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☆ Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet, PepsiCo and more
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-18 | by ( Brian Evans | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Investors see the event as a bellwether for artificial intelligence, as Nvidia is expected to unveil new products and updates. Alphabet , Apple — Shares of the Google parent company gained nearly 7% following a Bloomberg report that said Apple was discussing licensing Alphabet's Gemini artificial intelligence engine into the iPhone. Apple climbed roughly 2%. PepsiCo — The beverage stock rose nearly 4% after an upgrade to overweight from equal weight by Morgan Stanley . PepsiCo's business fundamentals should bottom out early this year and then rebound in the second half, according to Morgan Stanley.

Persons: Apple, Tesla, Morgan Stanley, Uber, — CNBC's Pia Singh, Jesse Pound Organizations: Nvidia —, Conference, Investors, Nvidia, National Association of Realtors, realtors ., —, Google, Bloomberg, Apple, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, Reuters, Bank of America, PepsiCo, Technologies Locations: San Francisco, Japan

☆ Like Nora Ephron, With a British Twist
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-27 | by ( Katie J. M. Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

GOOD MATERIAL, by Dolly AldertonAndy, the 35-year-old struggling comedian who narrates most of Dolly Alderton’s new novel, “Good Material,” has been freshly dumped by his ex, Jen, for mysterious reasons. Like Rob in Nick Hornby’s “High Fidelity,” an obvious inspiration, Andy knows his relationship had its problems. In the process, maybe he can get to the bottom of why the rest of his life has derailed, too. His friends won’t meet for impromptu drinks because they have to get up early to take care of their children. In “Good Material,” as in all of her writing, Alderton excels at portraying nonromantic intimate relationships with tenderness and authenticity.

Persons: Dolly Alderton Andy, Dolly Alderton’s, ”, Jen, Rob, Nick Hornby’s “, Andy, “, ” can’t, he’s, Julian Assange, won’t, there’s Jen, Sophie, Alderton Organizations: New York Times Locations: ”, U.S, London

☆ Australia's Labor Government Defends Shift in Personal Tax Policy
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-24 | by ( Jan. | At P.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +2 min

The government has reached a "different view" about the already-legislated tax cuts, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said, as the conservative opposition coalition criticised the government for breaking an election pledge of retaining the tax cuts. Chalmers said the tax policy shift would help build trust as it was designed to provide more cost-of-living relief for more people without stoking inflation. Under the new policy, people earning up to A$140,000 ($92,050) will enjoy lower taxes from July 1, Australian media reported. A 37% tax band would be retained for some high earners, with the savings redirected to those on low incomes. That has dented Albanese's ratings since his 2022 election win.

Persons: Renju Jose SYDNEY, Jim Chalmers, Chalmers, Anthony Albanese, Albanese, reneging, James Paterson, Renju Jose, Richard Chang Organizations: Labor, Channel, National Press, Labor Party, Home Affairs, Sky News Locations: Sydney

☆ An OnlyFans model said she gets so much online hate for not having a 'real job' that she shouldn't pay tax
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-22 | by ( Aimee Pearcy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

OnlyFans model Billie Beever has clapped back at people who say sex work isn't a "real job." AdvertisementBillie Beever, an OnlyFans model based in Australia, said she "shouldn't have to pay tax" if people weren't willing to treat her job with respect. Advertisement"It's like, hold on a minute, didn't you say I don't have a real job? If i dont have a "real job" why am i paying "real tax" then?!?!" If i dont have a “real job” why am i paying “real tax” then?!?!

Persons: Billie Beever, Beever, —, I'm, Tasha Paige, @billiebeever_, ", she's Organizations: Service, Australian, Australian Taxation, Daily Mail Australia Locations: Australia

It said it would tender for a new external auditor as part of "best practice for audit firm rotation". PwC has audited Westpac since 2002, before which PwC partners and their ancestor firms had audited the bank since 1968. However, PwC's lead Westpac audit partner assumed the role less than two years ago, in December 2021, according to a Westpac governance statement this month. A PwC Australia spokesperson said the firm understood the board's decision and was proud of its time as Westpac's auditor. Renamed Scyne Advisory, roughly 1,400 of PwC Australia's more than 9,000 staff moved over to the new firm.

