that matters though
From our perspective it’s the fact we can tax Amazon, Facebook etc based on UK sales rather than those taxes going to Ireland/Luxembourg.
The minimum tax thing is something Biden wanted so if it gets him to support the digital tax that is fine. The minimum tax is essentially a sweep mechanism - if you’ve done lots of clever things and reduced your tax below X then It gets rounded up to 15%. Benefits all normal tax countries vs the parasites (won’t really impact the tax havens).
Yup that's our big win and of it does happen then Rishi deserves a lot of praise. It's also something we've been able to do completey independent of the EU. Notice that Germany, France and Italy haven't been pushing for this because the EU is opposed but the UK outside of the EU has run rings around them and got Biden on board with it.
People wanted a brexit dividend.
Thought the EU wanted it as well. Someone on BBC News last night, IIRC, asking a senior EU Finance bod how they were going to cope with Ireland's views.
The EU is not in favour of the digital services portion of it, but France, Germany and Italy are. The digital services part is what smashes Ireland's economy to bits and pieces.
They should open it up for everyone now and use all vaccine stocks. Every 18-30 year old with a first dose will help reduce the R value for any outbreaks.
The big news this morning is the pending G7 agreement on a minimum 15% corporation tax and finally Amazon and others having to pay their fare share of tax
Full marks to Joe Biden for pushing this and Rishi as host endorsing it
And the BBC are reporting the irony that Ireland and some in the EU are anti
And another problem for Labour as the conservatives resolve the Amazon tax controversy
What are the odds of this actually being implemented, say by 2025? Presumably the Republicans block it, because it is proposed by a Democrat, and then the other countries say they will implement it when the US does?
Or is there a clear legislative pathway for this?
Republicans may want to block it because of Biden, but in the other hand they aren’t exactly on the same page as the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook... these days
Everyone is going to want to see the detail of what actually passes the US legislative process - a basic understanding of which suggests that they’ll either try and get large multinationals listed in the US to pay all of their global taxes there, will make an exception for companies who also sell physical goods, or own a theme park, will allow grandfather rights on existing offshore subsidiaries for ten years, allow US companies to offset taxes against US spending, and maybe something about abortion clinics, just because.
None of that matters though
From our perspective it’s the fact we can tax Amazon, Facebook etc based on UK sales rather than those taxes going to Ireland/Luxembourg.
The minimum tax thing is something Biden wanted so if it gets him to support the digital tax that is fine. The minimum tax is essentially a sweep mechanism - if you’ve done lots of clever things and reduced your tax below X then It gets rounded up to 15%. Benefits all normal tax countries vs the parasites (won’t really impact the tax havens).
Yup that's our big win and of it does happen then Rishi deserves a lot of praise. It's also something we've been able to do completey independent of the EU. Notice that Germany, France and Italy haven't been pushing for this because the EU is opposed but the UK outside of the EU has run rings around them and got Biden on board with it.
People wanted a brexit dividend.
Thought the EU wanted it as well. Someone on BBC News last night, IIRC, asking a senior EU Finance bod how they were going to cope with Ireland's views.
The EU is not in favour of the digital services portion of it, but France, Germany and Italy are. The digital services part is what smashes Ireland's economy to bits and pieces.
I thought the US was against digital services taxes?
The big news this morning is the pending G7 agreement on a minimum 15% corporation tax and finally Amazon and others having to pay their fare share of tax
Full marks to Joe Biden for pushing this and Rishi as host endorsing it
And the BBC are reporting the irony that Ireland and some in the EU are anti
And another problem for Labour as the conservatives resolve the Amazon tax controversy
What are the odds of this actually being implemented, say by 2025? Presumably the Republicans block it, because it is proposed by a Democrat, and then the other countries say they will implement it when the US does?
Or is there a clear legislative pathway for this?
Republicans may want to block it because of Biden, but in the other hand they aren’t exactly on the same page as the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook... these days
Everyone is going to want to see the detail of what actually passes the US legislative process - a basic understanding of which suggests that they’ll either try and get large multinationals listed in the US to pay all of their global taxes there, will make an exception for companies who also sell physical goods, or own a theme park, will allow grandfather rights on existing offshore subsidiaries for ten years, allow US companies to offset taxes against US spending, and maybe something about abortion clinics, just because.
None of that matters though
From our perspective it’s the fact we can tax Amazon, Facebook etc based on UK sales rather than those taxes going to Ireland/Luxembourg.
The minimum tax thing is something Biden wanted so if it gets him to support the digital tax that is fine. The minimum tax is essentially a sweep mechanism - if you’ve done lots of clever things and reduced your tax below X then It gets rounded up to 15%. Benefits all normal tax countries vs the parasites (won’t really impact the tax havens).
Yup that's our big win and of it does happen then Rishi deserves a lot of praise. It's also something we've been able to do completey independent of the EU. Notice that Germany, France and Italy haven't been pushing for this because the EU is opposed but the UK outside of the EU has run rings around them and got Biden on board with it.
People wanted a brexit dividend.
Thought the EU wanted it as well. Someone on BBC News last night, IIRC, asking a senior EU Finance bod how they were going to cope with Ireland's views.
The EU is not in favour of the digital services portion of it, but France, Germany and Italy are. The digital services part is what smashes Ireland's economy to bits and pieces.
I thought the US was against digital services taxes?
One thing I have noticed over the years is that when the Conservatives are doing well, they are extremely jovial and condescending.
In contrast, when they are doing badly, they become very bitter and twisted.
So it is that the selection of posts here from Conservative contributors suggests to me that the Conservatives are likely to be utterly thrashed by the Lib Dems in Chesham and Amersham.
The big news this morning is the pending G7 agreement on a minimum 15% corporation tax and finally Amazon and others having to pay their fare share of tax
Full marks to Joe Biden for pushing this and Rishi as host endorsing it
And the BBC are reporting the irony that Ireland and some in the EU are anti
And another problem for Labour as the conservatives resolve the Amazon tax controversy
What are the odds of this actually being implemented, say by 2025? Presumably the Republicans block it, because it is proposed by a Democrat, and then the other countries say they will implement it when the US does?
Or is there a clear legislative pathway for this?
Republicans may want to block it because of Biden, but in the other hand they aren’t exactly on the same page as the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook... these days
Everyone is going to want to see the detail of what actually passes the US legislative process - a basic understanding of which suggests that they’ll either try and get large multinationals listed in the US to pay all of their global taxes there, will make an exception for companies who also sell physical goods, or own a theme park, will allow grandfather rights on existing offshore subsidiaries for ten years, allow US companies to offset taxes against US spending, and maybe something about abortion clinics, just because.
None of that matters though
From our perspective it’s the fact we can tax Amazon, Facebook etc based on UK sales rather than those taxes going to Ireland/Luxembourg.
The minimum tax thing is something Biden wanted so if it gets him to support the digital tax that is fine. The minimum tax is essentially a sweep mechanism - if you’ve done lots of clever things and reduced your tax below X then It gets rounded up to 15%. Benefits all normal tax countries vs the parasites (won’t really impact the tax havens).
Yup that's our big win and of it does happen then Rishi deserves a lot of praise. It's also something we've been able to do completey independent of the EU. Notice that Germany, France and Italy haven't been pushing for this because the EU is opposed but the UK outside of the EU has run rings around them and got Biden on board with it.
People wanted a brexit dividend.
Thought the EU wanted it as well. Someone on BBC News last night, IIRC, asking a senior EU Finance bod how they were going to cope with Ireland's views.
The EU is not in favour of the digital services portion of it, but France, Germany and Italy are. The digital services part is what smashes Ireland's economy to bits and pieces.
I thought the US was against digital services taxes?
Lets hope so - but we may not be out of the woods yet:
There are two sticking points, sources tell me. Firstly, there is the mention (or not) of a global minimum corporation tax rate of 15%. There is also a move to use the wording "at least 15%" to show some ambition - but also to provide some negotiation space at the wider G20 meeting chaired by Italy and including the likes of China and Russia.
The US also asked countries that have levied digital taxes - France, Italy and the UK, to withdraw them quickly as part of the deal. At least one finance minister said that was a "non-starter", as it could immediately result in the big tech giants paying less, not more tax.
The big news this morning is the pending G7 agreement on a minimum 15% corporation tax and finally Amazon and others having to pay their fare share of tax
Full marks to Joe Biden for pushing this and Rishi as host endorsing it
And the BBC are reporting the irony that Ireland and some in the EU are anti
And another problem for Labour as the conservatives resolve the Amazon tax controversy
What are the odds of this actually being implemented, say by 2025? Presumably the Republicans block it, because it is proposed by a Democrat, and then the other countries say they will implement it when the US does?
Or is there a clear legislative pathway for this?
Republicans may want to block it because of Biden, but in the other hand they aren’t exactly on the same page as the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook... these days
Everyone is going to want to see the detail of what actually passes the US legislative process - a basic understanding of which suggests that they’ll either try and get large multinationals listed in the US to pay all of their global taxes there, will make an exception for companies who also sell physical goods, or own a theme park, will allow grandfather rights on existing offshore subsidiaries for ten years, allow US companies to offset taxes against US spending, and maybe something about abortion clinics, just because.
