Business Taxation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Business Taxation - Essay Example Theoretical findings have however undermined the notion of state spending. This has been backed up by an important strand in political science that have argued a declined trust and accountability on most state institutions. On the other hand, sociology has claimed that citizens have become more individualistic, reflective and more oriented on the responsibilities for meeting their own needs. Bilodueu, M (1996) Considerable increases in health expenditure were inaugurated by Gordon Brown in his substantial speech in 2002. This however was implemented in the year 2003 and was spread over a period of 5 years cumulatively. Long term reviews were evaluated where increased taxes were realized to support the health domain. The implicit is that the biggest ratios of the enhanced taxes in the exchequer's receipts were responsible for the rates of NICs for employees, employers and self-employed. The rate of the NICs rose by 1% point to a rate of 11% on cumulative earnings between basic threshold and the upper earning limit. The NIC in this case was levied an increased 1% percentage point to a 12.8% earning rate above the elementary threshold. The NIC was increased by 1% to appoint of 8% on collective earnings between the lower profits limit and the upper profits limit. The income tax personal allowance was therefore to be frozen at this stage from 2002-2003. The report of the Royal Commission on th e Taxation of Profits and Incomes (1955) The measures rose to 8.6 million by 2003-04; the collective increasement in employee's NICs was 3.55 billion, the total increase in employer's NIC was at 3.9 billion and the total increase in self employment NICs was at 0.45 billion. The freezing of the NICs threshold brought about 0.25billion. This was the government's decision that was hinged on supporting a holistic insurance policy that meet the rising costs of medical advances and hence offering a security measure upon the Britons in a required manner. In supporting the health sector the renewal of the shared national agreement encompassing the NHS was to be run through taxation. The way forward was through initiating of new audit systems that integrated money paid to benefits received and having also resolved after deliberation to exempt the elderly and the vulnerable. Troup, E. (1992) Introduction One on the concrete reasons for levying taxes on goods such as alcohol and tobacco is the culture that consumers hold inconsistence preferences for these goods and that it's the obligation of the government to protect the consumption of these harmful elements by deterring consumers from partaking of the same. Alcohol and tobacco pose a potential threat on the consumers and also on those who do not indulge into the usage. This grants the government the rationale to enter the market and hike the price of harmful goods that could otherwise endanger the society; this reduces the levels of demand. The harmful commodities pose a health hazard known as the merit good. From the categorical perception of equity, taking harmful goods could otherwise help in revamping health conditions, which is financed using taxed revenues. It has been agreed that excise tax levies generate colossal monetary value for the governments. The causality of taxing this goods however spark a lot of controversies sin ce it's not clear whether

Financial Reporting Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Financial Reporting - Case Study Example In a brief history of the cases, Enron, On October 16, 2001 Enron declared to SEC a net loss of $ 618 million for the third quarter effectively reducing share holder equity by $ 1.2 billion. SEC opened enquiry the very next day and called for details from Enron officials who in turn notified their Auditor Arthur Andersen. Pursuant to this, Andersen had his team destroy Enron-related documents. As a result, Enron, Andersen and his lead partner Duncan were convicted of obstruction of justice. Enron's Chief Financial officer faced indictment on 98 counts of fraud and related offences. Besides Enron is now bankrupt, and civil and criminal investigations continue to examine Enron's complex accounting practices and byzantine financial schemes. (Brickey) Close on the heels of Enron episode, WorldCom's fraud surfaced dwarfing the former. Both the cases involved accounting frauds with the companies managements' sole aim of keeping the share prices higher in spite of huge losses which they covered by manipulation of accounts. But for the whistle blowers from both the corporations, the frauds would not have come to light though bubble would have ultimately burst by the operation of economics. But more money would have been swindled, more would have fled the scene had it not been for the whistle blowers who had little protection prior to Sarbanes -Oxley enactment. Sherron Watkins, a Vice-President at Enron who discovered accounting fraud disclosed it to its Chairman Ken Lay in five memos detailing Enron's off-book partnerships, special purpose entities and urged him to disclose a ccounting irregularities. Though he agreed to engage a law firm to conduct preliminary investigation, he appointed the firm of Vinson & Elkins in spite of Watkins' advice not to engage them as they were also party to structure some of the questionable deals. And the law firm not surprisingly gave clean chit to the questioned transactions. Watkins preferred to depose before congressional hearings probing the Enron's affairs. Similarly Cynthia Cooper, Vice-President, Internal Auditing, WorldCom exposed a larger accounting in her corporation when she came to know of a sample fraudulent transfer of $ 400 million from Reserve account to inflate the corporation's earnings. Here again Arthur Anderson was the Auditor for the corporation. While he tried to convince her by insisting no abnormality, the CFO Scot Sullivan literally tried to silence her. (Ripley Amanda) She therefore independently conducted inspection of account books and found that the management had capitalised operating expen ditures and converted a $662 million loss into a fictitious $2.4 billion profit.CFO Sullivan learnt of her attempts to unearth such manipulations and warned of her dismissal if she did not stop. "After going to the audit committee, she and her audit team remained hopeful that they could find something they might have missed that would explain the unorthodox accounting. But Cooper's hopes were dashed when she confronted WorldCom Controller David Meyers, who conceded that the entries could not be justified. " (Brickey) The charges against Andersen were that he had knowledge of accounting irregularities at Enron, and fraud relating special purpose entities used by Enron, that he hired an out-side law firm in anticipation of