* Posts by organiser

79 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Oct 2013

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Surprise! VAT, customs likely to get a bit trickier in a Brexit no-deal world

organiser

Re: Can anyone

"Malta is now a full member of the EU, using the Euro. It has the 31st highest per-capita GDP. (Just behind Spain, and almost exactly the European average)"

They also have a budget surplus, and is in the Schengen area, effectively refuting any claims that "an island nation can't be in Schengen."

organiser

Re: "but instead of ditching the plague of a currency they sacrificed"

"Nobody was forced to join the Euro, and it had clear requirements. Countries like Sweden and Denmark didn't join it."

Denmark has, like the UK, an opt-out. Sweden has an obligation to join whenever it fulfils the requirements. Sweden has always fulfilled the financial requirements and the only thing holding them up is their unwillingness to make the necessary constitutional changes. With a rapidly depreciating currency, there is now an increasing interest in doing so.

Denmark on the other hand has pegged their currency to the euro within a narrow 2.25% range.

organiser

Re: "but instead of ditching the plague of a currency they sacrificed"

And likewise:

The problem currently screwing the Pound is London needing a much stronger currency but cant, selling so much to poorer regions who need a weaker currency and the workers move from poorer to richer leaving poorer regions even poorer. The plague of the Pound is screwing up regions who are over and under valued by the Pound but dont transfer that money from richer to poorer.

Also, Germany doesn't "export" to other EU members. Exports is when goods cross the EU Customs Union border. Anything within is is just an "intra-EU transfer", no different from England selling to Scotland (aside from VAT treatment).

organiser

Re: "but instead of ditching the plague of a currency they sacrificed"

There are no "own currencies" to go back to. They will most likely instead set up one or two new common currencies and join them. See ECOWAS.

organiser

Re: UK VAT Return

Brexiteers were only complaining about EU red tape. UK red tape is alright.

UK Home Office re-bans cheap call gateways because 'terrorism'

organiser

Re: Oh dear

Same also with the line "proper authorisations". We will need to apply (for a fee of course) for permission in order to be authorised (for a fee of course) to do anything for a limited amount of time. Authorisation revoked or not renewed, and you are out of a job, house and probably bank account too.

Record number of non-EU techies coming to Blighty

organiser

Re: Well they can't exactly go to France now can they

Many engagements are far longer than 6 months. What we have done is to set up local companies in those countries where we work the most, and have them take care of local payroll, administration, VAT and invoicing. It also makes local VAT reclaims far easier.

Leaked: The UK's secret blueprint with telcos for mass spying on internet, phones – and backdoors

organiser

An Act worthy of a government that doesn't trust its own citizens. It is not about keeping people safe. It is about keeping government safe.

Just how screwed is IT at the Home Office?

organiser

Re: IR35

Probably just a realisation that they are not in a position to direct the work of specialists who knows more about how to perform the actual work at hand than they do.

But since civil service pay grades tend to be related to the number of people under "management" they have, I assume it's not an easy choice for civil servants to make.

organiser

Bet it's ordinary middle managers whose self esteem comes from having "manager" in their titles, working in a supposedly agile environment without having an agile mindset whatsoever.

Non-doms pay 10 times more in income tax than average taxpayer group

organiser

Re: What price credibility?

Also, only a small portion of their income is PAYE. The bulk of it is interest, gains and dividends.

US Treasury to launch pre-emptive strike on EU's Ireland tax probe

organiser

Re: Apple has a get out of jail free card!!!

Well that is great foresight by the Irish government. The EU may order Ireland to collect additional taxes from Apple, but the Irish government itself is obliged to pay them on behalf of Apple - to itself. E.g. nothing will happen.

organiser

Re: Apparently, the US already does

It is not the American companies who are avoiding taxes. It is their European subsidiaries who pay their taxes where they have their base - such as Ireland, the UK, Luxembourg etc and subject to the laws of those countries, not the USA.

organiser

Re: Apparently, the US already does

Most countries use the OECD rule of becoming taxable on worldwide income after having spent more than 182 days in the country in any 365 day period. There are certain exceptions, such as the UK which only requires an average of 90 days over a four year period to become worldwide taxable in the UK.

