Mediaboss Marketing

Jeffrey Webb of the Cayman Islands was officially elected as the new CONCACAF president on Wednesday after running unopposed.

The 47-year-old will complete the four-year term of Jack Warner, who was elected in May 2010 but resigned all of his positions in football in June after 20 years in the office.

Webb, who is also the president of the Cayman Islands Football Association, thanked the CONCACAF membership for demonstrating its faith in his ability to take the confederation forward.

Over the last year, our mission and our vision have been blurred, from lawyers, to audit reports to compensation, we have deviated from our mission, Webb said in his acceptance speech. I am here, we are here, because of our love for football; the passion for the game drives and motivates our every action.

Webb also serves as deputy chairman of the FIFA Internal Audit Committee and sits on the FIFA Transparency and Compliance Committee. In addition, he is chairman of the CONCACAF Youth Committee and completed his term as chairman of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Normalization Committee on Tuesday, following the organizations Ordinary Congress that was also held in Budapest, Hungary.

The events over the past year will not define and determine our destiny, Webb said. We have a responsibility to ensure that history isnt repeated. Let us use the events over the past year as a catalyst to promote positive change. Lets see it as an opportunity to return to the core values of the beautiful game the values which enchanted and sparked our love affair with this game.

Webb becomes the fourth president in CONCACAFs 51-year history: Ramn Coll Jaumet (Costa Rica, 1961-1968), Joaqun Soria Terrazas (Mexico, 1968-1990) and Warner (Trinidad and Tobago, 1990-2011). Honduran Alfredo Hawit has been serving as interim president since Warner stepped down.

Read the original:
Cayman Islands native Webb elected CONCACAF president

Want to go to a strip club and have a few drinks?

Its likely youll first have to pay a tax, if a newly proposed bill becomes state law.

Calling it a sexually oriented business tax, Assemblyman Das Williams, D-Santa Barbara/Ventura, introduced a bill that would require a charge equal to $10 per customer who patronizes strip clubs that serve alcohol. The revenue collected from Assembly Bill 2441 would help fund vital services to victims of sexual and domestic violence, as well as cover the cost to process forensic exam (or rape) kits.

The bill states the fee would not be passed on to the entertainers, and it would be up to club owners to determine the manner in which they would pay the tax.

There is evidence that shows a nexus between (sexual) violence and strip club establishments, said James Joyce, spokesperson for Williams. There is an issue of funding being decreased, and there is definitely a need to fund these vital services.

According to the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA), Californias 84 rape crisis centers served around 30,000 victims in 2011. The states general fund contributed just $45,000 to all rape crisis centers combined, equating to about $1.50 per rape victim. The federal budget has an additional proposed cut of $800,000 to the rape set-aside fund in the 2012/2013 budget.

Its essential we create a new funding stream, said Sandra Henriquez, executive director of CALCASA. There are many elements of society that encourage and foster sexual objectification, which is at the root of sexual violence. Were not saying strip clubs cause rape, but they contribute to its climate. A sexually oriented business tax sets precedents that take the public health approach, and can use this money to change awareness and attitudes and looking at those linkages.

Henriquez compared the bills public health approach to that of the states cigarette tax.

Opposition to the bill comes from the Association of Club Executives (ACE), CalSmallBiz, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and Taxpayers for Improving Public Safety.

While helping sexual assault programs is a noble cause ultimately, arbitrary and excessive taxes on citizens who like adult entertainment is but a steppingstone to tax other business, said Angelina Spencer, ACE executive director. If you tax each patron $10 per head to enter a strip club, how long will it be before an official decides its a great idea to tax every patron who walks into a bar to fund alcoholism recovery? When we recognize that most people are rational actors capable of weighing the consequences and benefits of their actions, the need for a Nanny State tax is diminished.

Read the original here:
New bill may tax strip clubs to pay for rape services

Are your taxes too high? When Gallup asked that question in April, tax month in the United States, 46 per cent said they were. An additional 47 per cent said their taxes were about right. Just 3 per cent said their taxes were too low.