Persons: Loren Elliott, PwC, Lewis Jackson, Christopher Cushing, Robert Birsel Organizations: Westpac, Central Business District of, REUTERS, Rights, Westpac Group, PricewaterhouseCoopers, PwC's, Google, Uber Technologies, Facebook, Meta, PwC, Scyne Advisory, Scyne, Thomson Locations: Central Business District of Sydney, Australia, PwC Australia

Renamed Scyne Advisory, roughly 1,400 of PwC Australia's more than 9,000 staff have moved over to the new advisory firm. It said it would tender for a new external auditor as part of "best practice for audit firm rotation". PwC has audited Westpac since 2002, before which PwC partners and their ancestor firms had audited the bank since 1968. However, PwC's lead Westpac audit partner assumed the role less than two years ago, in December 2021, according to a Westpac governance statement this month. A PwC Australia spokesperson said the firm understood the board's decision and was proud of its time as Westpac's auditor.

Persons: Lewis Jackson, PwC, Robert Birsel, Stephen Coates Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Wednesday, Scyne Advisory, Scyne, Google, Uber Technologies, Facebook, Meta, WESTPAC, Westpac Group, Westpac, PwC's, Thomson Locations: Barangaroo, Australia

[1/3] PwC Australia Chief Executive Officer Kevin Burrowes listens during the inquiry into management and assurance of integrity by consulting services at Parliament House in Canberra, October 12, 2023. The global firm announced last month it had taken "appropriate action" against six staff outside Australia who received confidential information and should have raised questions. No confidential information was used for commercial gain, it said. Burrowes told senators PwC Australia had not been provided details about the international investigation and did not know where the staff worked or how they had been disciplined. An investigation by the U.S. accounting regulator, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), is underway and PwC Australia is providing further information to the body, a senior executive told parliament.

Persons: Kevin Burrowes, Mick Tsikas, PwC, Burrowes, Lewis Jackson, Sonali Paul Organizations: Australia, House, REUTERS Acquire, Rights, Police, PwC, Public Company, KPMG Australia, Thomson Locations: Canberra, U.S, PwC Australia

☆ In U.S.-China AI contest, the race is on to deploy killer robots
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +26 min

In this high-tech contest, seizing the upper hand across fields including AI and autonomous weapons, like Ghost Shark, could determine who comes out on top. This could become critical if the United States intervened against an assault by Beijing on Taiwan. Cheap and expendableThe AI military sector is dominated by software, an industry where change comes fast. Still, the available disclosures of spending on AI military research do show that outlays on AI and machine learning grew sharply in the decade from 2010. The Costa-Mesa, California-based company now employs more than 1,800 staff in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Persons: America’s, Shane Arnott, Anduril, ” Arnott, Arnott, ”, “, Mick Ryan, Eric Schmidt, hasn’t, Lloyd Austin, –, Stuart Russell, Russell, Kathleen Hicks, “ We’ll, Palmer Luckey, Luckey, ” Arnott didn’t, Biden, Tsai Ing, Frank Kendall, Datenna, Martijn Rasser, Feng Yanghe, Feng, Palmer, ” Anduril, Arnott wouldn’t, David Lague, Edgar Su, Catherine Tai, Peter Hirschberg Organizations: Australian Navy, Ghost Sharks, Sharks, Reuters, Defense, Australian, Chinese Communist Party, Beijing, People’s Liberation Army, PLA, Department of Defense, Pentagon, Australia’s Department of Defence, Australian Defence Force, Technologists, University of California, U.S ., U.S, Teledyne FLIR, Facebook, VR, Military, . Air Force, FH, U.S . Central Intelligence Agency, Department, Statistics, Harvard University, Biden Administration, Special, Command, Ministry of Defense, Veteran Locations: China, Australia, United States, Sydney, Britain, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Europe, Asia, Ukraine, ”, America, U.S, Taiwan, East Asia, Beijing, Russian, Berkeley, Fort Campbell , Tennessee, Kenya, “, Russia, Colorado, Zhuhai, Netherlands, Costa, Mesa , California, United Kingdom, Virginia, Canberra, Washington

REUTERS/Lewis Jackson/File PhotoSYDNEY, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Australia will drastically tighten penalties for promoters of dodgy tax schemes and beef up the power of regulators as part of reforms announced on Sunday in response to a scandal over the use of leaked tax plans by PwC Australia. PwC Australia was not fined for the breach under the existing rules, and the changes will not applied retroactively, a Treasury spokesperson told Reuters. "The PwC scandal exposed severe shortcomings in our regulatory frameworks," said the statement from the ministers for treasury and finance and the attorney general. The Australian Tax Office (ATO) foiled several attempts by companies to subvert the 2016 Multinational Anti-Avoidance Law but was frustrated in its subsequent investigation by "highly ambitious if not false" legal privilege claims from PwC Australia. Collins and PwC Australia were not sanctioned until late 2022 by a separate agency that regulates tax agents, the Tax Practitioners Board, after police said there was insufficient information for them to act.