The USA could quite easily change its tax code so that anybody who set foot on US soil becomes taxable on worldwide income.

organiser

So if the EU starts getting directly involved in tax for those companies in Ireland it directly impacts the tax revenues in the US.

Not quite.

The USA has low personal taxation but high corporate taxation. Most other countries, including virtually all EU countries, do the opposite.

Furthermore, unlike most other countries, the USA taxes dividends received as ordinary revenue at high tax rates, even though they have already been subject to corporation taxes. The taxes in Ireland are not levied on the US part of Apple. They are levied on Apple Europe. If Apple Europe were to pay those taxed (however low) profits to the USA, they would be subject to punitive US corporation taxes on Apple USA. No wonder Apple prefer to not pay dividends to its US parent, but luckily companies can’t be forced to pay dividends. However the USA can always make its tax code even more punitive by begin levying taxes on unpaid dividends.

Julian AssangeTM to meet investigators in London

organiser

Re: Does this count?

"the actual story from the two women themselves has not been heard"

Well, it has, and there are tweets from the about such a lovely and amazing guy he is. They were merely a bit disappointed about the condom thing, but they didn't want to prosecute. That was entirely the decision of the authorities.

Since it doesn't align with the official story it is quite naturally being downplayed, but you will find it with a bit of Google karma.

organiser

"the Swedish authorities were required to interview in accordance with Swedish law"

Swedish law is silent on where and how such an interview should take place, so that is not a reason for refusing an interview via Skype or other means.

organiser

"the suspect in a criminal case should not be allowed to decide where and when questions can be asked."

Perhaps, but he is not even a suspect. The Swedes just want to have a friendly chat with him to find out whether he should be.

organiser

Re: i know but...

The British isles are firmly attached to the European continental shelf and used to be connected to France by land.

Prominent Brit law firm instructed to block Brexit Article 50 trigger

organiser

Re: From another angle...

A referendum is a consulting exercise. It is there to provide some input to Parliament for Parliament's sovereign decision making.

organiser

Re: What a horrible waste of time and money

If 52% had voted to remain I would have called that a too close to call as well, accept no change and be happy with the status quo. Leave voters want to make a major change based on what is effectively a tie.

organiser

Re: What a horrible waste of time and money

The parties referred to in the Vienna convention are the countries, not their citizens.

organiser

Re: What a horrible waste of time and money

Welcome to Prison Island.

organiser

Re: What a horrible waste of time and money

The European Union Referendum Act 2015 is silent on how the result of the referendum should be interpreted so Parliament must decide on whether to use a simple or a qualified majority.

In company law a qualified majority is required to change a company's constitution and it could be argued that the same principle should apply to the EU referendum.

Visiting America? US border agents want your Twitter, Facebook URLs

organiser

Re: Freedom of speech includes also

That makes you an asocial "alien" (not the space kind) who clearly has something to hide. Quite possibly a nefarious t*st and you are as such probably disqualified (and put on a no fly/no swim/no boat/no train/no bus/no drive/no walk list for good measure).

UK digi strategy on ice post Brexit results - sources

organiser

Re: but...

<sarcasm>But we did take back control and we did get our country back, didn't we?</sarcasm>

organiser

Plaid Cymru has already put a referendum on an independent Wales back on the agenda.

organiser

Re: In a few years agricultural land could be a goldmine

A.k.a. the road to serfdom.

organiser

Look at it from the bright side - people migrate to where the jobs are, and after the referendum the UK has become much, much less attractive as a country to migrate to, so new houses may never need to be built.

Osborne on Leave limbo: Travel and trade stay unchanged

organiser

Re: article 50

Absolutely true. After having revealed ourselves as such ungrateful bastards, we would have to accept the same conditions as everybody else.

organiser

Re: Keep calm and

I suppose there will soon be a referendum to reinstate hanging?

organiser

Re: Project FUD is alive and well

I took part in the IoD poll. We started contingency planning just after the general election last year when they promised the referendum. As the eurozone is by far our biggest market, we eventually decided to open two offices in the eurozone as well as moving the holding company there. All our hiring has been there, not in the UK. The UK company will be relegated to only serve UK customers.