None of that matters though
From our perspective it’s the fact we can tax Amazon, Facebook etc based on UK sales rather than those taxes going to Ireland/Luxembourg.
The minimum tax thing is something Biden wanted so if it gets him to support the digital tax that is fine. The minimum tax is essentially a sweep mechanism - if you’ve done lots of clever things and reduced your tax below X then It gets rounded up to 15%. Benefits all normal tax countries vs the parasites (won’t really impact the tax havens).
Yup that's our big win and of it does happen then Rishi deserves a lot of praise. It's also something we've been able to do completey independent of the EU. Notice that Germany, France and Italy haven't been pushing for this because the EU is opposed but the UK outside of the EU has run rings around them and got Biden on board with it.
People wanted a brexit dividend.
Thought the EU wanted it as well. Someone on BBC News last night, IIRC, asking a senior EU Finance bod how they were going to cope with Ireland's views.
The EU is not in favour of the digital services portion of it, but France, Germany and Italy are. The digital services part is what smashes Ireland's economy to bits and pieces.
I thought the US was against digital services taxes?
Spectacularly tone-deaf letter by the Tory campaign on a number of fronts. Poor Dishy having his name attached to it.
And it is why the conservatives are 'winning here'
It is a demonstrable fact that the Tories throw cash at seats they have won - as have previous governments of different colours.
What is new here is the explicit threat to starve them of cash if they vote the wrong way. Government as mafia mob? They should just adopt the HYUFD tone and be explicit.
"We are in charge here. We will do what we like. We give money to our friends and starve our enemies. You want to be fed or go hungry? Think about that when you cast your vote"
Which explicit threat? Perhaps you can quote something from the letter?
It looks to me to be the fairly standard bromide that gets put out in by elections
High Streets. Green Spaces. Antisocial Behaviour. IT ALL COMES DOWN TO YOUR VOTE.
Vote for us and we protect your green spaces and invest in your high street and tackle the yobs. Or vote for someone else and...
It’s a bit early into be drinking isn’t it?
That’s not a threat… That’s just standard electoral promises
Or would you say that a Tory proposal to cut taxes is a threat to put up taxes on everyone who doesn’t vote for them?
Barking and Dagenham Vaccine Centre, less than 5 mins from Dagenham East tube, sitting there waiting for people to book their jab. What more can they do?
B&D vaccination stats:
First dose 51.0% Second dose 30.9%
Havering First dose 66.6% Second dose 44.0%
Newham First dose 42.4% Second dose 23.4%
It will be interesting to see the relative effects when Indian variant reaches East London.
Myself and at least one other mate from Havering had ours in B&D, so there is prob quite a lot of crossover - the B&D centre is nearer/easier to get to for a lot of Havering people as it’s on the tube
Work email from NHS England tells me that no relaxation of infection control and social distancing in the health care setting on June 21st, and not for the foreseable future.
Perfectly sensible and not really indicative of anything broader
I don't think Sunak's warning is either unintentional or an indication of concern about losing the seat. The Conservatives have a adopted American style pork barrel as the way they intend to hold onto power. It is absolutely their pitch to the former Red Wall seats and something Houchen is very good at. Arguably the government's MO for Scotland too.
Also something Putin has been very good at, a point not sufficiently acknowledged, I think. His problem is that money has been running out in Russia and his patronage with it. Increases in oil prices will probably help him.
Singapore too. Maybe we are destined to be the Singapore of the West.
I think you can make a useful distinction.
Between a government saying, we can deliver stuff that our opponents cannot and we would like you give us credit for it. For example a successful vaccination programme, subsidised housing in Singapore.
And a government saying, we will selectively give you stuff, but only if you return the favour by voting for us. For example Levelling Up funds and probably Freeport programmes.
The Johnson regime aims to do more of the second. Hence this letter from Sunak.
Apart from banning leisure travel to the entire rest of the world and then putting a green flag with a big arrow pointing to well known beach-and-sun destination Portugal, they did nothing to encourage it, at all.
"It's holiday time, folks! Here's where you can go:
- a few places that won't let you in anyway; - a few more places no sane person would take a holiday; - Portugal !! "
Also when they introduced the “traffic light system” the line was all about moving from Govt prescriptive need to personal judgement/responsibility. However the messaging was all “we don’t think you should go on holiday to amber destinations but...”. Implicitly suggesting Green was good.
Now of course officially that is still the line - but the traffic light system was basically useless if you couldn’t be reasonably confident that the Govt classifications (which are of course presented as being more informed than the data available to the average person) were robust enough that the numbers wouldn’t change within a couple of weeks, with barely no warning, and even catching out people already actually on holiday. Whereas perhaps they could have at least taken a slightly more intelligent route a la France, I have to say, and introduced vaccination status into the equation to give people some confidence.
One thing I have noticed over the years is that when the Conservatives are doing well, they are extremely jovial and condescending.
In contrast, when they are doing badly, they become very bitter and twisted.
So it is that the selection of posts here from Conservative contributors suggests to me that the Conservatives are likely to be utterly thrashed by the Lib Dems in Chesham and Amersham.
Blimey, on that basis,I’ve never met anyone who isn’t a Conservative!!
They should open it up for everyone now and use all vaccine stocks. Every 18-30 year old with a first dose will help reduce the R value for any outbreaks.
I agree completely.
There was a good reason for a structured prioritisation for the higher risk cohorts, but the key priority for low-risk younger groups is reducing R rather than protecting those getting the jab, so we just need to get jabs in arms as quickly as possible via:
1) Make national booking system available to all 2) Expand the use and publicity of walk-in centres for those that are keen to be seen as soon as possible 3) Allow people to change their date on the national booking system without first cancelling their jab (automatically cancel once you've booked a new one). I think the current approach discourages people checking to see if they can get an earlier appointment.
This should have all been done a couple of weeks ago, but I fear we won't see it until towards the end of June. The vaccine strategy has become too conservative.
One thing I have noticed over the years is that when the Conservatives are doing well, they are extremely jovial and condescending.
In contrast, when they are doing badly, they become very bitter and twisted.
So it is that the selection of posts here from Conservative contributors suggests to me that the Conservatives are likely to be utterly thrashed by the Lib Dems in Chesham and Amersham.
Blimey, on that basis,I’ve never met anyone who isn’t a Conservative!!
The big news this morning is the pending G7 agreement on a minimum 15% corporation tax and finally Amazon and others having to pay their fare share of tax
Full marks to Joe Biden for pushing this and Rishi as host endorsing it
And the BBC are reporting the irony that Ireland and some in the EU are anti
And another problem for Labour as the conservatives resolve the Amazon tax controversy
What are the odds of this actually being implemented, say by 2025? Presumably the Republicans block it, because it is proposed by a Democrat, and then the other countries say they will implement it when the US does?
Or is there a clear legislative pathway for this?
Republicans may want to block it because of Biden, but in the other hand they aren’t exactly on the same page as the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook... these days
Everyone is going to want to see the detail of what actually passes the US legislative process - a basic understanding of which suggests that they’ll either try and get large multinationals listed in the US to pay all of their global taxes there, will make an exception for companies who also sell physical goods, or own a theme park, will allow grandfather rights on existing offshore subsidiaries for ten years, allow US companies to offset taxes against US spending, and maybe something about abortion clinics, just because.
None of that matters though
From our perspective it’s the fact we can tax Amazon, Facebook etc based on UK sales rather than those taxes going to Ireland/Luxembourg.
The minimum tax thing is something Biden wanted so if it gets him to support the digital tax that is fine. The minimum tax is essentially a sweep mechanism - if you’ve done lots of clever things and reduced your tax below X then It gets rounded up to 15%. Benefits all normal tax countries vs the parasites (won’t really impact the tax havens).
Biden wants us to drop the digital tax (so all the revenue flows to the US), before this comes in - as soon as its agreed.
On the "low tax jurisdictions" as long as it's done globally it won't be a problem.
The US multinational I used to work for shifted from local European country companies to one Swiss company with local "service companies" several decades ago - I hope this catches them too, not just the Googles & Amazons
But the digital tax is separate - we can tax companies based on their sales in our country I thought?
I did see that Biden has suggested that it only applies to the 100 largest and most profitable companies which seems a little odd… incentive to spend more…?
Apart from banning leisure travel to the entire rest of the world and then putting a green flag with a big arrow pointing to well known beach-and-sun destination Portugal, they did nothing to encourage it, at all.
"It's holiday time, folks! Here's where you can go:
- a few places that won't let you in anyway; - a few more places no sane person would take a holiday; - Portugal !! "
So much for "Nordstream 2 will never be used as a weapon against Ukraine"!
Ukraine must show a good will if its wants Russian gas transit to Europe and related fees to remain, Russian President Vladimir Putin told a forum on Friday, as Moscow has nearly completed its Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany.
