Posts by d3vy

Re: re:If your Netflix password is the same as your email/bank password

@Anon

Not a fan of card readers for 2FA, easy to leave behind when you need them..

TSB does 2FA in a few different ways,

On my personal account I have a password and some memorable info, I have to enter the password on every access then 3 random characters (decided by TSB) from my memorable info.

To transfer money out of the account I need to set up new recipients, doing this triggers a call to my mobile which confirms with me that it was me setting it up before allowing me to transfer money out.

My business account does the same, with the added rule that after a recipient is added you cannot transfer to them immediately. The business account also requires a code from a card reader to be entered for every transfer to an external account (This is a pain in the arse as I dont carry the card reader with me so cant always make payments when I am away from home)

Re: As a Dad

"I dont think rationing time is necessary as I was never rationed time on computers when I was a kid and the result is im now a competent IT guy with over 20 years of hands on experience (even though im only 33)"

Spot on, I often get told my kids are spending too much time online or messing with their laptops... I sometimes even think myself that they should get out more. Then I remember my childhood waiting for the c64 to load games and writing really simple basic programs... I think I turned out ok, I'm earning a decent amount in a job that I love because it's just an extension of my lifelong hobby... My kids can spend as much time as they want messing with computers.

Re: Perhaps all that Hour of Code is really teaching is short attention spans?

Dev ops : it's got electrolyte's

A WiFi what?

Re: The silver hockey puck works on and off the screen.

"Also "touch" is fine on a phone and tablet if there is no keyboard. It's just tiring on a larger screen when you are mostly using a keyboard and sometimes using a mouse"

I suggest that you have not used a modern touch enabled laptop then?

Ive had a Yoga Pro for the last year and I will not go back to a non touch laptop again, its so much faster to select things, and more natural than using a mouse...

Need to hit a menu item in the top right hand side of the 4K screen? That's quite a few strokes on a touchpad.. one dab with a finger.

Re: o rly?

"This implies that Windows 10 might just not be free forever"

Where have you been? Its not free now, the free upgrade period finished months ago.

Re: 30% never owned another brand?

Yeah, that's me in the red at the back. :)

"That's fact, what other phablet is there with a built in real stylus? not just some preasure insensitive capacitive junk"

LG make one, I had a play with it in the phone shop a few weeks ago.. Seemed ok.

However I used it for a few minutes and dont really have experience with a note so nothing to compare it to... maybe worth loooking at though.

Re: 30% never owned another brand?

"The average person didn't have a cell phone 10 years ago, even in wealthy countries. I didn't have my first until 2000, and I only got one because I needed it for work. If it wasn't for that I wouldn't have owned one until less than a decade ago."

I know this is going to be a shock... it took me by surprise... But the 90s were 20 years ago.

I know, Right?!?

But anyway Im only part joking, the mid-late 90s was when pay as you go phones first came about and 15 year old me thought he was the dogs danglies with his *ANALOGUE* vodaphone handset where calls cost 60p a minute and half of your £15 voucher (it was all you could get) was a service charge.

The above is true of the UK, I dont know what country you are in but I cant imagine that many phone companies were far behind given the massive profits that PAYG brought them though new people to sell to.

My experience is that by '98/99 pretty much everyone I know (Id have been around 17/18) had a phone. So I disagree with your assessment that the average person didnt have a phone more than 10 years ago.

Re: iPhone instead?

"If Apple want to capitalise on this they'll bundle the iPhone 7+ with an Apple Pen which so far has been reserved for the iPad Pro."

Does the iPhone 7+ have the correct type of digitiser? I wouldnt have thought so because of the added cost unless they were planning on making the *PENCIL* (Pen would be too mainstream) work with it.

Serious question, not even seen an ip7 yet so really dont know.

Re: I'd still like one

"And you're not getting on a plane with one of those... Ever."

Possibly true, but that just highlights the knee jerk reaction to security that we have adopted in the last decade.

Im heading to florida at the end of the month, in my carry on will be : 3 iPhones, 1 iPad air, 2 iPad Minis, a Nexus 7 (2012) and my Yoga2 Pro laptop, a coulple of nintendo DSs and some other bits like noise canceling earbuds with built in Lithium ion battery. All in all probably around a kilo of batteries. A kilo of potentially explosive material.

Oh and < 100ml of water.

Re: Just wondering

"What will happen to all the recalled phones? Will there be a fire sale?"

As its only the batteries that have the issue I imagine someone is furiously working on a device that can reuse as many of the components as possible.... the screens and motherboards could go in pretty much any device - just make it a bit fatter and put a better battery in it...

Re: "richest country currently on earth can't get behind true research"

"...not the richest country on Earth and won't be until the late 2020s, barring a correction in its economy."

...Or you know... a certain bewigged politician trashing the US economy.

