Thursday, June 11, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/06/thursday-june-11-2026/

#Bezos pro 0% tax of bottom 50% earners, In 2018, #Amazon paid no federal corporate income #tax in the US, despite reporting over $11bn in profits, instead receiving a federal tax rebate worth $129m through a combinaation of tax credits and deductions.

Critics like firebrand socialist Senator #BernieSanders accused the Big Tech of benefiting disproportionately from corporate tax #loopholes introduced under #Trump’s 2017 tax reforms.

https://www.cityam.com/bezos-calls-taxing-low-paid-amazon-workers-absurd/ #taxjustice

"Even more interesting are the broader implications [of #ai]. The same searching, pattern-matching and reasoning capabilities that make these #models so good at analyzing software almost certainly apply to similar systems. The #tax code isn’t computer code, but it’s a series of algorithms with inputs and outputs. It has vulnerabilities; we call them tax #loopholes. It has exploits; we call them tax avoidance strategies. And it has black hat hackers: attorneys and accountants.

Just as these models are finding hundreds of vulnerabilities in complex software systems, we should expect them to be equally effective at finding many new and undiscovered tax loopholes."

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/05/how-dangerous-is-anthropics-mythos-ai.html

#Victorian #Greens criticise failure to introduce donation reforms.

The #VictorianGreens leader, #EllenSandell, has criticised the state government for failing to introduce donation reforms to parliament this week.

Speaking outside parliament, she told reporters #theGreens have heard “very little” from the government in the last few days after weeks of negotiations. Sandell went on:

“I do not know what is holding #Labor back. I can only conclude that Labor is not interested in stopping dark money flowing into politics, and want to keep a whole bunch of #corporate and #billionaire #donors for themselves, because the Greens we have an open door, and we’ve said, come and talk to us and we would be happy to talk about laws that actually stop this dark money flowing into Victorian politics.”

While the major parties are mulling increasing the donation cap, she said it shouldn’t be increased:

“We think that the donation cap, which is just under $5,000, is fine where it is. That allows people to make a small donation but it does not allow corporations and billionaires to donate tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to influence our politics.”

Sandell said there was a “pathway” to pass reforms via the Greens and the crossbench:

“We are happy to move very quickly if they bring #legislation that closes these dodgy #loopholes and puts a cap on #politicaldonations, we’re happy to do that, and I don’t understand why they haven’t brought that legislation this week or last week.” #auspol