The big news this morning is the pending G7 agreement on a minimum 15% corporation tax and finally Amazon and others having to pay their fare share of tax
Full marks to Joe Biden for pushing this and Rishi as host endorsing it
And the BBC are reporting the irony that Ireland and some in the EU are anti
And another problem for Labour as the conservatives resolve the Amazon tax controversy
What are the odds of this actually being implemented, say by 2025? Presumably the Republicans block it, because it is proposed by a Democrat, and then the other countries say they will implement it when the US does?
Or is there a clear legislative pathway for this?
Republicans may want to block it because of Biden, but in the other hand they aren’t exactly on the same page as the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook... these days
Everyone is going to want to see the detail of what actually passes the US legislative process - a basic understanding of which suggests that they’ll either try and get large multinationals listed in the US to pay all of their global taxes there, will make an exception for companies who also sell physical goods, or own a theme park, will allow grandfather rights on existing offshore subsidiaries for ten years, allow US companies to offset taxes against US spending, and maybe something about abortion clinics, just because.
None of that matters though
From our perspective it’s the fact we can tax Amazon, Facebook etc based on UK sales rather than those taxes going to Ireland/Luxembourg.
The minimum tax thing is something Biden wanted so if it gets him to support the digital tax that is fine. The minimum tax is essentially a sweep mechanism - if you’ve done lots of clever things and reduced your tax below X then It gets rounded up to 15%. Benefits all normal tax countries vs the parasites (won’t really impact the tax havens).
Yup that's our big win and of it does happen then Rishi deserves a lot of praise. It's also something we've been able to do completey independent of the EU. Notice that Germany, France and Italy haven't been pushing for this because the EU is opposed but the UK outside of the EU has run rings around them and got Biden on board with it.
People wanted a brexit dividend.
Thought the EU wanted it as well. Someone on BBC News last night, IIRC, asking a senior EU Finance bod how they were going to cope with Ireland's views.
The EU is not in favour of the digital services portion of it, but France, Germany and Italy are. The digital services part is what smashes Ireland's economy to bits and pieces.
I thought the US was against digital services taxes?
Lets hope so - but we may not be out of the woods yet:
There are two sticking points, sources tell me. Firstly, there is the mention (or not) of a global minimum corporation tax rate of 15%. There is also a move to use the wording "at least 15%" to show some ambition - but also to provide some negotiation space at the wider G20 meeting chaired by Italy and including the likes of China and Russia.
The US also asked countries that have levied digital taxes - France, Italy and the UK, to withdraw them quickly as part of the deal. At least one finance minister said that was a "non-starter", as it could immediately result in the big tech giants paying less, not more tax.
The digital services tax exists for the purpose, it's always been a bargaining chip to get the US to agree wider reforms. Every country that has one knows this too. They don't really raise that much money anyway so giving them up for the global rate is their natural end.
Apart from banning leisure travel to the entire rest of the world and then putting a green flag with a big arrow pointing to well known beach-and-sun destination Portugal, they did nothing to encourage it, at all.
"It's holiday time, folks! Here's where you can go:
- a few places that won't let you in anyway; - a few more places no sane person would take a holiday; - Portugal !! "
I’m tempted to go to Malta
Don't. Their "hunters" blast all our migrant birds - on a massive scale.
The big news this morning is the pending G7 agreement on a minimum 15% corporation tax and finally Amazon and others having to pay their fare share of tax
Full marks to Joe Biden for pushing this and Rishi as host endorsing it
And the BBC are reporting the irony that Ireland and some in the EU are anti
And another problem for Labour as the conservatives resolve the Amazon tax controversy
What are the odds of this actually being implemented, say by 2025? Presumably the Republicans block it, because it is proposed by a Democrat, and then the other countries say they will implement it when the US does?
Or is there a clear legislative pathway for this?
Republicans may want to block it because of Biden, but in the other hand they aren’t exactly on the same page as the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook... these days
Everyone is going to want to see the detail of what actually passes the US legislative process - a basic understanding of which suggests that they’ll either try and get large multinationals listed in the US to pay all of their global taxes there, will make an exception for companies who also sell physical goods, or own a theme park, will allow grandfather rights on existing offshore subsidiaries for ten years, allow US companies to offset taxes against US spending, and maybe something about abortion clinics, just because.
None of that matters though
From our perspective it’s the fact we can tax Amazon, Facebook etc based on UK sales rather than those taxes going to Ireland/Luxembourg.
The minimum tax thing is something Biden wanted so if it gets him to support the digital tax that is fine. The minimum tax is essentially a sweep mechanism - if you’ve done lots of clever things and reduced your tax below X then It gets rounded up to 15%. Benefits all normal tax countries vs the parasites (won’t really impact the tax havens).
Yup that's our big win and of it does happen then Rishi deserves a lot of praise. It's also something we've been able to do completey independent of the EU. Notice that Germany, France and Italy haven't been pushing for this because the EU is opposed but the UK outside of the EU has run rings around them and got Biden on board with it.
People wanted a brexit dividend.
Thought the EU wanted it as well. Someone on BBC News last night, IIRC, asking a senior EU Finance bod how they were going to cope with Ireland's views.
The EU is not in favour of the digital services portion of it, but France, Germany and Italy are. The digital services part is what smashes Ireland's economy to bits and pieces.
I thought the US was against digital services taxes?
Lets hope so - but we may not be out of the woods yet:
There are two sticking points, sources tell me. Firstly, there is the mention (or not) of a global minimum corporation tax rate of 15%. There is also a move to use the wording "at least 15%" to show some ambition - but also to provide some negotiation space at the wider G20 meeting chaired by Italy and including the likes of China and Russia.
The US also asked countries that have levied digital taxes - France, Italy and the UK, to withdraw them quickly as part of the deal. At least one finance minister said that was a "non-starter", as it could immediately result in the big tech giants paying less, not more tax.
The digital services tax exists for the purpose, it's always been a bargaining chip to get the US to agree wider reforms. Every country that has one knows this too. They don't really raise that much money anyway so giving them up for the global rate is their natural end.
Which should be when the Treaty comes into force, if that is how it is done.
The big news this morning is the pending G7 agreement on a minimum 15% corporation tax and finally Amazon and others having to pay their fare share of tax
Full marks to Joe Biden for pushing this and Rishi as host endorsing it
And the BBC are reporting the irony that Ireland and some in the EU are anti
And another problem for Labour as the conservatives resolve the Amazon tax controversy
What are the odds of this actually being implemented, say by 2025? Presumably the Republicans block it, because it is proposed by a Democrat, and then the other countries say they will implement it when the US does?
Or is there a clear legislative pathway for this?
Republicans may want to block it because of Biden, but in the other hand they aren’t exactly on the same page as the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook... these days
Everyone is going to want to see the detail of what actually passes the US legislative process - a basic understanding of which suggests that they’ll either try and get large multinationals listed in the US to pay all of their global taxes there, will make an exception for companies who also sell physical goods, or own a theme park, will allow grandfather rights on existing offshore subsidiaries for ten years, allow US companies to offset taxes against US spending, and maybe something about abortion clinics, just because.
None of that matters though
From our perspective it’s the fact we can tax Amazon, Facebook etc based on UK sales rather than those taxes going to Ireland/Luxembourg.
The minimum tax thing is something Biden wanted so if it gets him to support the digital tax that is fine. The minimum tax is essentially a sweep mechanism - if you’ve done lots of clever things and reduced your tax below X then It gets rounded up to 15%. Benefits all normal tax countries vs the parasites (won’t really impact the tax havens).
Biden wants us to drop the digital tax (so all the revenue flows to the US), before this comes in - as soon as its agreed.
On the "low tax jurisdictions" as long as it's done globally it won't be a problem.
The US multinational I used to work for shifted from local European country companies to one Swiss company with local "service companies" several decades ago - I hope this catches them too, not just the Googles & Amazons
But the digital tax is separate - we can tax companies based on their sales in our country I thought?
I did see that Biden has suggested that it only applies to the 100 largest and most profitable companies which seems a little odd… incentive to spend more…?
Yes, it's a separate part of it which will enable countries to use formula based profit margin calculation and applying the national rate of tax. The top 100 companies thing looks like something that the Biden people have come up with as a negotiating ploy.
I think as they did in London sending Rishi approved letters in the Southeast and Boris ones in the Red Wall is the right way to go.
Chesham and Amersham is looking incredibly comfortable, only 2% of the cash has gone on the Lib Dems and I haven’t seen any signs they’re confident on the ground so it would be a gargantuan upset if they won.
Batley and Spen does feel more like a blue win with each week but potentially a push back to the 21st June opening (something Im not expecting) could tilt it back to Lab. Galloway did seem to get a significant gathering of the local Muslim community which suggests with Palestine in the news he’s not a busted flush.
How will this work with territories that do current taxes on overseas profit etc?
Are there any outside the USA?
It’s the same approach that the US has on personal tax
If my wife earns more than $5 (I kid you not!) she has to file a US tax return. She is then liable for full US taxes on her income but under our tax treaty she can get a full offset for any UK income.
