Woah!
🚀ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) has achieved a key milestone. Joining hands with NASA in 2014, it has developed the world’s first earth observation satellite with two different radars that can produce very high-resolution images. It is called the S-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). 📡 This radar will be sent to NASA for integration with NASA’s own L-Band radar.
Being one of its kind, the satellite 🛰️ will be called NISAR (NASA-ISRO-SAR) and will be launched from the Sriharikota launch pad in 2023!
🙅 And Once Again! EU Got No Chill
The European Union just gave a green signal 🟢 to initiate CBCR (Country-by-Country Reporting) negotiations. This move is big! The motive is to crack down on large multinationals that easily escape 70,000,000,000 euros 💰 of taxes every year. They now need to publicly disclose their tax arrangements.
📝 Portugal’s Plot! A vast majority of countries including the renowned Tax Havens like Luxembourg, Hungary, Ireland, Germany, and Sweden were always against the implementation of this law. Since 2016, the EU was unable to move forward with it.
But Portugal took over the EU presidency and put the tax transparency law for corporations to a vote in the Council of Ministers and a qualified majority was reached
📜 Ireland’s Veto. The Irish are particularly in a bad mood as they think the route taken is ‘legally unsound.’
It had opposed the measure along with several other member states on the basis that – since it is a tax measure, it should be based on different legislation, and should be dealt with by finance ministers. And this route would require unanimous support rather than a qualified majority, granting Ireland a veto.
Can’t deny Ireland’s concern being a huge tax haven for giants like Apple.
☝️ What Business Feds are Saying. Feds across Europe have urged the EU not to move forward with implementing public CbCr as there could be “significant competitive shortcomings”. Such a measure would make the bloc less attractive for investment, reveal sensitive information, and threaten the EU’s relationship with the U.S.
😲 It is NOT Surprising. Tax avoidance is perfectly legal. In most cases, states undercut each other to compete for investment. The new law, through its transparency, is intended to generate public pressure. It will reveal how profits are shifted to shell companies with little or no production, in low-tax states. It will “help to investigate the tax behavior of multinational companies” and “encourage them to pay taxes where they make profits”, which is how the EU Commission justifies its proposal.
It’s NOT surprising that this proposal got a majority of votes in the parliament.
🙅 No Chill. Additional Measures. The European Parliament made some more additions to the law!
Huge MNEs in Loop – Subsidiaries with a turnover of €750 million ($895 million) or more to be subject to CbCR requirements
Data IS Important – MNEs temporarily omit information when disclosing it would be seriously detrimental to their commercial positions;
No Stone Unturned – Information on the number of all full-time employees, fixed assets, stated capital, preferential tax treatment, or government subsidies is also required to get a complete picture.
It’s Now Public Information – Companies have to make their annual report on income tax information publicly available and free of charge and file the report in a public registry managed by the Commission.
From all Around the World – It wants MNEs to present the information requested to be presented separately, including for each tax jurisdiction outside the EU.
“Truly, An important first step towards greater corporate tax transparency.”
🥜 Crazy Tax Story – Tax in a Nut-Shell
Hammer. Pop. Crunch. Shelled nuts are usually fun to munch. And what’s even better? They are zero-rated for the people of England, unless shelled, apart from peanuts! However they are subject to VAT if they are roasted or salted, but if you add peanuts to a fruit and nut mix, and more than 25% of the contents are standard-rate, as is the case with dried fruit and chocolate, they are subject to VAT.
Best efforts to drive you Nuts?!
💭 Byte of The Day