organiser

Re: There is no fucking way everyone's going to wait

There is also the little issue of stripping the people of an entire nation of a citizenship without a valid reason (which according to international treaties etc is usually fraud, crime etc). I believe that the Vienna convention and the European Convention on Nationality (which the UK has opted out of) may put some blockers in about what the government can do.

organiser

Re: Even here at the bottom end it's a mess

Currency hedging is mainly for corporate clients in UK banks. We have been talking to our bank previously (before this debacle started) because we often buy in USD and some 75% of sales is in the eurozone. We now offer the best prices in USD but also in EUR for convenience but at prices with a decent, inbuilt currency margin. GBP pricing is only for the UK. Nobody outside the UK has ever wanted to pay in Sterling.

Are EU having a laugh? Europe passes hopeless cyber-commerce rules

organiser

Re: "You're not allowed to ship leather goods to Italy last time I checked"

It is only import if it comes from a country outside the EU.

organiser

Re: They aren't entirely mad.

Steep volume and region discounts. The large couriers are trying to break into the Asian markets and are offering extremely low rates there.

organiser

Re: They aren't entirely mad.

Within the EU is not quite "abroad". If they can ship locally they can just as easily ship to other EU member states.

Remember when gov.uk said it would give big biz contracts to SMEs?

organiser

Re: Civil Service Management

A good deal for them is not the same thing as a financially good deal. They avoid public scrutiny at all costs and if they buy from an incumbent then they have one more defence for themselves when things go sour and they end up in a hearing at the OBS, the PAC or the NAO for example.

organiser

Re: Making it too expensive for SMEs to bid

I recently saw a 200 page tender document for a simple £150k piece of work. In it they required £10m professional indemnity insurance (good luck finding an insurer willing to give an SME that - £1m is standard, £2m can be had after some negotiation while £5m and beyond is next to impossible).

The tender was eventually won by the UK arm of a foreign multinational which the buying organisation ticked off as "SME".

Brexit: Time to make your plans, UK IT biz

organiser

Re: ...an addendum to the above...

Even better, it was largely drafted by the Tories. In the UK.

organiser

Re: Time to make your plans

... aside from that away treaties require member states to be a signatory of the ECHR and to follow its judgements.

People who don't like the ECHR would feel right at home in Belarus, the only European country that is not a signatory and where the security services is still called the KGB.

organiser

Re: And on the other side of the channel...

Two years after, things may suddenly change drastically regardless of the UK itself taking a slow approach. That is what the posting is about. Some countries are particularly known for dealing with legal matters to the letter.

At the BBC, Agile means 'making it up as we go along'

organiser

Re: Agile

MVP is not an agile concept. It comes from Lean Startup.

organiser

Re: At the BBC, Agile means 'making it up as we go along'

Waterfall is not a process. It is only a theoretical model out of many described by Dr Royce in an IEEE paper about managing complex software development projects. He himself dismissed the model as being far too risky for any but the simplest of projects.

Ireland's tax arrangements are as clear as a pint of Guinness

organiser

Re: Just get rid of corporation tax

Governments tend to disagree with you. Their thinking is that if you live in a certain country and make use of public facilities in that country (be they infrastructure, social services or something else), then you should pay taxes in that country. Technically, you have earned the money in that country even though they may originate from another country.

organiser

Re: The problem with getting rid of corp tax

The USA taxes foreign shareholders by means of withholding taxes.

organiser

Re: Just get rid of corporation tax

Shareholders don't pay much tax anyway (unless they are in the USA). Employees do. Ireland gets income taxes from greater employment, and VAT on their consumption. That is where the greatest tax takes for most countries comes from.

organiser

Re: Just get rid of corporation tax / Karl Marx

Karl was, after all, a journalist, writing for the New York Times.

Sayonara, Brits! The Irish tech sector could benefit from Brexit

organiser

"while it might be able to set its own corporation tax after Brexit"

The UK sets its own corporation tax even within the EU, as does any other EU country.

'Panama papers' came from email server hack at Mossack Fonseca

organiser

Re: Pre-Filtered, so who is under duress

Panama has an information exchange agreement with exactly one other country: the USA. This is probably why Americans prefer the Caymans and other British jurisdictions.

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