Apart from banning leisure travel to the entire rest of the world and then putting a green flag with a big arrow pointing to well known beach-and-sun destination Portugal, they did nothing to encourage it, at all.
"It's holiday time, folks! Here's where you can go:
- a few places that won't let you in anyway; - a few more places no sane person would take a holiday; - Portugal !! "
The big news this morning is the pending G7 agreement on a minimum 15% corporation tax and finally Amazon and others having to pay their fare share of tax
Full marks to Joe Biden for pushing this and Rishi as host endorsing it
And the BBC are reporting the irony that Ireland and some in the EU are anti
And another problem for Labour as the conservatives resolve the Amazon tax controversy
What are the odds of this actually being implemented, say by 2025? Presumably the Republicans block it, because it is proposed by a Democrat, and then the other countries say they will implement it when the US does?
Or is there a clear legislative pathway for this?
Republicans may want to block it because of Biden, but in the other hand they aren’t exactly on the same page as the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook... these days
Everyone is going to want to see the detail of what actually passes the US legislative process - a basic understanding of which suggests that they’ll either try and get large multinationals listed in the US to pay all of their global taxes there, will make an exception for companies who also sell physical goods, or own a theme park, will allow grandfather rights on existing offshore subsidiaries for ten years, allow US companies to offset taxes against US spending, and maybe something about abortion clinics, just because.
None of that matters though
From our perspective it’s the fact we can tax Amazon, Facebook etc based on UK sales rather than those taxes going to Ireland/Luxembourg.
The minimum tax thing is something Biden wanted so if it gets him to support the digital tax that is fine. The minimum tax is essentially a sweep mechanism - if you’ve done lots of clever things and reduced your tax below X then It gets rounded up to 15%. Benefits all normal tax countries vs the parasites (won’t really impact the tax havens).
Yup that's our big win and of it does happen then Rishi deserves a lot of praise. It's also something we've been able to do completey independent of the EU. Notice that Germany, France and Italy haven't been pushing for this because the EU is opposed but the UK outside of the EU has run rings around them and got Biden on board with it.
People wanted a brexit dividend.
Thought the EU wanted it as well. Someone on BBC News last night, IIRC, asking a senior EU Finance bod how they were going to cope with Ireland's views.
The EU is not in favour of the digital services portion of it, but France, Germany and Italy are. The digital services part is what smashes Ireland's economy to bits and pieces.
I thought the US was against digital services taxes?
Travel companies are reporting that significant numbers of people are still intending to travel for their Portugal holiday, despite the new restrictions, and that bookings are holding up. Further evidence that we are approaching the point where many people have simply had enough.
I think that the Amber home quarantine will be widely ignored, particularly by the youngsters.
I had a foreign friend who stayed at my place for the quarantine in March. They called him once a day to check he was home. It didn't take him long to realise he could wait for the call (usually about lunchtime) then do what he liked.
Given that more and more people only have a mobile contact number, how do they know where you are when they call, anyway?
I think they judge by things like whether there is ambient noise etc.
I don't see why people can't just ignore the calls and say they were napping or in the shower or something.
Too many people confuse getting round the rules with getting round the virus. They should make an effort to find a few people breaching the rules and fine them £10,000 each with maximum publicity.
One thing I have noticed over the years is that when the Conservatives are doing well, they are extremely jovial and condescending.
In contrast, when they are doing badly, they become very bitter and twisted.
So it is that the selection of posts here from Conservative contributors suggests to me that the Conservatives are likely to be utterly thrashed by the Lib Dems in Chesham and Amersham.
And you are predictably dull
I get you are a committed LibDem activist. So is @IanB2.
But he makes his posts interesting and insightful. Your’s are just a scree of partisan nonsense.
The big news this morning is the pending G7 agreement on a minimum 15% corporation tax and finally Amazon and others having to pay their fare share of tax
Full marks to Joe Biden for pushing this and Rishi as host endorsing it
And the BBC are reporting the irony that Ireland and some in the EU are anti
And another problem for Labour as the conservatives resolve the Amazon tax controversy
What are the odds of this actually being implemented, say by 2025? Presumably the Republicans block it, because it is proposed by a Democrat, and then the other countries say they will implement it when the US does?
Or is there a clear legislative pathway for this?
Republicans may want to block it because of Biden, but in the other hand they aren’t exactly on the same page as the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook... these days
Everyone is going to want to see the detail of what actually passes the US legislative process - a basic understanding of which suggests that they’ll either try and get large multinationals listed in the US to pay all of their global taxes there, will make an exception for companies who also sell physical goods, or own a theme park, will allow grandfather rights on existing offshore subsidiaries for ten years, allow US companies to offset taxes against US spending, and maybe something about abortion clinics, just because.
None of that matters though
From our perspective it’s the fact we can tax Amazon, Facebook etc based on UK sales rather than those taxes going to Ireland/Luxembourg.
The minimum tax thing is something Biden wanted so if it gets him to support the digital tax that is fine. The minimum tax is essentially a sweep mechanism - if you’ve done lots of clever things and reduced your tax below X then It gets rounded up to 15%. Benefits all normal tax countries vs the parasites (won’t really impact the tax havens).
Yup that's our big win and of it does happen then Rishi deserves a lot of praise. It's also something we've been able to do completey independent of the EU. Notice that Germany, France and Italy haven't been pushing for this because the EU is opposed but the UK outside of the EU has run rings around them and got Biden on board with it.
People wanted a brexit dividend.
Thought the EU wanted it as well. Someone on BBC News last night, IIRC, asking a senior EU Finance bod how they were going to cope with Ireland's views.
The EU is not in favour of the digital services portion of it, but France, Germany and Italy are. The digital services part is what smashes Ireland's economy to bits and pieces.
I thought the US was against digital services taxes?
The big news this morning is the pending G7 agreement on a minimum 15% corporation tax and finally Amazon and others having to pay their fare share of tax
Full marks to Joe Biden for pushing this and Rishi as host endorsing it
And the BBC are reporting the irony that Ireland and some in the EU are anti
And another problem for Labour as the conservatives resolve the Amazon tax controversy
What are the odds of this actually being implemented, say by 2025? Presumably the Republicans block it, because it is proposed by a Democrat, and then the other countries say they will implement it when the US does?
Or is there a clear legislative pathway for this?
Republicans may want to block it because of Biden, but in the other hand they aren’t exactly on the same page as the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook... these days
Everyone is going to want to see the detail of what actually passes the US legislative process - a basic understanding of which suggests that they’ll either try and get large multinationals listed in the US to pay all of their global taxes there, will make an exception for companies who also sell physical goods, or own a theme park, will allow grandfather rights on existing offshore subsidiaries for ten years, allow US companies to offset taxes against US spending, and maybe something about abortion clinics, just because.
None of that matters though
From our perspective it’s the fact we can tax Amazon, Facebook etc based on UK sales rather than those taxes going to Ireland/Luxembourg.
The minimum tax thing is something Biden wanted so if it gets him to support the digital tax that is fine. The minimum tax is essentially a sweep mechanism - if you’ve done lots of clever things and reduced your tax below X then It gets rounded up to 15%. Benefits all normal tax countries vs the parasites (won’t really impact the tax havens).
Yup that's our big win and of it does happen then Rishi deserves a lot of praise. It's also something we've been able to do completey independent of the EU. Notice that Germany, France and Italy haven't been pushing for this because the EU is opposed but the UK outside of the EU has run rings around them and got Biden on board with it.
People wanted a brexit dividend.
Thought the EU wanted it as well. Someone on BBC News last night, IIRC, asking a senior EU Finance bod how they were going to cope with Ireland's views.
The EU is not in favour of the digital services portion of it, but France, Germany and Italy are. The digital services part is what smashes Ireland's economy to bits and pieces.
I thought the US was against digital services taxes?
Lets hope so - but we may not be out of the woods yet:
There are two sticking points, sources tell me. Firstly, there is the mention (or not) of a global minimum corporation tax rate of 15%. There is also a move to use the wording "at least 15%" to show some ambition - but also to provide some negotiation space at the wider G20 meeting chaired by Italy and including the likes of China and Russia.
The US also asked countries that have levied digital taxes - France, Italy and the UK, to withdraw them quickly as part of the deal. At least one finance minister said that was a "non-starter", as it could immediately result in the big tech giants paying less, not more tax.
The Uk turnaround on minimum tax is quite simple (as is the “at least” 15% wording… delightfully sneaky).
We were adamantly opposed on principle when we were part of the EU because there was always the risk we could be outvoted by higher tax countries and thereby lose our competitive advantage vs France and Germany.
Now we are outside the EU we have an effective veto… and if Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg lose their competitive advantage that’s just a delightful bonus
The big news this morning is the pending G7 agreement on a minimum 15% corporation tax and finally Amazon and others having to pay their fare share of tax
Full marks to Joe Biden for pushing this and Rishi as host endorsing it
And the BBC are reporting the irony that Ireland and some in the EU are anti
And another problem for Labour as the conservatives resolve the Amazon tax controversy
What are the odds of this actually being implemented, say by 2025? Presumably the Republicans block it, because it is proposed by a Democrat, and then the other countries say they will implement it when the US does?
