henrykellar

Wednesday, 4 September 2013

Swiss banks say they're sorry for assisting tax cheats

banks

Reuters

7 hours ago

Switzerland's banks on Tuesday issued an unusually direct apology for their role in helping tax cheats, following a landmark settlement with U.S. authorities which could threaten the existence of some firms.?

The banks do not know the ultimate cost of a government settlement to a long-running U.S. drive to pierce the veil of Swiss bank secrecy. They have until the end of this year to come forward over tax evasion by their U.S. customers, under a deal struck with U.S. investigators to allow some banks to pay fines to avert prosecution.?

"It was not because we lacked skills and knowledge that we found ourselves in these unfortunate situations. It was because we acted wrongly and we displayed wrong conduct," Swiss bankers association chairman Patrick Odier told a news conference on Tuesday.?

"I regret this all the more because we have damaged the reputation of the entire Swiss financial center."?

The apology is the strongest wording yet from a representative of Swiss private banking, which has been buffeted by massive pressure on banking secrecy and various investigations of its banks from U.S. and European officials.?

Odier said Swiss regulators had assured him that the Swiss banking industry can shoulder the fines attached to the U.S. settlement. Nevertheless, the deal may jeopardize the existence of Swiss banks that focused on attracting wealthy Americans and helping them hide their funds in offshore accounts to escape detection by tax officials.?

"There may be a few exceptions: banks which concentrated too much on these business activities may run into difficulties."?

The lobby has consistently advocated settling the issue by making amends. But many banks were taken aback at fines which, in proportion to their size, could dwarf the $780 million paid by UBS in 2009 to settle a similar investigation.?

Switzerland's oldest bank, Wegelin & Co, shut its doors permanently after more than 2 1/2 centuries following its guilty plea to conspiracy over tax evasion. The bank was later sentenced to pay $58 million.?

The U.S. deal will apply to about 100 second-tier Swiss banks. They could have to disclose some previously hidden information and face penalties of up to 50 percent of assets they managed on behalf of wealthy Americans.?

But the settlement does not cover banks already under U.S. criminal investigation, including some of Switzerland's biggest banks such as Credit Suisse and Julius Baer.?

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663286/s/30bdb893/sc/2/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Cswiss0Ebanks0Esay0Etheyre0Esorry0Eassisting0Etax0Echeats0E8C110A620A55/story01.htm

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Can?t Wait for the iPhone 5S? Get the Look With a Gold Case

Rumor has it that the next-gen iPhone will be offered in gold ? plus there?s some supposedly leaked pics.

We say, why not go ahead of the curve by dressing up your iPhone 5 with a gold case? That way, if the reports are true, you?ll already be right on trend when the new handset is released. Genius, right?

Take a look through our gallery of 10 ways to gild your Apple handset.

Would you want a gold iPhone? Have your say in the comments section below.

Image: ALPIDECALS/Etsy

Source: http://iphoneza.co.za/cant-wait-for-the-iphone-5s-get-the-look-with-a-gold-case-2/

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An easier way to police Canada's senate residency ... - Financial Post

The Canadian Constitution requires Senators be ?resident? in the province from where they are appointed. The theory is that they should be connected to their place of appointment. Yet some members of the upper chamber complain that the concept of residence is too fuzzy and vague for them to comply. Of course, it is up to the prime minister to select senators who qualify before he appoints them and to pick only those who pass a test on the meaning of ?resident in the province.?

Twenty million Canadians file their federal and provincial tax returns every year based on their residence. ?Too fuzzy and vague? is not an acceptable reason for false filings. File accurately or pay the price for providing false information.

Canada uses ?residence? and ?ordinary residence? as its primary connecting factors to tax individuals on their worldwide income, and has done so for nearly a hundred years. Residence for tax purposes is not synonymous with physical presence in Canada, but refers to the legal and economic nexus that an individual has with the country. Although physical presence is an important criterion, it is not necessarily conclusive in establishing taxable nexus. Thus, a person who is absent from Canada for a considerable period may, nevertheless, be a Canadian resident for income tax purposes.

There are two basic ways to establish residence: a bright line test or a facts and circumstances approach. The Income Tax Act uses both methods. We deem individuals to be residents of Canada if they sojourn in Canada for 183 days or more in a year. This rule is easy to apply since a deeming provision is a conclusive presumption of law.

Sojourning implies a temporary stay in a place, as opposed to ?ordinary residence?. Mr. Justice Willard Estey addressed this in a key 1946 Supreme Court of Canada decision called Thomson v. Minister of National Revenue: ?One sojourns at a place where he unusually, casually or intermittently visits or stays.? For example, an individual may be a Canadian resident for tax purposes even though he only has ?visitor status? under the immigration rules. One can even be an involuntary sojourner, as in the case of a person serving a prison term or ill in a hospital.