Re: Lage voices and small wallets

"All this talk about changing things for cyclists yet not a bean is paid in road tax of any form by any cyclist on the road for the services they freely use and complain so much about,"

Well, thats a bit of a daft argument - skip the fact that no one pays "Road Tax" roads are paid for out of general taxation.

Add to that the fact that

1. Most cyclists WILL also own a car so do pay VED

2. Alot of cars are exempt from VED because they are low emission.... I dont pay any VED and neither does my wife... does that mean our cars are not allowed on the road?

Re: Surely ...

Most 'work' done these days is office type roles, done on a computer, so doesn't need to be done in any specific location.

>> I dont think thats right at all.

So unless you are in a hands-on manufacturing job, or need to be face to face with customers/clients (retail, hospitals etc.), then there should be no reason why the vast majority of workers these days (likely 70%+) couldn't simply work from home, or at least somewhere closer.

>> 98% of statistics are made up on the spot.

This is nothing to do with 'cottage industries', most major corporations, at least the forward thinking ones, now encourage working from home, as it reduces their overheads, and makes for a happier, and therefore more productive workforce. It's a win-win for them.

>> It makes for lower bills for the company.

Working from home if you need any kind of team interaction is terrible, even the little bits of interaction that you get in an office... Im not going to skype some remote worker to have a conversation about my holiday plans or to find out if his father in law is still staying with him, but Ill talk to someone over a desk in an office about these things, Maybe not good for productivity but certinally good for your social/psychological well being.

Plus the more people that there are working from home, the less commuters there are on the road, and so makes the commute easier for those that do need to go into the office/factory/hospital etc.

>> And prices higher (Assuming your talking mass transit)

Re: Money

"And whilst we're about it, how about compulsory insurance, cycling tests and cycling licences so that cyclists would be under the same sort of regulation as drivers."

Why?

Personally Ive had more accidents with other pedestrians than with cars or bikes... lets just say that anyone out in public needs to be identifiable, have insurance and pass a test before they are allowed out...

Re: Money

"What the government could do instead is put a sort of tax on cycles, lets call it a road tax, "

Oh god another one...

I cant even bring myself to write a proper comment to this.

"Hardly surprising coming from a country that thinks living below sea level is sensible and having whores standing in shop windows is perfectly ok"

>> RE The sea level thing - working out for them so far...

>> Whores in the window? If you dont like it dont look at them.

Re: The system is broken

Are you asking for a list of ways that normal staff can avoid paying tax?

Ive done that before at great length on another article.

But in summary, off the top of my head:

Pensions

Student loan payments

Cycle to work schemes

Childcare vouchers

Bought holiday days

Employee loans

And a plethora of "employee perks" such as medical cover, dental cover, life insurance and gym memberships.

That's not the whole list either.

Re: The grew the business...

Wikkity, yes I am well aware, I was trying to get the point t across in a simplistic manner to someone who didn't seem to understand that businesses can run at a loss and offset tax.

I may have tried to over simplify it and lost the point I was trying to make.

If my CT bill today is 10k and this month I make a loss my CT bill goes down, because my profit for the year has been decreased.

Re: The system is broken

@Gio Ciampa

"Works on a personal level... why not the corporate?"

It doesn't though does it? As a quick example - do you pay into a company pension?*

You are no longer being taxed on your "turnover"

*You should.

Re: The system is broken

@Dr Mouse, I should have read on a bit further - you explained it better than I did.

Re: The system is broken

@GEZZA

"or just tax turnover, not profit."

Holy christ on a bike, did you put any thought into that or not? - I guess not.

Ok, Assume no tax loopholes... Omnicorp turns over £14bn their wage bill etc comes to 9bn so they make 5bn profit.

Currently they would pay £1bn corporation tax

Using turnover they pay 2.8bn

Great, you've solved the tax problem, but wait.

Mr Smith runs the corner shop, His turnover is £100k but his stock and wage bill is 90k so profit is £10k

Currently his tax liability is £2000 leaving him with £8k to take as a dividend/Reinvest in the shop.

Using turnover he is owe £20,000 he closes his shop and sells his wifes kidneys to pay the tax bill.

Re: Suggestions? - VAT

@philthane

Ok, like so many others you fail to take into account the complexities of tax... VAT is charged at different rates for different products, so most stuff its 20%, for Gas etc its 5% most food and kids clothes etc its Zero rated.

So are you saying that you want to put pensioners gas bills up by 20%, I cant see your election campaign lasting too long...

Also bear in mind that VAT is only payable on transactions inside the EU, this would be another change in tax that has good intentions but would only affect people without the means to work around it.

You also fail to take into account that income tax is banded, so low earners pay a smaller (if any) amount of tax than high earners, youre proposing leveling the same tax on someone earning £11k a year as someone earning £11k a month, doesnt sound right when you say it out loud does it?

Re: Suggestions?