Or is there a clear legislative pathway for this?
Republicans may want to block it because of Biden, but in the other hand they aren’t exactly on the same page as the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook... these days
Everyone is going to want to see the detail of what actually passes the US legislative process - a basic understanding of which suggests that they’ll either try and get large multinationals listed in the US to pay all of their global taxes there, will make an exception for companies who also sell physical goods, or own a theme park, will allow grandfather rights on existing offshore subsidiaries for ten years, allow US companies to offset taxes against US spending, and maybe something about abortion clinics, just because.
None of that matters though
From our perspective it’s the fact we can tax Amazon, Facebook etc based on UK sales rather than those taxes going to Ireland/Luxembourg.
The minimum tax thing is something Biden wanted so if it gets him to support the digital tax that is fine. The minimum tax is essentially a sweep mechanism - if you’ve done lots of clever things and reduced your tax below X then It gets rounded up to 15%. Benefits all normal tax countries vs the parasites (won’t really impact the tax havens).
Yup that's our big win and of it does happen then Rishi deserves a lot of praise. It's also something we've been able to do completey independent of the EU. Notice that Germany, France and Italy haven't been pushing for this because the EU is opposed but the UK outside of the EU has run rings around them and got Biden on board with it.
People wanted a brexit dividend.
Thought the EU wanted it as well. Someone on BBC News last night, IIRC, asking a senior EU Finance bod how they were going to cope with Ireland's views.
The EU is not in favour of the digital services portion of it, but France, Germany and Italy are. The digital services part is what smashes Ireland's economy to bits and pieces.
I thought the US was against digital services taxes?
They are. That’s the grand bargain - digital tax for global minimum tax
So doesn't that just mean that Amazon's profits in the UK will now be taxed in the US?
Hence the minimum domestic rate of 15% plus the digital services tax based on a formula charged at the domestic tax rate. Rishi wanted the latter becuase there was a lot of fear that what you're saying would happen with a simple global minimum tax rate.
I wonder whether this same letter was used in Hartlepool and will soon be going to Batley and Spen
Is it me or is the tone of that letter quite extraordinarily high handed?
I know this doesn't fit the ramping of the Lads but I am pretty sure I got a very similar letter previously (Thornbury and Yate Con) in one of the recent elections. From senior Tory - a Tory MP will work with Tory PM. It looks adapted from that.
The big news this morning is the pending G7 agreement on a minimum 15% corporation tax and finally Amazon and others having to pay their fare share of tax
Full marks to Joe Biden for pushing this and Rishi as host endorsing it
And the BBC are reporting the irony that Ireland and some in the EU are anti
And another problem for Labour as the conservatives resolve the Amazon tax controversy
What are the odds of this actually being implemented, say by 2025? Presumably the Republicans block it, because it is proposed by a Democrat, and then the other countries say they will implement it when the US does?
Or is there a clear legislative pathway for this?
Republicans may want to block it because of Biden, but in the other hand they aren’t exactly on the same page as the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook... these days
Everyone is going to want to see the detail of what actually passes the US legislative process - a basic understanding of which suggests that they’ll either try and get large multinationals listed in the US to pay all of their global taxes there, will make an exception for companies who also sell physical goods, or own a theme park, will allow grandfather rights on existing offshore subsidiaries for ten years, allow US companies to offset taxes against US spending, and maybe something about abortion clinics, just because.
None of that matters though
From our perspective it’s the fact we can tax Amazon, Facebook etc based on UK sales rather than those taxes going to Ireland/Luxembourg.
The minimum tax thing is something Biden wanted so if it gets him to support the digital tax that is fine. The minimum tax is essentially a sweep mechanism - if you’ve done lots of clever things and reduced your tax below X then It gets rounded up to 15%. Benefits all normal tax countries vs the parasites (won’t really impact the tax havens).
Yup that's our big win and of it does happen then Rishi deserves a lot of praise. It's also something we've been able to do completey independent of the EU. Notice that Germany, France and Italy haven't been pushing for this because the EU is opposed but the UK outside of the EU has run rings around them and got Biden on board with it.
People wanted a brexit dividend.
Thought the EU wanted it as well. Someone on BBC News last night, IIRC, asking a senior EU Finance bod how they were going to cope with Ireland's views.
The EU is not in favour of the digital services portion of it, but France, Germany and Italy are. The digital services part is what smashes Ireland's economy to bits and pieces.
I thought the US was against digital services taxes?
The government is "drawing up other options" before making a decision on whether to completely lift COVID restrictions on 21 June.
A government figure said Number 10 was still planning to go ahead with the final step in the roadmap, but is waiting for more data before taking any decisions.
"It would be remiss of us to take a decision without a full set of data as evidence," said one government figure.
"Of course officials are drawing up other options but we are still expecting to be in a place to go ahead on June 21."
The big news this morning is the pending G7 agreement on a minimum 15% corporation tax and finally Amazon and others having to pay their fare share of tax
Full marks to Joe Biden for pushing this and Rishi as host endorsing it
And the BBC are reporting the irony that Ireland and some in the EU are anti
And another problem for Labour as the conservatives resolve the Amazon tax controversy
What are the odds of this actually being implemented, say by 2025? Presumably the Republicans block it, because it is proposed by a Democrat, and then the other countries say they will implement it when the US does?
Or is there a clear legislative pathway for this?
Republicans may want to block it because of Biden, but in the other hand they aren’t exactly on the same page as the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook... these days
Everyone is going to want to see the detail of what actually passes the US legislative process - a basic understanding of which suggests that they’ll either try and get large multinationals listed in the US to pay all of their global taxes there, will make an exception for companies who also sell physical goods, or own a theme park, will allow grandfather rights on existing offshore subsidiaries for ten years, allow US companies to offset taxes against US spending, and maybe something about abortion clinics, just because.
None of that matters though
From our perspective it’s the fact we can tax Amazon, Facebook etc based on UK sales rather than those taxes going to Ireland/Luxembourg.
The minimum tax thing is something Biden wanted so if it gets him to support the digital tax that is fine. The minimum tax is essentially a sweep mechanism - if you’ve done lots of clever things and reduced your tax below X then It gets rounded up to 15%. Benefits all normal tax countries vs the parasites (won’t really impact the tax havens).
Yup that's our big win and of it does happen then Rishi deserves a lot of praise. It's also something we've been able to do completey independent of the EU. Notice that Germany, France and Italy haven't been pushing for this because the EU is opposed but the UK outside of the EU has run rings around them and got Biden on board with it.
People wanted a brexit dividend.
Thought the EU wanted it as well. Someone on BBC News last night, IIRC, asking a senior EU Finance bod how they were going to cope with Ireland's views.
The EU is not in favour of the digital services portion of it, but France, Germany and Italy are. The digital services part is what smashes Ireland's economy to bits and pieces.
I thought the US was against digital services taxes?
Lets hope so - but we may not be out of the woods yet:
There are two sticking points, sources tell me. Firstly, there is the mention (or not) of a global minimum corporation tax rate of 15%. There is also a move to use the wording "at least 15%" to show some ambition - but also to provide some negotiation space at the wider G20 meeting chaired by Italy and including the likes of China and Russia.
The US also asked countries that have levied digital taxes - France, Italy and the UK, to withdraw them quickly as part of the deal. At least one finance minister said that was a "non-starter", as it could immediately result in the big tech giants paying less, not more tax.
The Uk turnaround on minimum tax is quite simple (as is the “at least” 15% wording… delightfully sneaky).
We were adamantly opposed on principle when we were part of the EU because there was always the risk we could be outvoted by higher tax countries and thereby lose our competitive advantage vs France and Germany.
Now we are outside the EU we have an effective veto… and if Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg lose their competitive advantage that’s just a delightful bonus
Or alternatively because we've seen George Osborne, who believed in the economic benefits of lowering corporate tax rates, replaced by Rishi Sunak, who does not believe in it?
Aren't the British crown dependencies still the elephant in the room here?
The big news this morning is the pending G7 agreement on a minimum 15% corporation tax and finally Amazon and others having to pay their fare share of tax
Full marks to Joe Biden for pushing this and Rishi as host endorsing it
And the BBC are reporting the irony that Ireland and some in the EU are anti
And another problem for Labour as the conservatives resolve the Amazon tax controversy
What are the odds of this actually being implemented, say by 2025? Presumably the Republicans block it, because it is proposed by a Democrat, and then the other countries say they will implement it when the US does?
Or is there a clear legislative pathway for this?
Republicans may want to block it because of Biden, but in the other hand they aren’t exactly on the same page as the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook... these days
Everyone is going to want to see the detail of what actually passes the US legislative process - a basic understanding of which suggests that they’ll either try and get large multinationals listed in the US to pay all of their global taxes there, will make an exception for companies who also sell physical goods, or own a theme park, will allow grandfather rights on existing offshore subsidiaries for ten years, allow US companies to offset taxes against US spending, and maybe something about abortion clinics, just because.