Persons: Lewis Jackson, Peter Collins, Collins, William Mallard Organizations: REUTERS, PwC, Facebook, Bills, Reuters, Australian Tax, Thomson Locations: Barangaroo, Australia, PwC Australia

Uber and Facebook on Friday said they had received advice from PwC Australia about the law. "We had no knowledge their advice may have been based on improperly obtained information," an Uber spokesperson said. Uber dropped PwC Australia as a tax adviser in 2016 after "engagements" with the Australian Tax Office, the spokesperson added. Uber and Facebook's links to PwC on the leaked tax plans were first reported by the Australian Financial Review on Friday. A PwC Australia spokesperson said the matter "was a PwC issue" and its "clients were not involved in any wrongdoing and no confidential information was used to enable clients to pay less tax."

Persons: Uber, PwC, PwC's, Lewis Jackson, Sonali Paul Organizations: SYDNEY, PwC, Facebook, Reuters, Google, Australian Tax Office, Treasury, Australian, Tax, Board, Public Company, Thomson Locations: PwC Australia, Australia

SYDNEY, July 6 (Reuters) - Two lawmakers on Thursday called on PwC Australia to name all the companies it sought to advise on the basis of leaked government tax plans, after a report linked Google (GOOGL.O) to the national scandal first exposed in January. A cache of 144-pages of PwC emails dating from 2014 to 2017 publicly released by the Tax Practioners Board in May detail how a former tax partner shared with colleagues confidential government tax plans, which they then used to drum up work with companies overseas. One of the released emails dated Jan. 6, 2016 mentioned a "north American project" that had 14 unnamed companies as clients. PwC Australia did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reporting by Lewis Jackson; Editing by Sonali PaulOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Deborah O'Neill, O'Neill, Barbara Pocock, Pocock, PwC, Tom Seymour, Lewis Jackson, Sonali Paul Organizations: SYDNEY, Reuters, Google, Tax, Board, Labor, Greens, Senate, PwC Australia's, Thomson Locations: Australia

At the time, a number of organisations had called for the government to delay the planned January 2016 start date. The former partner did not tell Google the information was confidential, the source said. Reuters could not establish if Google was a client of PwC Australia at the time, and if it used the information in any way. What sources told Reuters matches information in the letter, which was publicly released with the name of the company that received the confidential information redacted. Tax officials told parliament in May they foiled several attempts by unnamed multinational firms to subvert the multinational anti-avoidance law in early 2016, months after confidential information had leaked.

Persons: PwC, Peter Collins, Collins, Tom Seymour, Lewis Jackson, Emelia Sithole, Sonali Paul Organizations: Google, Reuters, PwC Australia, PwC, Tax, Board, Thomson Locations: Australia, SYDNEY, PwC Australia

SYDNEY, June 21 (Reuters) - The chair of an Australian senate committee looking into PricewaterhouseCoopers' leak of a confidential government tax plan has called for an international investigation into the matter. Earlier this month, PwC Australia listed in an unpublished letter to the senate committee at least 67 current and former staff who may have known of the 2015 leak of confidential government tax plans. Acting CEO Kristin Stubbins apologised for the leak on behalf of the firm in an open letter last month. The report also called on PwC to cooperate fully with a current Australian Federal Police investigation. ($1 = 1.4778 Australian dollars)Reporting by Lewis Jackson; Editing by Edwina GibbsOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Richard Colbeck, PwC, Kristin Stubbins, Lewis Jackson, Edwina Gibbs Organizations: SYDNEY, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Australian Federal Police, Thomson Locations: Australia

SYDNEY, May 31 (Reuters) - The Reserve Bank of Australia will not sign any new contracts with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Australia until a scandal over the firm's misuse of confidential government tax plans is sorted out, the central bank's governor said on Wednesday. The "big four" firm is on the defense after a former Australian tax partner who was consulting with the government on laws to prevent corporate tax avoidance shared confidential drafts with colleagues to drum up business around the world. As of May 16, the government had committed to contracts worth A$255 million ($173 million) with PwC in the current financial year alone, a finance department official told a parliamentary hearing last week. "(We) have taken the decision to enter no new contracts with PwC until a satisfactory response has been forthcoming," Lowe said. APRA had also spoken with major Australian banks about their ties to PwC, as recently as last week, added Lonsdale.

