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Australia Hits Multinationals With New Tax Rules

Aussies make technology firms hand over their cash to state coffers. blog Australia makes multinationals pay more tax. An audit by the the OECD brought to light how much money the big companies owed. With countries toughening up the rules, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the tax avoiders to keep all the profit.  ⎳ Australia a Hits a Multinationals a With a New a Tax a Rules ⎳ The OECD recommended ways to stop the cash going to tax havens. Nations have taken notice and passed new legislation. Australia's rules are clear: if you earn in Australia you must hand over the tax.  Large businesses will have no choice.   ⦿3 Australia b Hits b Multinationals b With b New b Tax b Rules ⦿3 Messing around with intercompany transfers between international branches to artificially reduce income will also face obstacles.  The mother conpany providing overpriced inputs to outlying branches will end.  Microsoft, Apple and Google have had their wings clipped.    ⧗ Australia c Hits

We are Heading for a Protectionist World - Tariffs Will Return!

More jobs for the US economy. Globalization has failed. Countries are distinct cultures. Working life may be the same, but the values people live by are much different, particularly in regards to religion. Jobs have been lost in developed countries as so called developing countries keep labor costs down by manipulating their currencies and not giving their workers social welfare support. Americans want jobs A case in point is Australia's compulsory superannuation. This was a silly idea to begin with as companies went to the wall and workers lost all their super. This is a cost burden on wage costs. Employees must live now, so wages rose to leave enough current spending after paying in superannuation. This is seldom mentioned by economists let alone governments. Developing countries do not have this cost burden. No wonder Donald Trump is supported by a large slice of the American population. He promises to put up trade barriers to create jobs at home. His re

Australia is Heading for Economic Disaster

The Australian economy is heading southward and this does not mean we are moving closer to Antarctica. Our financial health is still in primary products. The price and demand for iron ore and coal still drives the economy. At the moment the foot is really off the accelerator and we are idling downhill. We will eventually reach the bottom. Then the country will have big problems. Tax revenue is already falling due to lower demand by China. US demand for Chinese good remains sluggish. As the world economy falls it impacts strongly on Australia. We have not made the move away from agriculture and manufacturing. This is mainly because our resource bowl has kept wages high. Manufacturing countries always have a wage differential advantage. In time, wages will rise in China as they have in Japan. Then companies will probably move to Southeast Asia. The hope that Australia will have a increase in IT start-ups to offset the fall in resource exports is not well founded. Products

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) Should Not Interfer in the Market

Was the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) set up to improve business or just be a nuisance to operations. Its job should be to police the industry and make things run smoothly. However, putting one's nose in when it is not needed is not the best thing to do. The mining boom is coming to an end as the Chinese economy pulls back from high growth due to wages rising thus demand falling. Companies are looking to move to other Asian countries where labor is cheaper. Australian mining companies are looking to become producers of other things such as technology. With this move comes threats from ASIC for the miners to keep their noses clean. Apparently they must inform shareholders before they buy tech companies. We have not reached a point yet where shareholders manage companies. Surely, it is up to the CEO and the board to set future company developments and intentions. ASIC is making accusations that mining companies are "cooking the book

Australian Prime Minister Totally Wrong Saying Australia Was "Empty"

There isn't much doubt that we have the most "out of touch" prime minister in Australian history. He goes oversees and visits world leaders and says absolutely stupid things. It makes you wonder if he lives in the same world as everyone else. He blatantly believes that he didn't lie about what he would do if he won office. He has gone full circle and made cuts to areas he said he would not change. He takes voters for granted thinking they are as stupid as he is. Again, he has made a statement that the majority of Australians know to be untrue. He said Australia was unsettled when Europeans arrived. Color blindness seems to be one of his flaws. Suggesting that British investment made Australia what it is today is applying modern theory to times when economic theory was in its infancy. There was little understanding of investment in those days. Anyway, Britain's investment was really more people, unwanted in their homeland. The only real investment wa

The Prime Minister Who Killed Holden

Tony Abbot said that he would like to be known as the "development" prime minister. With the deficit that the Australian Coalition government aims to reduce as soon as possible, this simply cannot happen. Investment on roads, schools and hospitals takes cash that Australia does not have. Just how he planned to invest and save is a mystery. Legacies cannot be planned. They happen due to one's behavior and circumstances that cannot be controlled. Planning the future particularly your own is difficult. Of course he stopped the boats by being ruthless and taking action that has infuriated our neighbor, Indonesia. This always was a dangerous course of action. Diplomatically it is an absolute mess with future repercussions unknown. What is certain is that he will be known as the prime minister who killed the Australian automotive industry. Blaming labor costs is tunnel vision on his part. Other input costs are high : a strong currency, power costs, transpor

Economic Theory No Longer Applies

For the first time economic theory is being challenged by the Internet. Economics has always put forward the premise that the consumer was all-knowing, in that the "going price" for products was known. Of course, in the past this has been a lie. The demand curve was absolutely false. Buyers did not know where they could get the best price. Now, potential buyers can go to a store, try on a particular brand of clothing to find the correct size, then go and buy it on the Internet. Some shops are charging for such browsing. This will only drive consumers away to another store. There isn't much doubt that there are too many stores in the market selling the same goods. This is a problem caused by local councils allowing shopping center development even when it is contrary to local planning laws. Councils are too easily influenced by cashed-up big business. As chain stores move into populated centers of rural areas the future looks bleak for the corner store. The da

Australian Saving Means a Change in the Retail Structure

Why is Australia in such a bad way? The country is exporting at record levels. China is paying up front for these exports. Interest rates are not too high. Remember the Keating days of 14 per cent? We do have a "dual" economy with manufacturing doing it tough due to the high dollar, but Australia never has been a strong exporter of manufactured goods. Retailers are saying people aren't spending. You would think that people can only spend what they earn and no more. However, due to the multiplier effect, according to economic theory, when a person spends a dollar that one dollars turns over about five times. In other words the money supply, the real paper dollars out there, is actually only about a fifth of the money on the books in an economy. So what happens when a consumer saves? Think about it. The money in circulation "shrinks" by four more dollars. This is what is happening in Australia. We all envied Japan in its good years when they had very h