None of that matters though
From our perspective it’s the fact we can tax Amazon, Facebook etc based on UK sales rather than those taxes going to Ireland/Luxembourg.
The minimum tax thing is something Biden wanted so if it gets him to support the digital tax that is fine. The minimum tax is essentially a sweep mechanism - if you’ve done lots of clever things and reduced your tax below X then It gets rounded up to 15%. Benefits all normal tax countries vs the parasites (won’t really impact the tax havens).
Yup that's our big win and of it does happen then Rishi deserves a lot of praise. It's also something we've been able to do completey independent of the EU. Notice that Germany, France and Italy haven't been pushing for this because the EU is opposed but the UK outside of the EU has run rings around them and got Biden on board with it.
People wanted a brexit dividend.
Thought the EU wanted it as well. Someone on BBC News last night, IIRC, asking a senior EU Finance bod how they were going to cope with Ireland's views.
The EU is not in favour of the digital services portion of it, but France, Germany and Italy are. The digital services part is what smashes Ireland's economy to bits and pieces.
I thought the US was against digital services taxes?
Lets hope so - but we may not be out of the woods yet:
There are two sticking points, sources tell me. Firstly, there is the mention (or not) of a global minimum corporation tax rate of 15%. There is also a move to use the wording "at least 15%" to show some ambition - but also to provide some negotiation space at the wider G20 meeting chaired by Italy and including the likes of China and Russia.
The US also asked countries that have levied digital taxes - France, Italy and the UK, to withdraw them quickly as part of the deal. At least one finance minister said that was a "non-starter", as it could immediately result in the big tech giants paying less, not more tax.
The Uk turnaround on minimum tax is quite simple (as is the “at least” 15% wording… delightfully sneaky).
We were adamantly opposed on principle when we were part of the EU because there was always the risk we could be outvoted by higher tax countries and thereby lose our competitive advantage vs France and Germany.
Now we are outside the EU we have an effective veto… and if Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg lose their competitive advantage that’s just a delightful bonus
Or alternatively because we've seen George Osborne, who believed in the economic benefits of lowering corporate tax rates, replaced by Rishi Sunak, who does not believe in it?
Aren't the British crown dependencies still the elephant in the room here?
Actually this proposal is very akin to the Osborne tax reform to how gambling (companies) got taxed.
The big news this morning is the pending G7 agreement on a minimum 15% corporation tax and finally Amazon and others having to pay their fare share of tax
Full marks to Joe Biden for pushing this and Rishi as host endorsing it
And the BBC are reporting the irony that Ireland and some in the EU are anti
And another problem for Labour as the conservatives resolve the Amazon tax controversy
What are the odds of this actually being implemented, say by 2025? Presumably the Republicans block it, because it is proposed by a Democrat, and then the other countries say they will implement it when the US does?
Or is there a clear legislative pathway for this?
Republicans may want to block it because of Biden, but in the other hand they aren’t exactly on the same page as the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook... these days
Everyone is going to want to see the detail of what actually passes the US legislative process - a basic understanding of which suggests that they’ll either try and get large multinationals listed in the US to pay all of their global taxes there, will make an exception for companies who also sell physical goods, or own a theme park, will allow grandfather rights on existing offshore subsidiaries for ten years, allow US companies to offset taxes against US spending, and maybe something about abortion clinics, just because.
None of that matters though
From our perspective it’s the fact we can tax Amazon, Facebook etc based on UK sales rather than those taxes going to Ireland/Luxembourg.
The minimum tax thing is something Biden wanted so if it gets him to support the digital tax that is fine. The minimum tax is essentially a sweep mechanism - if you’ve done lots of clever things and reduced your tax below X then It gets rounded up to 15%. Benefits all normal tax countries vs the parasites (won’t really impact the tax havens).
Yup that's our big win and of it does happen then Rishi deserves a lot of praise. It's also something we've been able to do completey independent of the EU. Notice that Germany, France and Italy haven't been pushing for this because the EU is opposed but the UK outside of the EU has run rings around them and got Biden on board with it.
People wanted a brexit dividend.
Thought the EU wanted it as well. Someone on BBC News last night, IIRC, asking a senior EU Finance bod how they were going to cope with Ireland's views.
The EU is not in favour of the digital services portion of it, but France, Germany and Italy are. The digital services part is what smashes Ireland's economy to bits and pieces.
I thought the US was against digital services taxes?
Lets hope so - but we may not be out of the woods yet:
There are two sticking points, sources tell me. Firstly, there is the mention (or not) of a global minimum corporation tax rate of 15%. There is also a move to use the wording "at least 15%" to show some ambition - but also to provide some negotiation space at the wider G20 meeting chaired by Italy and including the likes of China and Russia.
The US also asked countries that have levied digital taxes - France, Italy and the UK, to withdraw them quickly as part of the deal. At least one finance minister said that was a "non-starter", as it could immediately result in the big tech giants paying less, not more tax.
The Uk turnaround on minimum tax is quite simple (as is the “at least” 15% wording… delightfully sneaky).
We were adamantly opposed on principle when we were part of the EU because there was always the risk we could be outvoted by higher tax countries and thereby lose our competitive advantage vs France and Germany.
Now we are outside the EU we have an effective veto… and if Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg lose their competitive advantage that’s just a delightful bonus
Yup, this is an extremely clear case of where being outside of the EU is a huge advantage. The UK is a big country and can lead the conversation in so many areas when it isn't hamstrung by the interminable internal EU arguments.
The UK will be a force for good in the world outside of the EU, what the EU has lost the rest of the world has gained.
The idea that it is somehow critical that the Tories hold their 82 majority as opposed to slipping back to 80 is a bit of a stretch. The reality is that unlike a minority government or even a 1992 government gradually losing power this government is totally dominant in the Commons and indeed in the polls as we saw yesterday. In these circumstances Rishi is somewhat overstating things but its the sort of thing that everyone does in elections. I believe its called politics, a weird past time really.
Good morning everyone. Let's hope we have some play at Lords today, and at Chelmsford, although I fear Essex' chance of retaining the Championship has been washed away.
On topic, in yesterday's Guardian, Katy Balls was suggesting that 'the Tory rebellion on aid shows Johnson’s support is a mile wide and an inch deep,' and maybe Rishi's letter is a demonstration of a realisation of that. If longstanding MP's in the Home Counties start to fear their careers might be under threat support for Johnson might weaken. After all, he's not there because he's liked or admired, or, indeed, I suspect, trusted; he's there because he's seen as a winner and if that goes he's in trouble.
More wishful thinking by Boris's opponents. I get the feeling that he is going to be "lucky" in C&A once again. Comfortably so.
A 'reasonably comfortable' win in C&A wouldn't be 'lucky'; it'd be no more than expected. If the Tory doesn't win 'reasonably comfortably' alarm bells will ring.
And, as was pointed out elsewhere ....lived here since 2013 definitely wouldn't make one a 'local' in this neck of the woods.
But it is the essential LibDem gamebook - anyone who hasn't had seven generations born and died in the constituency will get tarred with the " incomer" brushed. If you do meet that hurdle, you will be fought with the "entitled oppressor" label. Who made their money from slavery. Probably.
The LibDems are fast becoming the go to party of Home Counties snobs and NIMBYs. Margot Leadbetter would now be a LibDem. As would Hyacinth Bucket.
That’s nothing! Hermann Goering would now be a Tory. As would Dr Crippen.
And Vlad the Impaler would have voted Brexit, though admittedly for sovereignty reasons rather than immigration per se.
Vlad the Impaler was particularly opposed to Turkish immigration as I recall...
Though happily adopted the kebab, always the way with cultural encroachment.
The government is "drawing up other options" before making a decision on whether to completely lift COVID restrictions on 21 June.
A government figure said Number 10 was still planning to go ahead with the final step in the roadmap, but is waiting for more data before taking any decisions.
"It would be remiss of us to take a decision without a full set of data as evidence," said one government figure.
"Of course officials are drawing up other options but we are still expecting to be in a place to go ahead on June 21."
If this is a clever strategy to build the tension and maximize the relief and political payoff when 21 June goes ahead as planned, they are doing brilliantly.
If it doesn't go ahead as planned, it will be a political mistake
The big news this morning is the pending G7 agreement on a minimum 15% corporation tax and finally Amazon and others having to pay their fare share of tax
Full marks to Joe Biden for pushing this and Rishi as host endorsing it
And the BBC are reporting the irony that Ireland and some in the EU are anti
And another problem for Labour as the conservatives resolve the Amazon tax controversy
What are the odds of this actually being implemented, say by 2025? Presumably the Republicans block it, because it is proposed by a Democrat, and then the other countries say they will implement it when the US does?
Or is there a clear legislative pathway for this?
Republicans may want to block it because of Biden, but in the other hand they aren’t exactly on the same page as the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook... these days
Everyone is going to want to see the detail of what actually passes the US legislative process - a basic understanding of which suggests that they’ll either try and get large multinationals listed in the US to pay all of their global taxes there, will make an exception for companies who also sell physical goods, or own a theme park, will allow grandfather rights on existing offshore subsidiaries for ten years, allow US companies to offset taxes against US spending, and maybe something about abortion clinics, just because.