This campaign season reflects that result. Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate, is offering a 20-per-cent tax cut for everyone. Given the mood of the conservatives in the United States today, that may not surprise you. But even President Barack Obama, who is routinely described as a socialist by his opponents, is peddling a plan under which 99 per cent of Americans would pay less than they did under the last Democrat in the White House, Bill Clinton.

This bipartisan agreement that the overwhelming majority of Americans should pay lower taxes than they did in the 1990s is remarkable for many reasons. For one thing, we are constantly hearing and it is true that U.S. politics is more polarized than ever. But unless you are a member of the 1 per cent, on this core issue there is a lot more consensus than you might think. Political strategists on both sides, it turns out, know how to read poll data.

But the really surprising thing about the no-more-tax consensus is how much of an outlier it makes the United States compared both with the rest of the world and with itself in recent history. When it comes to foreign policy or to global economic dominance, American exceptionalism may indeed be in jeopardy. But when it comes to taxes, the United States is quite different from most other Western industrialized economies.

According to the International Monetary Fund, in 2011, among the worlds 30 leading Western economies (plus Japan), only in New Zealand and in Japan was government revenue a lower share of gross domestic product than in the United States. Countries like Australia, Estonia, Ireland and Switzerland, which tend to favour low taxes and a small state, have government revenue that accounts for more of GDP than does the United States.

The Internal Revenue Service is relatively restrained, too, compared with recent history. In 1945, at the close of the Second World War, federal tax receipts were 20.4 per cent of GDP (expenditures, by the way, were 41.9 per cent, putting the federal budget deficit at 21.5 per cent, compared with 8.7 per cent in 2011). In 1952, the year the Republican Dwight Eisenhower was elected president, federal government revenue was 19 per cent of GDP. In 1988, the last year of Ronald Reagans transformational conservative presidency, the federal tax take was 18.2 per cent.

Compare those figures with that of today, when a Democrat is in the White House, nearly half of Americans think their taxes are too high, and both parties are promising to keep taxes low for all, or, in the case of the Democrats, 99 per cent of Americans. In 2011, government revenue was 15.4 per cent of GDP, lower than it was at any time during the Eisenhower or Reagan eras. Like anorexics, who think they are grossly fat when they are very thin, the American body politic is suffering from a national version of body dysmorphia, with nearly half the country believing taxes are high, when they are comparatively and historically low.

Thomas Mann, the Brookings Institution scholar and co-author of an influential new book on the polarization of U.S. politics, traces American thinking about taxes to the success of conservatives, particularly of the anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist, in steering the national conversation.

This is more of an elite phenomenon, Mr. Mann said. Its ideological. Its tribal now because of the Grover Norquist taxpayer pledge. Its as if Republicans, even if they think in more pragmatic terms, are not allowed to even consider raising taxes and certainly should be pushing at all times to cut taxes further Its become Scripture.

One cant talk rationally or on any evidence-based discussion of tax policy, he said. Its assumed cutting taxes always does good.

View post:
Democrats lack backbone in their tax policies

Assets acquired as a result of gift or a will should be supported by proper certificates.

A visiting American certified public accountant (CPA) from Florida, while on a local Indian flight, met a Commissioner of Income Tax.

Their conversation veered to this topic of mutual interest: The commissioner's poser to the American CPA was regarding the search and seizure provisions under Income Tax regulations in the US.

The CPA was surprised to hear about the concept of search and seizure which is known to US taxpayers but is part of a criminal investigation and conducted a little differently.

In India, the Income tax raid sends jitters down the spine and makes the high income group dread tax authorities. Technically called a Search & Seizure, it is a plan of action devised by Tax officials with care and secrecy based on authentic information rather than rumour and gossip.

If the tax officials firmly believe that a person is in possession of money, jewellery or undisclosed assets that would necessitate a search operation, they may issue a search warrant after confirming the veracity of information.

