Posts by Why Not? 460 publicly visible posts • joined 4 Apr 2011
Unfortunately in the UK sales are the vast majority of profit related activity. We need to tax them at a sensible rate so competitors aren't disadvantaged.
Most companies all think Sales are making the real money, they might understand that they have to service the customers but if they could get away without doing that then they would try, as they can't they just outsource everything.
Well if we truly have a European Union then taxation submission should be identical in all of them. If there are loopholes such as a Double Dutch Irish sandwich etc then we should disallow such things and tax fully in the UK, We shouldn't recognise tax havens used to avoid UK tax except as an artificial vehicle to avoid tax.Maybe we can 'deem' them tax evaders?
I bet to continue allowing large corporations to avoid tax won't be in the VoteRemains.EU prospectus.
Strange HMRC have spent tens of millions redefining existing contractor relationships under IR35 and losing again & again in court for peanuts (there must be a better way to recover £10k of tax over a decade). Yet when it comes to billions in turnover in the UK with UK customers being 'finalised in Ireland' and a tax haven its business as usual, maybe the international companies can afford better lawyers?
The power cuts hit at home frequently, I was too young to work.
But nearly every night there were power cuts, we had hurricane lamps to light the house and we read books. Imagine that now the H&S bunch would complain about the lamps and most kids aren't sure what book is.
The cost of replacing meters should be part of running costs. In the decades I have owned various properties I have never been asked for access to replace or even test the meter, many of which are 30-50 years old. I can't think of many organisations that sell goods by a measured quantity who aren't required to test their scales etc on a regular basis.
Well if they have blocked gambling & Porn at least the LGBT etc communities will now be able to get on the computers in the library.
There seems to be no thought to any neighboring user in her 80s who might be surfing a cookery site for the first time.
Not sure I would want to investigate goat porn in the Library or the library would want me to. Sometimes you can't please everyone whatever their fancy.
I realise people need access to websites for more information in some cases but I would have thought the smart phone with ubiquitous web access would suffice. You can pick up a PAYG for <£40 or use the iPhone on £40 a month contract everyone seems to have.
Unfortunately cancer is just a word used to describe mutated cells multiplying uncontrollably. They tend to do it in a different way depending on the type of cancer and cell. That's why some cancers have a great survival rate and some don't. But great advances are being made every day.
Its a bit like calling it 'a cut' regardless of whether its the Jugular or little pinky.
Personal Service Companies are a figment of HMRC's imagination. There is no legal definition.
There is no 'loophole' Contractors act as a limited company because of previous legislation that made it impossible for contractors to act as a self employed person and pay even less tax. The tax most contractors are avoiding is about 10-15%, they do however get no employment benefits so maybe that is a fair trade off?
This putting contractors into a one size fit all harness keeps failing.
The result of this will either be
1. All the contractors become highly paid permies swapping their daily rates for equivalent salaries. They & their employers then hand over oodles of tax to HMRC. Agencies disappear. Watch out for Airborne pigs.
2.Contractors end up working for agents at same rates or more likely lower rates maybe 10- 20% meaning less tax.
3. Contractors end up working for contractor agencies which incorporate abroad and or figure out how to avoid tax. Companies get to pay costs abroad so avoiding UK tax.
4. Companies import ICT workers and pay them minimum wage after deductions so they can claim tax credits = negative tax. IT workers retire or work abroad.
5. Companies can't find contractors to work for them in London etc because of lack of expenses so they offshore work. We loose skills and any lead we had in IT or similar.
6. Contractors find a way to work round the legislation and ignore it which was what happened with IR35. As they are fed up of being targeted more people do it.
every valid option above means lower tax take. This proposal is not the way to fix it. Lets have a point based system that can be applied fairly and identify those disguised employees and the real contractors.
Amusingly enough I now know 8 contractors who started "real businesses" funded originally by generous fees from contracting. They employ staff and pay lots of tax. They would probably not have launched their business as a permie with a none compete & employer owns IP clause in their contracts.
Really like that, Windows knows all that information. Maybe some rules if the text is unreadable or the printout looks like it should be large it can prompt.
Per application defaults would be good.
I think if you are in a new location your default printer may need to temporarily change.as well.
I had one of these. One of our electrical engineers had just got home from site and was reading his mails.
His wife handed him his 6 month old son to hold while she searched for a fresh nappy. Aforesaid son exposed to cold air sprinkled all over the laptop.
When he phoned me I spent the first few minutes laughing, we arranged a spare to be shipped and he swapped the hard drive on his own.
Printing presses - for printing naughty pamphlets.
Film Projectors - for stag films
VCRs - stag films
streaming - porn films and live sex
I bet we find Ada Lovelace was actually calculating ways to find the best page of the Kama Sutra for that day.
The first monetarisation for almost any technology normally involves Sex. The porn industry will lead the development. The other two other ways are exploration & WAR. Sex you can monetarise in your back bedroom and it doesn't involve shooting anyone.
with apologies to Gordon Gecko:
"I am not a despoiler of ladies. I am a liberator of them! The point is, ladies and gentleman, that Sex, for lack of a better word, is good. Sex is right, Sex works. Sex clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Sex, in all of its forms; lust for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And Sex, you mark my words, will not only develop technology faster, but save that other malfunctioning corporation called the world. Thank you very much."
"In addition to the monetary penalty, the Information Commissioner has asked the police force to sign an undertaking promising to revamp its data protection procedures, so as to safeguard against any repeat of the breach."
Oh Goody lessons learnt, not even people will be retrained. I suggest they give those responsible a little note so they can remember not to do it again and to remind others. I believe it would be especially effective if they headed the note 'P45'.
wouldn't we throw the French & Spanish out of our waters? UK fishermen actually record their catches.
The problem with the EU is it has lots of rules and only the UK seems to obey them.