None of that matters though
From our perspective it’s the fact we can tax Amazon, Facebook etc based on UK sales rather than those taxes going to Ireland/Luxembourg.
The minimum tax thing is something Biden wanted so if it gets him to support the digital tax that is fine. The minimum tax is essentially a sweep mechanism - if you’ve done lots of clever things and reduced your tax below X then It gets rounded up to 15%. Benefits all normal tax countries vs the parasites (won’t really impact the tax havens).
Yup that's our big win and of it does happen then Rishi deserves a lot of praise. It's also something we've been able to do completey independent of the EU. Notice that Germany, France and Italy haven't been pushing for this because the EU is opposed but the UK outside of the EU has run rings around them and got Biden on board with it.
People wanted a brexit dividend.
Thought the EU wanted it as well. Someone on BBC News last night, IIRC, asking a senior EU Finance bod how they were going to cope with Ireland's views.
The EU is not in favour of the digital services portion of it, but France, Germany and Italy are. The digital services part is what smashes Ireland's economy to bits and pieces.
I thought the US was against digital services taxes?
Lets hope so - but we may not be out of the woods yet:
There are two sticking points, sources tell me. Firstly, there is the mention (or not) of a global minimum corporation tax rate of 15%. There is also a move to use the wording "at least 15%" to show some ambition - but also to provide some negotiation space at the wider G20 meeting chaired by Italy and including the likes of China and Russia.
The US also asked countries that have levied digital taxes - France, Italy and the UK, to withdraw them quickly as part of the deal. At least one finance minister said that was a "non-starter", as it could immediately result in the big tech giants paying less, not more tax.
The Uk turnaround on minimum tax is quite simple (as is the “at least” 15% wording… delightfully sneaky).
We were adamantly opposed on principle when we were part of the EU because there was always the risk we could be outvoted by higher tax countries and thereby lose our competitive advantage vs France and Germany.
Now we are outside the EU we have an effective veto… and if Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg lose their competitive advantage that’s just a delightful bonus
Or alternatively because we've seen George Osborne, who believed in the economic benefits of lowering corporate tax rates, replaced by Rishi Sunak, who does not believe in it?
Aren't the British crown dependencies still the elephant in the room here?
The big news this morning is the pending G7 agreement on a minimum 15% corporation tax and finally Amazon and others having to pay their fare share of tax
Full marks to Joe Biden for pushing this and Rishi as host endorsing it
And the BBC are reporting the irony that Ireland and some in the EU are anti
And another problem for Labour as the conservatives resolve the Amazon tax controversy
What are the odds of this actually being implemented, say by 2025? Presumably the Republicans block it, because it is proposed by a Democrat, and then the other countries say they will implement it when the US does?
Or is there a clear legislative pathway for this?
Republicans may want to block it because of Biden, but in the other hand they aren’t exactly on the same page as the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook... these days
Everyone is going to want to see the detail of what actually passes the US legislative process - a basic understanding of which suggests that they’ll either try and get large multinationals listed in the US to pay all of their global taxes there, will make an exception for companies who also sell physical goods, or own a theme park, will allow grandfather rights on existing offshore subsidiaries for ten years, allow US companies to offset taxes against US spending, and maybe something about abortion clinics, just because.
None of that matters though
From our perspective it’s the fact we can tax Amazon, Facebook etc based on UK sales rather than those taxes going to Ireland/Luxembourg.
The minimum tax thing is something Biden wanted so if it gets him to support the digital tax that is fine. The minimum tax is essentially a sweep mechanism - if you’ve done lots of clever things and reduced your tax below X then It gets rounded up to 15%. Benefits all normal tax countries vs the parasites (won’t really impact the tax havens).
Yup that's our big win and of it does happen then Rishi deserves a lot of praise. It's also something we've been able to do completey independent of the EU. Notice that Germany, France and Italy haven't been pushing for this because the EU is opposed but the UK outside of the EU has run rings around them and got Biden on board with it.
People wanted a brexit dividend.
Thought the EU wanted it as well. Someone on BBC News last night, IIRC, asking a senior EU Finance bod how they were going to cope with Ireland's views.
The EU is not in favour of the digital services portion of it, but France, Germany and Italy are. The digital services part is what smashes Ireland's economy to bits and pieces.
I thought the US was against digital services taxes?
Lets hope so - but we may not be out of the woods yet:
There are two sticking points, sources tell me. Firstly, there is the mention (or not) of a global minimum corporation tax rate of 15%. There is also a move to use the wording "at least 15%" to show some ambition - but also to provide some negotiation space at the wider G20 meeting chaired by Italy and including the likes of China and Russia.
The US also asked countries that have levied digital taxes - France, Italy and the UK, to withdraw them quickly as part of the deal. At least one finance minister said that was a "non-starter", as it could immediately result in the big tech giants paying less, not more tax.
The Uk turnaround on minimum tax is quite simple (as is the “at least” 15% wording… delightfully sneaky).
We were adamantly opposed on principle when we were part of the EU because there was always the risk we could be outvoted by higher tax countries and thereby lose our competitive advantage vs France and Germany.
Now we are outside the EU we have an effective veto… and if Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg lose their competitive advantage that’s just a delightful bonus
Or alternatively because we've seen George Osborne, who believed in the economic benefits of lowering corporate tax rates, replaced by Rishi Sunak, who does not believe in it?
Aren't the British crown dependencies still the elephant in the room here?
I’ve never looked into detail (my family has a Caesar’s wife policy when it comes to tax planning) but l, AIUI, most of the crown dependencies are private individuals tax planning and/or holding companies for privately owned businesses. Serious operating cashflow usually runs through Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg (even in the Microsoft case mentioned in the BBC article it looks like Bermuda was a holding company for the Irish business)
Spectacularly tone-deaf letter by the Tory campaign on a number of fronts. Poor Dishy having his name attached to it.
And it is why the conservatives are 'winning here'
It is a demonstrable fact that the Tories throw cash at seats they have won - as have previous governments of different colours.
What is new here is the explicit threat to starve them of cash if they vote the wrong way. Government as mafia mob? They should just adopt the HYUFD tone and be explicit.
"We are in charge here. We will do what we like. We give money to our friends and starve our enemies. You want to be fed or go hungry? Think about that when you cast your vote"
Which explicit threat? Perhaps you can quote something from the letter?
It looks to me to be the fairly standard bromide that gets put out in by elections
High Streets. Green Spaces. Antisocial Behaviour. IT ALL COMES DOWN TO YOUR VOTE.
Vote for us and we protect your green spaces and invest in your high street and tackle the yobs. Or vote for someone else and...
The Tories are not protecting green spaces in the South, they are concreting over it.
The government is "drawing up other options" before making a decision on whether to completely lift COVID restrictions on 21 June.
A government figure said Number 10 was still planning to go ahead with the final step in the roadmap, but is waiting for more data before taking any decisions.
"It would be remiss of us to take a decision without a full set of data as evidence," said one government figure.
"Of course officials are drawing up other options but we are still expecting to be in a place to go ahead on June 21."
If this is a clever strategy to build the tension and maximize the relief and political payoff when 21 June goes ahead as planned, they are doing brilliantly.
If it doesn't go ahead as planned, it will be a political mistake
The government is "drawing up other options" before making a decision on whether to completely lift COVID restrictions on 21 June.
A government figure said Number 10 was still planning to go ahead with the final step in the roadmap, but is waiting for more data before taking any decisions.
"It would be remiss of us to take a decision without a full set of data as evidence," said one government figure.
"Of course officials are drawing up other options but we are still expecting to be in a place to go ahead on June 21."
If this is a clever strategy to build the tension and maximize the relief and political payoff when 21 June goes ahead as planned, they are doing brilliantly.
If it doesn't go ahead as planned, it will be a political mistake
Apart from banning leisure travel to the entire rest of the world and then putting a green flag with a big arrow pointing to well known beach-and-sun destination Portugal, they did nothing to encourage it, at all.
"It's holiday time, folks! Here's where you can go:
- a few places that won't let you in anyway; - a few more places no sane person would take a holiday; - Portugal !! "
I’m tempted to go to Malta
Don't. Their "hunters" blast all our migrant birds - on a massive scale.
They are very fond of shooting dogs too and there's fucking rubbish everywhere. Lively nightlife on The Gut though.
Travel companies are reporting that significant numbers of people are still intending to travel for their Portugal holiday, despite the new restrictions, and that bookings are holding up. Further evidence that we are approaching the point where many people have simply had enough.
I think that the Amber home quarantine will be widely ignored, particularly by the youngsters.
I had a foreign friend who stayed at my place for the quarantine in March. They called him once a day to check he was home. It didn't take him long to realise he could wait for the call (usually about lunchtime) then do what he liked.
Given that more and more people only have a mobile contact number, how do they know where you are when they call, anyway?