It may be noted that merely living in posh houses or conducting lavish marriages or an expensive lifestyle may not be the basis for a search, information is the essential factor.

While the operations invade the privacy and freedom of the tax payer, they are exercised under statutory requirements and principles of natural justice.

During the course of the search, the taxpayer's rights include examining the search warrant, having two or more respectable citizens as witnesses, verifying the identity of the search officials, allowing children to attend school, calling a doctor for any emergency, having a copy of panchanama which is the first list of evidence and findings, and copies of the seized books of account, data and documents.

However, these rights do not include the right to call the auditor during the course of search or attend any phone calls.

Go here to see the original:
India, US systems of ‘search & seizure'

A rapidly falling rupee has sent hundreds of Indian expatriates in the Kingdom to the nearest remittance centers to make the most of the fabulous conversion rates. One Saudi riyal is now fetching more than 14 Indian rupees This means SR10,000 can fetch me more than 143,000 rupees Wow, I am delighted beyond words, said Basit Abdul Faheem, a middle-ranking executive at a construction firm in Jubail. Abdul Faheem is least bothered about the implications of a falling currency on the Indian economy. I am not an economist, and I dont pretend to be one. My life revolves around the exchange rate. I have been holding my money for a long time in the hope of getting a good rate. Now is my time. I see it as a kind of an unexpected increment and bonus, he told Arab News. According to news agencies, the Indian rupee sank to a record low yesterday, breaking the key level of 55 to the dollar. It fell to 55.05 in late afternoon trade, below its previous low of 54.91 on Friday. It later clawed back marginally to 54.97. Money-watchers say the rupee is expected to fall further. If you ask me, it will fall further, and, therefore, I would advice my fellow Indians to hold onto their riyals, said Gyan Prakash Agarwal, group chief business development officer at Al-Suwaidi Holding Co. Obviously, a falling rupee is good news for expatriates but certainly not for the economy back home; it will fuel inflation to record levels, he said. He explained that for those who are importing goods or raw materials into India, a weak rupee is certainly not good news. Because they are being forced to pay more, he said. And for those who are exporting their goods to the outside world, a weak rupee is like a bonanza, because they are getting more money. According to Agarwal, importers are the ones who will face the heat of a weakening rupee and exporters are ones who will reap a rich harvest. While Europes debt crisis has weighed on the Indian rupee, it has also been hit by a plethora of domestic problems including the countrys widening trade and current account deficits and slowing foreign fund inflows. There has also been pressure from oil importers, who exchange rupees for dollars when they buy crude for energy-scarce India, which imports four-fifths of its crude oil needs. My children are studying in India and we have to remit a huge sum toward their lodging, boarding and tuition fees every month. A good conversion rate means we pay less here and get more in India; Therefore, I am very happy, said Zeba Haider, a mother of four college- and university-going children. Abdullah F. Sharif, an operations manager at a Riyadh-based firm, feel that a good and robust conversion rate at the remittance centers will encourage middle-income Indian expatriates to take the legal route. Many Indian expatriates send money through the illegal and informal route, which is popularly known in sub-continental parlance as hundi. There, the rate remains fixed. A good and attractive conversion rate at the banks will propel them to send their money via the legal route, he said. So, yes, all this is great news for most Indian expatriates, said Abdullah. Provided you have the riyals to convert them. Danish Abdul Ghafoor, managing director of a Jeddah-based advertising agency, said a weak rupee will, as always, induce a false sense of increment among the Indian expatriates. They will be able to send more ... So, yes, this is good news (for the expatriates) in the short-term but it certainly is not good for India ... a 100-rupee bill is in essence equal to 10 rupees in value now, he added. The rupee was Asias worst performing currency in 2011, losing more than 20 percent of its value against the dollar compared to the previous year.

See the article here:
Falling rupee a blessing in disguise for Indian expats