Last week, our Executive Director, Ken Phillips, contemplated some ‘revolutionary’ thoughts around self-employment as part of the summer break ‘think’ process.
Trump
But those thoughts are minor compared with President-elect Donald Trump’s proposals for self-employed people in the USA. According to Forbes magazine and CBSNews, Trump is going to open the tax floodgate for the self-employed, allowing them to access the 15 per cent tax rate he intends to apply to companies. More...
All News
Trump’s self-employed revolution
ICA Executive Director ponders the nature of work
Against a backdrop of 'revolutionary' social and political developments in 2016, ICA Executive Director Ken Phillips has posted a new blog which looks at the prospects for the new world of work in the year ahead. Noting the seemingly unstoppable growth of all forms of self-employment, Ken also examines some of the adverse reactions to self-employment and surveys some recent (and quite diverse) academic discussion about the value of 'being your own boss'. You can read Ken's full blog post here. More...
Unions are non-taxable businesses providing services to large corporations
It’s been quite a week on the construction anti-corruption front: More...
Impeaching the Tax Commissioner (and other corruption)
Australians may not know all that much about the Tea Party in the USA. It’s effectively a party within the Republican Party defined as ‘hard right.’ Well, it is campaigning to have the US Tax (IRS) Commissioner impeached by Congress. In 2013, the IRS admitted that it had been targeting for scrutiny Tea Party groups in the 2012 election. Thousands of Tea Party members were targeted with ‘audits, threats and onerous interrogations’ because of their political affiliation.
Corruption or not by the IRS, it does demonstrate the extraordinary power of the instruments of the state. We don’t have a ‘corruption’ problem with the Australian Taxation Office but we did reiterate to Prime Minister Turnbull early this month that the treatment of self-employed people by the ATO is holding back entrepreneurship and innovation. The PM has referred our letter to the Assistant Treasurer, Kelly O’Dwyer and we will be talking with her. More...
Uber, Disruption and the Unpredictable
ICA Executive Director, Ken Phillips, has penned two recent articles on the related themes of disruption and the politically unpredictable.
The first, on the power and disruptive force of Uber, generated a mixed bag of responses, both friendly and hostile. No surprises there! But Ken's point is that disruption is becoming an increasingly commonplace phenomenon in our lives and we need to learn how to deal with it. More...
Politicians love entrepreneurs
As much as they say they love entrepreneurs, politicians’ policies all too frequently damage entrepreneurship.
Here’s the latest update on the USA ‘misclassification’ laws. More...
ObamaCare is in real trouble
President Obama has apologized for the debacle of OmabaCare. In October I made a YouTube commentary observing that Obamacare had all the indicators of incompetent implementation we had witnessed in Australia under many Labor government programmes. Obama’s $600m website is an administrative disaster. Five million Americans have had their health insurance cancelled. This is proving to be a blow for self-employed entrepreneurs in a big way. More...
Anti-independent contractor laws. Massachusetts scandal
ICA’s Ken Phillips met with the Massachusetts House Small Business Caucus in October 2013 in Boston. The members are concerned that Massachusetts' anti-independent contractor laws suppress jobs growth in Massachusetts. More...
Recent Posts
- ATO Executive ‘Not Guilty’– Credible evidence that ATO audits are ‘wrong’
- Thank goodness. Morrison Government is DOING, rather than just promising, ATO reform
- China and the ATO – Dictatorship vs the Rule of Law
- Labor takes bold move on unfair contracts
- ATO refuses internal corruption probe. Anti-Corruption Commission needed
- Continuing our theme of (put me to sleep?) summer holiday tax reading
- Here’s some really interesting (not?) holiday reading
- What’s been happening in the construction sector for the self-employed?
- Criminal justice vs Tax Justice. Are the two the same?
