The first income tax is generally attributed to Egypt where the Pharaoh’s collected taxes from their citizens to fund grain warehouses, building projects (including the pyramids) and local armies. Like today, the taxes were used to stabilize and enrich society. The taxed grain was stored for distribution in times of hardship, used to feed…
Talk to anyone in the accounting industry and it’s very apparent that compliance fees are falling (and will continue to fall year on year). Rob Nixon in his book Remaining Relevant, has predicted that compliance prices will plummet by 50% or more within 5 years. His predictions may turn out to be very conservative as…
Martha Helen Stewart (c1941) is an American businesswoman, writer, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia she has gained success (a net worth of US$638 million) through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, merchandising, and e-commerce. She has written numerous bestselling books, is the publisher of the Martha Stewart Living…
Many accountants are just compliance based form fillers and don’t have the expertise or aptitude to save you tax. Finding a good tax planning specialist can be tough. Eight questions to ask a prospective accountant to see if they are right for you: Are they in practice full time? (Part-time accountants are a waste of…
The concept of taxing income is a modern innovation and requires three things: a money economy, an accurate accounting system, and thirdly, an orderly society. A money economy is a system of trade where money has replaced barter. The word “money” is believed to originate from a temple of Juno, on Capitoline, one of…
An intellectual property box regime is a special tax regime for intellectual property revenues. It is also known as a patent box, innovation box or IP box and was first introduced in 2000 by the Irish as a reduced rate of tax on revenue from IP licensing or the transfer of qualified IP. In Europe…
Alphonse Gabriel “Al” Capone (c1899 – 1947) was an American gangster who attained fame during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the Chicago Outfit. He gained the nickname “Scareface” after being slashed in the face by Frank Gallucio while working the door at a Brooklyn night club. Capone was born…
Mesopotamia is a name for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system (corresponding to most of Iraq, Kuwait, the eastern parts of Syria, and regions along the Turkish-Syrian and Iran–Iraq borders). Widely considered to be one of the cradles of civilization by the Western world, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the Akkadian, Babylonian, and…
The US is the world’s largest economy with a gross national product (the value of all goods and services produced) of $18.5 trillion. The US accounts for a massive 24.5% of the world economy. The election of Donald Trump as President of the US will bring many changes. Probably none more so than his promise…
The double Irish tax strategy has been used since the late 1980s by some multinational corporations (including Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook) to lower their corporate tax liability. The strategy uses payments between related entities in a corporate structure to move income from a higher-tax country to a lower or no tax jurisdiction. It relies…
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"You’d be stupid not to try to cut your tax bill and those that don’t are stupid in business"
- Bono: U2