🔨 Hammer Blow to Luxury Retail in the UK

Hey,

A girl called Yutika Rangari came up with a new concept called “Vermi-Greeno Tax” to tackle New Zealand’s waste problem (highest landfill and lowest recycle of solid waste). A levy of $40 per tonne of solid waste. This revenue will later be used for waste minimization activities and convert the excess solid waste into beneficial vermicompost.

Wait, her idea was brilliant enough that it will be presented in the TaxCOOP2020 World Tax Summit in Montreal, Canada.

This Week’s Dose-

• Hammer Blow to  Luxury Retail in the UK
• Robin Hood Taxes
• Do you want Toyota?
• Tax Season 2020
• Origin of Doberman

🔨 Hammer Blow to  Luxury Retail in the UK

The United Kingdom’s treasury department wipes out ‘duty-free’ shopping for tourists. And the store retailers and AOA (the voice of UK airports) are so fit to be tied.

Call it bad timing? The aviation routes are now open. High-end store retailers were looking forward to a jump in international shoppers (mostly middle east and far east). But after this, there might be a dent in the sale of fashion and beauty accessories. Retail chains like Harrods, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols might be looking at dark days. 

22 billion! This is the total number of pounds spent by international tourists. 10% of this is spent in duty-free shopping. We are talking about big numbers here. And this can potentially transfer a 2.2b pound, tax-free shopping ‘bonus’ to a 3.5b pound loss of tax-free sales. Is the treasury willing to take a hit of 5.7b pounds to secure an extra 500m as taxes? 

From 1st Jan’21, international shoppers ‘will be’ able to buy goods tax-free. Only if they agree to have them ‘mailed back’ to their home countries.

One more thing! Alcohol and tobacco products will continue to remain duty-free which means you can bring back 42L of beer, 18L of still wine, plus 4L of spirit or 9L of sparkling wine without paying any UK duties.

Is this a shot in the arm, or a shot in the foot for the UKTRF…

🏹 Robin Hood Taxes

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused havoc on U.S. state budgets. Lawmakers are constantly looking for new ways to generate revenue. Name a better way than Taxes! New Jersey lawmakers are hoping to bank billions of dollars from a financial transaction tax aka Robin Hood taxes.

What is the financial transaction tax? We’ve got you covered. It is a tax that is imposed on a person or entity that processes over 10,000 financial transactions (purchase or sale of financial security such as shares, futures and options, swaps, or derivatives) through electronic infrastructure.

The proposed 0.25% tax rate would be imposed per instrument in the state of New Jersey. This means that a purchase of 1000 shares would generate USD 2.50 in taxes. The same shares could be traded multiple times and therefore creating a pyramid of taxes from the same instrument.

So, who is affected by this? This largely affects the New York-based stock exchanges that rely heavily on electronic infrastructure. The state could potentially collect USD 10 billion from the tax on financial securities traded via New Jersey electronic data centers. Also, the burden of the tax would fall on the wealthy who hold and trade financial assets frequently.

What are they planning to do about it? The New York Stock Exchange intends to run one of its five subsidiary exchanges from Illinois for a week in order to avoid the tax from New Jersey. On 26 September, NASDAQ will simulate a trading test with it’s Chicago data center to ensure the readiness of the market for relocation. This drastic shift to Chicago signifies that the Stock Exchanges are willing to go to extra lengths if it means dodging taxes.

As Robinhood said, “we don’t rob, we simply borrow from those who can afford it…”

General Motors and Ford already quit in 2017 and 2019 respectively. Will Toyota too?

🍂 #TaxSeason2020

For a moment, forget about the virus; Tax Season is around the corner! And the last thing you want to do is wait until a week before to start digging through all your files.

We want you to be prepared. Let’s dive into the details of Tax Season 2020.

🐕 Origin of Doberman – Crazy Tax Story

Once upon a time, in the late 19th century, there was a tax collector named Karl Friedrich Louis Dobermann. He lived in the Thuringia district of Germany. His job of collecting taxes was dangerous. It required him to make rounds in some shady areas of the town. He used to work as a police officer and a night guard sometimes. Due to the nature of his job, he often found himself carrying bags of money. There were a lot of bandits in and around the town. And he feared being attacked by them. 

So, Louis undertook the task of developing a new breed of dog. A companion that could also guard him against thieves, robbers, bandits, or whatever you might call them. He operated a local dog pound and had had access to a variety of dog breeds. He started out with a series of cross breedings. These possibly include Rottweiler, Weimaraner, Manchester Terrier, German Pinscher, Greyhound, Beauceron, Great Dane, and the Black and Tan Terrier. Louis never made notes on his breeding process. But he picked and chose the dogs very carefully.

Finally, the tax-collector came up with a strong, fast, durable, loyal, intelligent, and, when he needed to be, a ferocious dog. He named it the Doberman Pinscher.

Beats carrying a gun around, I guess.

💭 Byte of the Day