A points based Visa waiver system would be fine allowing us to steal pre trained Doctors & nurses whist keeping out European Criminals that seem to like it here (we could keep our native ones to save embarrassment).
Such a system would slow the dragging down of wages that is happening because accession nation nationals are willing to earn much less, not because they are special , I'm pretty sure if someone paid you the equivalent of £125k to clean tables you would be very willing.
As mentioned above we are just stacking up problems for the future having bottled it as far as reducing pension demand by raising the retirement age, old age provision etc something we could have done back in the 70s when we first realised the population was changing.
The argument seems to be if we vote to leave a club that we pay significant membersip fees and buy lots of goods from they will stop selling things to us or buying things from us to spite us. If we try to change the rules then we will be sorry
I look forward to greatly reduced lawyer costs (if its on tape its difficult to argue with either way).
Fewer issues with stop & search If its justified it can be reviewed so community leaders can support the police and if its not the officer can be corrected as needed.
I don't fancy more Police Camera Action episodes but I suppose it does convince the do gooders that there are some wrong uns out there.
so about time!
The first thing they need to do is agree on a standard communication model like CEC or SNMP that can work basically across manufacturers and be extended with proprietary functions.
That solves the IOT as a service becoming obsolete because everyone would offer a basic service.
Then tackle devices that would actually benefit, Irons & laundry seem to be the Beau of the ball but I reckon Ovens, TVs and heating are the eligible bachelors. Look up recipes for a full meal , send to oven and get prompts to put the spuds / yorkshire puds in with pictures / video on the tv & the oven heat changes when appropriate.
Have a look at the ESP266 and realise the extra cost is pence.
Certain satellite firms charge different amounts depending on the country a few years back a pub Landlady went to the European court because she was showing football from a Greek (or similar) subscription in her Pub which was 60% cheaper than UK prices.
Geo locking seems to be against the aims of the EU, if freedom of movement is a red line so should this be.
It was "It tells you everything" bit that made me laugh.
Now if she had said it puts everything in code in an obscure log file only mentioned in 1.256 release notes that you then have to search for hours to find the explanation for she might have been believable.
Sad bunch, if the UNIX boys had their way PC's would be $5000 each and an OS licence $2-3 K. Most of it would be command line and you would only be able to buy software to run on one variant of UNIX, if you wanted to use another variation you would need to buy the $200,000 software again. To install it then you would need an expert for 2 - 40 days.
We know this as most of the original UNIX manufacturers still have this business model or went bust.
Between Bill & Linus the software arena was blown wide open due to low cost and usability. So we really owe them a big thank you, regardless of your envy.
Bill made lots of money out of making life easier for you, he is now spending most of that making life better for those less fortunate. The big thing is he is actually achieving it in a few years unlike many of the established charities.
Getting rid of Poo and supplying fresh drinking water are two of the biggest problems affecting the developing world.
A gun is an optional and somewhat dangerous (in the wrong hands) item.
I have no objection to charging £50 a year more, especially as its still less than my VED.
Sorry about the costs of providing a secure place to store it and a regular inspection to prove its not lying around on the table and the owner isn't a nutter but I actually would like those checks made.
You don't seem to have many sympathisers.
I thought that was the whole point that Rachel was a new model that had a normal human lifespan so Deckard could fall in love with her without the 'Highlander' syndrome and her implanted memories cushioned her from insanity..
from Wiki
The theatrical cut's voice-over ending said that as an experimental replicant Rachael didn't have the pre-determined four-year lifespan, but the Director's Cut left that ambiguous.
Get a rape alarm and a towel!
If you don't have the time to play the 'how do you install a windows trojan on Linux' game (you can drag that out for hours), then tell them nicely 1-2 times to go away then place the rape alarm next to the phone cover with towel and pull the pin to set it off.
strangely they seem to have stopped ringing me.
Seriously though the startup fund is great idea (if they can keep it out of the hands of corrupt officials). They will have the same issue as the Chinese that no one will trust their software to not have something unpleasant in it, the Indian government needs to have an effective cybercrime division.
I think you will find he is talking about the pedestrian and their friends walking 4 abreast on the shared cyclepath. The picture of the bicycle on the pavement is a bit of a clue.
Or the pedestrian or car that sees you coming and pulls / walks out in front of you.
I love the cars that overtake you then turn left. I really enjoy tapping the rear screen and watch them panic.
of course as we don't pay for the roads etc!
I like decent dynamo lights with stand time and a USB charger for my phone / GPS.
you know there are Silos of waste but outsourcing is probably not the answer.
Its a bit like realising the house is untidy so you sell it for £1 to someone who says they will tidy it up so you can live in it.
a few months later you are living in the Garage which is still a tip and the house has been sold.
You do know Labour closed more pits than Thatcher don't you?
You know most remaining pits are automated now because its cheaper and much safer? A few million quid of machinery is cheaper financially and morally than workers that strike and contract breathing problems. Arthur and co wouldn't modernise or accept job losses.
Of course we could have kept the pits open and subsidised heavily so we were vaguely competitive with German open cast mines but there was no money left.
Do you also write outraged on behalf of quill pen makers, lion tamers and chimney sweeps who suffered the same sort of fate when the world changed?
Now what Maggie and the prime ministers that followed (and those that preceded her and closed pits ) should done was to create replacement jobs in the area.
possibly wrong but my understanding is once you have used the GM seed its difficult to eradicate and grow crops using another seed. Partially due to the level of pesticides you used and the likelihood of remaining seeds.
So as a farmer you are hooked.
Fear of GM is fairly common otherwise Monsanto shouldn't be so dismissive of it:
http://monsantoblog.com/2009/04/13/gmo-vegetables-animal-dna/
So its not animal DNA, just bacteria DNA they use.
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