📰 Decline of The Press?

Hey,

Mexico is finally taking steps to minimize the glaring gap between its rich and poor: It’s time for Mexico to tax the rich it says!

“Here we understand austerity not only as an administrative matter but as a politics of principle.” – The President of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has been a backbone to start this journey for authentically making the rich and wealthy cough up what they owe. His actions are simple and successful: Track down companies that issue false tax receipts and make them pay – by hook or by crook!  

This Week’s Dose-

• Decline of the Press?
• Hashtag Love What You Do
• OECD Gets to The Bottom of Tax Reports

Decline of the Press?

Point at Issue

Journalists across the world scramble to cover the impact of coronavirus. They are struggling with a bitter irony: as demand for their stories is rising, the decline of the business model that funds them is in dire straits. Most newspapers and magazines have hit a record number of readers due to the ‘story of the generation’ i.e. Covid-19. Yet, the virus may end ‘hundreds’ of those organizations, especially the smaller ones. 

The Response

Media outlets are seeing a large decline in advertising triggered by the economic shutdown. Some have responded by sacking dozens of employees, while others have stopped printing. They have reverted to a digital-only operation which is just as vulnerable as the whims of the advertisers.

The Measure

The French government has taken a stand to protect its newspaper industry. The MPs have voted ‘in-favour’ to grant tax-credit to anyone taking out a new subscription to current affairs newspaper or magazine. Deputies voted to allow a one-off deduction of up to €50 (£45) to households subscribing for the first time and for at least 12 months, to a newspaper, magazine or online news service “providing news of a general or political character”.A desperate attempt to save the fourth estate.

Hashtag Love What You Do

Society: How much do you love your work?
Shia LaBeouf: Yes!

The American actor Shia LaBeouf has made a head-turning and jaw-dropping dedication to his upcoming film. He permanently (cannot get over it) tattooed his ENTIRE chest to “authentically” play his role as a Cholo gangster in The Tax Collector.

Hopefully, we can catch this enthusiasm and dedication in collecting taxes as a nation this year!

OECD Gets to The Bottom of Tax Reports

The new country-by-country data on big multinational companies’ tax reports put straight a very crucial fact. The companies tend to book profits in low tax financial hubs rather than where they really do much of their business. International tax laws invariably have loopholes, and the intellect at MNCs are able to spot and take advantage of them by parking their profits in low tax jurisdiction. They park their profits in low tax jurisdictions. OECD’s first insights from the trove of data reveal a “misalignment between the location where profits are reported and the location where economic activities occur.”

The following 2 facts will make things easier to understand:

1. The operations of multinationals in investment hubs report a profit of 25%(approx). Surprisingly, it reports only 4% of employees and 11% of tangible assets operating in these hubs.

2. The median value of revenue per employee in jurisdictions with no income tax was a whopping USD 1.4 million. On the contrary, the same value of revenue per employee in jurisdictions where corporate income tax is more than 20% stands at just USD 370,000. And the ones where the corporate income tax is less than 20% stands at USD 240,000. Taxing such huge multinationals ‘more’ doesn’t seem so cruel now. (By more taxes, we mean digital taxes)

What’s happening- Tax Updates

ITD Utilities for ITR-2 are out for AY 2020-21. Section 112A is mandatory now. Complicating reporting for Investors/Traders, now you have to report LTCG trade wise (including ISIN, Buy/Sell, FMV & Transfer expenses).
@IncomeTaxIndia has released utilities for ITR 1, ITR 2 & ITR 4.

Although ITR due dates are extended, the Tax filing season is gearing up! While you wait for the remaining utilities, check out which ITR Form is applicable to you.

GST / Goods and Services Tax has completed 3 years! It was introduced as a single domestic uniform tax in the year 2017. Have a look at how GST upheld its promises and at the same time suffered some hiccups.

India’s FOREX reserve has crossed the $500 billion mark to become the fifth largest reserve in the world. If you are looking for how India achieved this and what are its implications, we’ve got you covered.

Barter With Work – Crazy Tax Story

The story takes us back to the Inca Empire.  The Inca civilization flourished in ancient Peru between c. 1400 and 1533 CE. It was a monarchy ruled by a single leader called the Sapa Inca. Now that you can visualize the times and kingdom, get this: Citizens of the Inca Empire paid their taxes in the form of physical work.

This is the ancient version of washing dishes at the restaurant if you can’t pay for food!

Imagine if this worked today, can’t pay your taxes? Work more and work off the debt instead

Byte of The Day

I hate Taxes!
But I like Roads, Firemen, some cops, traffic lights(except red ones), National Parks, the Coast Guard, various TLAs, etc…

So I pay them anyway!

-Unknown