Persons: Philip Lowe, " Lowe, John Lonsdale, Lonsdale, Steven Kennedy, Kristin Stubbins, PwC, Lewis Jackson, Sonali Paul Organizations: SYDNEY, Reserve Bank of Australia, PricewaterhouseCoopers, PwC, Prudential Regulation Authority, APRA, prudential, Thomson Locations: Australia, Australian

SYDNEY, May 30 (Reuters) - Australia's Treasury department may not renew a A$1 million audit contract with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) when it ends this year, an official told a senate hearing amid a scandal over the firm's misuse of confidential government tax plans. Amid calls to ban the firm from lucrative government contracts, Treasury Secretary Steven Kennedy told senators on Tuesday the breach was "clearly disturbing" and the department would review a PwC audit contract worth almost A$1 million that expires at the end of this year. PwC did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the audit contract. Treasury officials told senators confidentiality agreements had been updated and the department had written to PwC and 25 other firms to ask whether their governance processes were suitable for confidential tax consultations in the wake of the PwC tax leak. Reporting by Lewis Jackson in Sydney; Editing by Sonali PaulOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

SYDNEY, May 30 (Reuters) - Australian senators will use parliamentary hearings this week to demand accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) name staff and clients who were in on the "big four" firm's misuse of confidential government tax plans. No confidential information was used to help clients pay less tax, it said in the statement on Monday. The cache of emails between 2014 and 2017 discuss how confidential drafts of new rules were used to seek work with U.S. technology companies, among others. The parliamentary committee will hear from the Australian Tax Office and the Tax Practitioners Board and Treasury, which last week referred the matter to police for a possible criminal investigation. Reporting by Lewis Jackson in Sydney; Editing by Sonali PaulOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Analysis: Australia's DIY pension funds lose millions on crypto bets, investors not sweating it
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Lewis Jackson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Summary Thousands of Australians use DIY pension funds to buy cryptoLosses likely in the hundreds of millions -Reuters calculationAustralia has few rules governing what DIY funds can buySYDNEY, March 2 (Reuters) - Thousands of Australians who used do-it-yourself (DIY) pension funds to bet on cryptocurrencies face hundreds of millions of dollars in losses, jeopardising their savings in a scheme originally set up to ensure adequate retirement income. DIY pension funds account for a fourth of Australia's A$3.4 trillion ($2.29 trillion) pension pool. Australia's DIY pension sector combines size and freedom in a way that sets it apart from other countries. The United States also has a freewheeling DIY pension sector but take-up is negligible. "Our general position is if it's legal to invest in speculative assets, then no further restrictions should apply to SMSF investments."

☆ Australian regulator to review short-seller report on India's Adani
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] The logo of the Adani Group is seen on the facade of its Corporate House on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India, January 27, 2023. REUTERS/Amit DaveSYDNEY, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Australia's corporate regulator said on Wednesday it will review a short-seller report that has flagged a wide range of concerns about India's Adani Group. Bravus, an Australian Adani Group company, said in a statement that the group "refutes all allegations" made in the Hindenburg report about its Australian operations and that it has publicly provided evidence to back up its stance. Adani Group's Australian businesses all comply with the law, a spokesperson said, adding that none had been contacted by ASIC or the Australian Tax Office about Hindenburg Research's allegations. The Hindenburg report "presents transactions related to Adani's Australian businesses in a misleading way to purposefully undermine the reputation of the Adani Group, in order to pursue their own profit by short-selling shares in Adani Group companies," the statement said.

☆ Paying off hackers is common, says top Australian govt cybersecurity firm
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Byron Kaye | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

SYDNEY, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Corporate insurers routinely pay hackers a ransom for the return of stolen customer data, a top Australian government cybersecurity provider said on Tuesday, as the country's biggest health insurer revealed the growing scale of a recent breach. "In what other sphere of life do you see reputable corporates pay millions of dollars to criminals and somehow it's all okay?" On Tuesday, Medibank said the criminal had shown data of another 1,000 customers and added that the number was likely to grow. 2 telco, Singapore Telecommunciations Ltd-owned (STEL.SI) Optus, said last month about 10 million customer accounts, equivalent to 40% of the Australian population, had data taken by a hacker demanding payment. The federal government has meanwhile said it would introduce fines of up to A$50 million for companies on the receiving end of data breaches.

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