I think they judge by things like whether there is ambient noise etc.
I don't see why people can't just ignore the calls and say they were napping or in the shower or something.
Too many people confuse getting round the rules with getting round the virus. They should make an effort to find a few people breaching the rules and fine them £10,000 each with maximum publicity.
If they are vaccinated that would just show up how idiotic and pointless the rules are. And if they are not vaccinated, we shouldn't have let them in the first place.
I see Starmer is already on the 15%, not enough...if it was x, you could hire y more nurses..
I presume it is some witless intern pushing this out. He’s been tweeting about it all week. But previously criticising the Tories for opposing it when they clearly didn’t.
I see Starmer is already on the 15%, not enough...if it was x, you could hire y more nurses..
I presume it is some witless intern pushing this out. He’s been tweeting about it all week. But previously criticising the Tories for opposing it when they clearly didn’t.
It is one of the most tedious criticism, up there with 20 mins to save the NHS. And shows a lack of understanding / misrepresentation of how tax rates work.
Staff shortages beginning to affect hospitality businesses here in the tourist hotspot that is the Yorkshire Dales. Pubs and cafes choosing to close midweek or run limited services despite huge demand. On a different matter, walk-in vaccinations for over-18s seemed to have stopped suddenly - no idea why.
Russia has seen nearly 425,000 excess deaths since start of Covid-19 pandemic, raising suspicions that the country's official death toll is much higher than 123,000.
The country's 425,000 excess deaths had been recorded from April 2020 to April 2021, according to Reuters calculations based on data released by Russia's state statistics service on Friday.
Comments
On the "low tax jurisdictions" as long as it's done globally it won't be a problem.
The US multinational I used to work for shifted from local European country companies to one Swiss company with local "service companies" several decades ago - I hope this catches them too, not just the Googles & Amazons
It’s amazing how much effort goes into improving safety and learning from incidents in critical industries such as medicine and transport, but mistakes still get made and accidents still happen.
"It's holiday time, folks! Here's where you can go:
- a few places that won't let you in anyway;
- a few more places no sane person would take a holiday;
- Portugal !! "
Rishi has got his global digital services tax. Apple, Google, Amazon and the rest of them will pay tax on revenue earned in the UK. We've worked with the US to make it happen. The EU has been trying and failing to block it.
People wanted a brexit dividend.
Ukraine must show a good will if its wants Russian gas transit to Europe and related fees to remain, Russian President Vladimir Putin told a forum on Friday, as Moscow has nearly completed its Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/ukraine-must-show-good-will-if-it-wants-russian-gas-transit-putin-says-2021-06-04/
They did that so they could pay much more tax?
Are there any outside the USA?
Losing Chesham and Amersham to a lib dem surge
or
Winning Chesham and Amersham on a reduced majority because Reform's candidate got 3,000 votes.
But in my view the latter would actually be worse for Johnson.
First dose 51.0%
Second dose 30.9%
Havering
First dose 66.6%
Second dose 44.0%
Newham
First dose 42.4%
Second dose 23.4%
It will be interesting to see the relative effects when Indian variant reaches East London.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jun/02/us-trade-tariffs-biden-administration
The Magical Shrinking UK-Israel Gap
(Israel has been below 10 cases per million per day since 29 April; below 50 since 1 April)
Data up to 03/06/2021
(1) New Cases per Million:
Israel: 1.75
UK: 59.64
(2) Total Doses per 100:
Israel: 122.37
UK: 98.33
UK as percentage of Israel: 80.4%
(3) Share of Population With At Least One Dose:
Israel: 63.02%
UK: 58.85%
UK as percentage of Israel: 93.4%
(4) Share of Population With Both Doses:
Israel: 59.35%
UK: 39.48%
UK as percentage of Israel: 66.5%
In contrast, when they are doing badly, they become very bitter and twisted.
So it is that the selection of posts here from Conservative contributors suggests to me that the Conservatives are likely to be utterly thrashed by the Lib Dems in Chesham and Amersham.
There are two sticking points, sources tell me. Firstly, there is the mention (or not) of a global minimum corporation tax rate of 15%. There is also a move to use the wording "at least 15%" to show some ambition - but also to provide some negotiation space at the wider G20 meeting chaired by Italy and including the likes of China and Russia.
The US also asked countries that have levied digital taxes - France, Italy and the UK, to withdraw them quickly as part of the deal. At least one finance minister said that was a "non-starter", as it could immediately result in the big tech giants paying less, not more tax.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57367057
That’s not a threat… That’s just standard electoral promises
Or would you say that a Tory proposal to cut taxes is a threat to put up taxes on everyone who doesn’t vote for them?
Between a government saying, we can deliver stuff that our opponents cannot and we would like you give us credit for it. For example a successful vaccination programme, subsidised housing in Singapore.
And a government saying, we will selectively give you stuff, but only if you return the favour by voting for us. For example Levelling Up funds and probably Freeport programmes.
The Johnson regime aims to do more of the second. Hence this letter from Sunak.
Now of course officially that is still the line - but the traffic light system was basically useless if you couldn’t be reasonably confident that the Govt classifications (which are of course presented as being more informed than the data available to the average person) were robust enough that the numbers wouldn’t change within a couple of weeks, with barely no warning, and even catching out people already actually on holiday. Whereas perhaps they could have at least taken a slightly more intelligent route a la France, I have to say, and introduced vaccination status into the equation to give people some confidence.
There was a good reason for a structured prioritisation for the higher risk cohorts, but the key priority for low-risk younger groups is reducing R rather than protecting those getting the jab, so we just need to get jabs in arms as quickly as possible via:
1) Make national booking system available to all
2) Expand the use and publicity of walk-in centres for those that are keen to be seen as soon as possible
3) Allow people to change their date on the national booking system without first cancelling their jab (automatically cancel once you've booked a new one). I think the current approach discourages people checking to see if they can get an earlier appointment.
This should have all been done a couple of weeks ago, but I fear we won't see it until towards the end of June. The vaccine strategy has become too conservative.
I did see that Biden has suggested that it only applies to the 100 largest and most profitable companies which seems a little odd… incentive to spend more…?
Chesham and Amersham is looking incredibly comfortable, only 2% of the cash has gone on the Lib Dems and I haven’t seen any signs they’re confident on the ground so it would be a gargantuan upset if they won.
Batley and Spen does feel more like a blue win with each week but potentially a push back to the 21st June opening (something Im not expecting) could tilt it back to Lab. Galloway did seem to get a significant gathering of the local Muslim community which suggests with Palestine in the news he’s not a busted flush.
If my wife earns more than $5 (I kid you not!) she has to file a US tax return. She is then liable for full US taxes on her income but under our tax treaty she can get a full offset for any UK income.
I get you are a committed LibDem activist. So is @IanB2.
But he makes his posts interesting and insightful. Your’s are just a scree of partisan nonsense.
We were adamantly opposed on principle when we were part of the EU because there was always the risk we could be outvoted by higher tax countries and thereby lose our competitive advantage vs France and Germany.
Now we are outside the EU we have an effective veto… and if Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg lose their competitive advantage that’s just a delightful bonus
Or the Tories are threatening voters?!?
We can tax Amazon in the UK based on UK sales.
If the total global corporation tax Amazon pays is less than 15% of global profits it pays extra tax to the US
The government is "drawing up other options" before making a decision on whether to completely lift COVID restrictions on 21 June.
A government figure said Number 10 was still planning to go ahead with the final step in the roadmap, but is waiting for more data before taking any decisions.
"It would be remiss of us to take a decision without a full set of data as evidence," said one government figure.
"Of course officials are drawing up other options but we are still expecting to be in a place to go ahead on June 21."
https://news.sky.com/story/government-drawing-up-other-options-as-it-weighs-ending-lockdown-on-21-june-12325353
Aren't the British crown dependencies still the elephant in the room here?
The UK will be a force for good in the world outside of the EU, what the EU has lost the rest of the world has gained.
If it doesn't go ahead as planned, it will be a political mistake
https://guernseypress.com/news/2021/06/03/corporate-tax-revamp-not-an-issue-as-long-as-it-is-global/
The Tories deserve to lose this election
https://twitter.com/alexvtunzelmann/status/1400881153914163203?s=20
Which of course would be good for him....
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/jun/01/gary-younge-why-every-single-statue-should-come-down-rhodes-colston?utm_term=5a8b9a0ae17251f25784a41a7beb4c37&utm_campaign=TheLongRead&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=longread_email
So, may be hedgeable on the Betfair Exchange, if you're so inclined.
Perez might be the best bet for hedging as the team's likely to prioritise Verstappen.
No tip for qualifying, though.
https://enormo-haddock.blogspot.com/2021/06/azerbaijan-pre-qualifying-2021.html
I said England lose in 3.5 days, will be 4.5 days because of the rain.
The country's 425,000 excess deaths had been recorded from April 2020 to April 2021, according to Reuters calculations based on data released by Russia's state statistics service on Friday.
The article is typical of the shite that infects the Guardian.
Rishi just announced G7 historic tax system agreement