Most tax-filing Canadians are not sojourners but are residents under the facts and circumstances test. Where an individual?s factual links with Canada are sufficiently strong, we consider the individual to have taxable nexus with the country and she is a resident for tax purposes. The sufficiency of connecting factors is a question of fact that depends upon several criteria, including ownership of property, a dwelling, presence of a spouse or common-law partner, or dependents. Thus, an individual who is out of Canada, even for an extended period, may, nevertheless, be ?ordinarily resident in Canada? if she has sufficient ties with Canada.

Given the dual tests, an individual may end up as a resident of two countries. For example, an individual may be resident in Canada by virtue of the 183-day rule and a resident of the United Kingdom under the facts and circumstances test. In these circumstances, we turn to the relevant tax treaty (if any), which provide tiebreaker rules to settle dual residence claims.

The first tiebreaker is to determine where the individual has a permanent or primary home. A home is ?permanent? if the dwelling is available to the individual at all times and not merely for short stays, For example, a rented home or apartment, or even a furnished room in a house can be ?permanent? if it is available to the individual at all times. An individual can have more than one permanent home, in which case it is necessary to look at other connecting factors, such as, habitual abode and economic interests.

The facts and circumstances test is more complex than the deeming rule. Nevertheless, 20 million ordinary Canadians file their annual tax returns based on the test. The Canada Revenue Agency does not tolerate excuses ? such as, vagueness, complexity or uncertainty of the law. Get it wrong and they assess you, impose penalties and interest, and, in extreme cases, charge you with criminal tax evasion.

Members of the chamber of sober second thought, who live off the taxes of ordinary Canadians, could benefit from a deeming provision. For example, they could be required to stay at least, say, 120 days in their province of appointment. Such a rule would be certain, easy to enforce, and would ensure that Senators stay in touch with their roots according to the spirit of the Constitution.

vkrishna@blg.com

Vern Krishna counsel with Borden Ladner Gervais LLP and executive director of the Tax Research Centre at the University of Ottawa.

Source: http://business.financialpost.com/2013/09/03/vern-krishna-an-easier-way-to-police-the-senate-residency-requirement/

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Tuesday, 3 September 2013

New test to predict women at risk of pregnancy complications?

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Researchers have identified proteins in the blood that could be used to predict whether a woman in her first pregnancy is at increased risk of developing pre-eclampsia. Pre-eclampsia is a complication of pregnancy where the mother develops high blood pressure and protein is present in the urine. In some cases, this can develop into a serious condition for both mother and baby and the only cure is delivery of the baby, often prematurely.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/RJAWf0ges14/130902101705.htm

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TB origins traced back to humans

2 September 2013 Last updated at 06:05 ET Julie Gould Science reporter, BBC News

The origins of human tuberculosis have been traced back to hunter-gatherer groups in Africa 70,000 years ago, an international team of scientists say.

The research goes against common belief that TB originated in animals only 10,000 years ago and spread to humans.

The work, published in Nature Genetics, outlines the strong relationship between the evolutionary history of both humans and TB.

The disease causes more than one million deaths every year.

Previous research has indicated that human TB originated about 10,000 years ago in Africa during the Neolithic Demographic Transition (NDT), when the human population was expanding and agriculture was becoming prominent.

Researchers combined geographic and genetic data from 259 strains of TB to reconstruct its evolutionary history and compare it to the origins of humans in Africa.

Prof Sebastian Gagneux, from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, said: "We found that the most basal - the earliest - lineages of TB and humans originated in the same place, in Africa, 60,000 years earlier than what people previously thought.

"What we have done is provide a strong hypothesis to reinforce the idea that TB originally started in humans, and migrated to animals during NDT."

Killer

The question the scientists are now trying to answer how TB managed to survive 60,000 years among small groups of people.

A striking feature of TB, which is not common in other diseases, is that people can be infected with it for years before showing any symptoms. The disease is able to reactivate itself after a certain time period.

This latency is what the researchers suggest kept TB alive during early years.

Prof Gagneux said: "If there are only a few people to infect, it makes no sense to kill them, as you would risk killing itself too. It's an evolutionary dead-end."

Once the human population started expanding during the NDT, TB became more active and was able to spread farther.

So, as the number of hosts increased during and after the NDT, so did TB's drive for increased virulence.

"The next step in this research would be to use genetic information to understand this activation and deactivation mechanism of TB," said Dr Inaka Comas, lead author of the research.

TB remains a global threat, causing 1.4 million deaths in 2011, according to the World Health Organisation. If scientists can understand how TB and humans co-developed, it may help find a way to reduce its prominence.

Dr Ruth McNerney, a lecturer in pathogen biology and diagnostics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the study could lead to further developments in understanding the movements of TB.

"There are now thousands of TB genomes being sequenced in big databases so that in the next five years we'll know more about TB than we ever have, which is exciting.

"This is the first step in that area of research."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23897670#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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USS Nimitz carrier group sails into Red Sea in 'prudent' move (reuters)

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Source: http://wartakota.tribunnews.com/detil/berita/161989/Bradley-Cooper-Gabung-Guardians-of-the-Galaxy

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