- Thank you, Norman, for 18 years of service to self-employed people
![]() Be Protected! |
Tags
- 457 visas (2)
- Abbott government (43)
- ABCC (2)
- ABNs (22)
- ACCC (27)
- advertising (2)
- aged care (1)
- ALP policy (30)
- Asian economies (6)
- ASIC (14)
- ATO (104)
- Australian Constitution (1)
- Australian politics (225)
- Australian Senate (46)
- Banking sector (10)
- big business (69)
- branding (2)
- Budget 2015 (2)
- bureaucratic capture (2)
- business names (25)
- business-union ties (39)
- Canada (6)
- Canadian provinces (1)
- Car industry (2)
- Carbon tax (1)
- CFMEU (9)
- China (9)
- Chinese economy (2)
- Coalition policy (61)
- Collusion (22)
- communication (3)
- competition policy (19)
- computer/IT sector (8)
- Conference (7)
- construction (32)
- construction codes (15)
- contractor status (109)
- corporate welfare (7)
- corruption (20)
- couriers (18)
- defending our rights (232)
- DINs (1)
- disability services (1)
- disclosure requirements (7)
- dispute resolution (18)
- disruption (10)
- drug abuse (1)
- effects test (4)
- Election 2013 (15)
- Election 2016 (4)
- Election 2019 (1)
- Entrepreneurial Index (1)
- entrepreneurship (134)
- Europe (19)
- fair contracts (79)
- Fair Work Commission (1)
- Fair Work Ombudsman (2)
- Federal SBC (4)
- finance (9)
- financial advisers (3)
- foreign workers (2)
- franchising (21)
- freelancing (49)
- Frontier Centre (1)
- GEEIndex (3)
- Gig economy (11)
- Global economies (24)
- global news (65)
- government power (4)
- govt-business ties (11)
- govt-union ties (5)
- GST (2)
- Heydon Report (4)
- ICAC (1)
- illegal logging laws (2)
- independence (28)
- industrial relations (43)
- infrastructure (1)
- innovation (24)
- Inspector-General Taxation (23)
- insurance (1)
- Internet (1)
- Ireland (3)
- IT contractors (3)
- Japan (1)
- job creation (13)
- Job security (15)
- Just for fun (5)
- Kenya (1)
- Labour hire (3)
- liberty (6)
- management capacity (6)
- Massachusettsd (8)
- mental health (3)
- misclassification laws (16)
- Morrison Government (2)
- national debt (2)
- New South Wales (1)
- New Zealand (1)
- Obamacare (1)
- OHS harmonisation (2)
- owner-drivers (31)
- productivity (11)
- Productivity Commission (3)
- profiles (9)
- Prompt payment (4)
- public service (2)
- racism (2)
- red tape (26)
- research (24)
- Resources (1)
- responsibility (16)
- scams (4)
- self-employment (228)
- shopping centres (9)
- Shorten Opposition (9)
- small business (255)
- small business commisioners (26)
- small business tax tribunal (3)
- South Australia (2)
- stupid legislation (5)
- superannuation (10)
- Tax evasion (6)
- taxation (100)
- technology (6)
- textile workers (1)
- The rule of law (1)
- tradesmen (3)
- transparency (16)
- truckies (28)
- Turnbull Government (35)
- TWU (18)
- Uber (14)
- unemployment (2)
- union power (63)
- union violence (5)
- United Kingdom (26)
- United States (31)
- US politics (8)
- Victoria (13)
- Victorian election (2)
- WA Election 2017 (2)
- Western Australia (7)
- white australia (1)
- work flexibility (13)
- work pressure (2)
- work safety (6)
- worker's compensation (2)
- work-life balance (14)
- workplace interaction (4)
Archive
- February 2019 (3)
- January 2019 (4)
- December 2018 (3)
- November 2018 (6)
- October 2018 (4)
- September 2018 (3)
- August 2018 (5)
- July 2018 (4)
- June 2018 (3)
- May 2018 (3)
- April 2018 (5)
- March 2018 (1)
- February 2018 (6)
- January 2018 (3)
- December 2017 (3)
- November 2017 (4)
- October 2017 (5)
- September 2017 (4)
- August 2017 (6)
- July 2017 (1)
- June 2017 (7)
- May 2017 (4)
- April 2017 (3)
- March 2017 (4)
- February 2017 (5)
- January 2017 (3)
- December 2016 (3)
- November 2016 (4)
- October 2016 (3)
- September 2016 (4)
- August 2016 (3)
- July 2016 (2)
- June 2016 (5)
- May 2016 (2)
- April 2016 (12)
- March 2016 (4)
Small Cost, Big Benefits