"@d3vy - nope I'm not suggesting you put income tax up just stop some of the "creative" ways big companies and governments for that matter get around "paying" their top direct and indirect staff so that their income tax bill is drastically reduced.

>> But your suggestion was to "Instead make sure you tax the employees", you didn't specify only the top earners. I may has mis-interpreted your intent, It sounded to me like you were proposing removing UK corporation tax and increasing the tax employees pay, basically shifting the tax burden onto the people who cannot take advantage of the tax loop holes.

There are lots of reasons for basing your company on the UK instead of East Elbonia, not least of which it's hard to get your top talent to relocate to a mud hole.

>> Agreed, but I used Elbonia as an example, replace it with Deli.. or Shenzhen Plenty of talent there and low rates.

A higher wage bill can be money well spent. Also if UK companies paid no company tax it would remain an very attractive place to head up your business even if the employees couldn't avoid tax on their pay and shares.

>> You forget that with an increased wage bill the company becomes liable for more payments too.

Employers NI, PAYE and pension contributions would all increase as a result of a wage increase (not to mention the increased cost of sick pay, Maternity, Redundancy).

As for the numbered questions:

1 Freed from the burden of company tax small companies should do well. The tax is just shifted to the dividend paid to the shareholder.

>> The types of small business I was thinking of the "Company" and the shareholder would be more or less the same. Think small family run shops.. A husband and wife running a shop 50/50 share split, all you have done there is remove their corporation tax and increase their income tax, probably by similar amounts, no one is better or worse off and the shareholders of whichever FTSE100 company you want to mention STILL doesnt pay anything as they are not resident in the UK.

2 Freed of their tax burden the companies will make more profit that goes back to the shareholders as a bigger dividend.

>>See my answer above, youve just moved the tax burden from one entity to x individuals.

3 Fine if they are living in the Caymen islands, they can have their bank accounts there and pay tax there but if they are tax resident in the UK they will be taxed on their foreign earnings.

>> Ok... But that kind of goes against your point as facebook are based overseas, youve basically just said OK let them stop paying Corporation tax (the only tax we do get from them) and let their shareholders pay tax in their country of residence - which isnt the UK. So the UK still fails to collect any tax from any of their business activities.

The moderately well of people don't bother with off shore accounts. They are too busy getting on with life to ever get around to minimizing their tax bill.

>> I dont think thats entirely accurate. There are plenty of ways that "Normal" people can avoid tax and Im fairly sure a decent number of people do it.

The problem is, as always, TAX is complicated. Making a change to benefit one group often requires another group to take a hit somewhere... We could get rid of corporation tax* but then without imposing restrictions on how employees and shareholders and remunerated** its just going to mean less tax paid to HMRC.

* Being a contractor Im all for that, I'd get another £15k a year - but HMRC wouldn't see a penny - It would go straight into my pension.

** Which as stated above could be almost impossible given the shareholders will not always be employees/actual people (the shareholder could well be a pension fund).

Re: The grew the business...

"Welcome to the new generation of tax accounting where "investment" = "loss" for tax purposes."

Thats not even close to being new. If you invest in something you pay money out, its an expense to your business and therefore reduces your profit, as tax is paid on profits it also reduces your tax liability.

If the investment pays off you make more profit in the future and pay tax on that, if it doesn't you have lost your investment your profit doesn't change.

Not exactly the same, but a real world example:

Im a contractor, I work out my corporation tax monthly, So (FOR EXAMPLE) say I get £10k a month coming into the business and have 2k of expenses (For example a weeks training), I pay out £1600 in corporation tax that month.

Now imagine the next month something goes wrong and my invoices dont get paid, I go on another course so have same £2k in expenses... so my CT for that month works out at £-400, thats not my company gaining £400.

If that pattern goes on for more than four months HMRC end up owing me money.... Ill never see that money... but my spreadsheet will show it none the less...

Re: Suggestions?

@Anon...

"Alternatively stop trying to tax companies as a big multinational can make profits or losses realize in any country they choose."

>> With you so far.

Instead make sure you tax the employees, apply VAT in the country of the buyer (or advert clicker)

>> Uh uh.. So put income tax up? Are you linking this policy to a mandatory rise in Pay? Or are you expecting all employees to take a pay cut?

Also, As you pointed out above companies can make and realise profits anywhere they want, this is also true of staff... companies can opt not to employ people in the UK where due to Minimum wage/NI contributions, Pensions etc it is expensive and instead hire an entire workforce in East Elbonia where labor is cheap.

"and most importantly tax the shareholder dividends and capital gains on the shares as if they are income not some magical reward for investing in the company."

>> Three consequences of that off the top of my head:

1. Small companies suddenly become more expensive to run.

2. People stop investing in companies because its no longer worth it.

3. Shareholders no longer pay ANY tax on dividends because suddenly their bank accounts are in the Cayman islands. *

Its already worth it for really rich people, your just making it more attractive for moderately well paid people.