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The Morning Ledger: Tech Firms Could Face Billions of Dollars in New Taxes |
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Digital taxes could add billions of dollars to companies’ tax bills. PHOTO: RICHARD DREW/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Good day. Finance executives at international technology companies could face higher tax demands in many more countries as dozens of governments are stepping up efforts to capture revenue from digital services, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Following suit: Inspired by European Union proposals to impose a tax based on the revenue of tech companies rather than their profit, South Korea, India and at least seven other Asian-Pacific countries are exploring new taxes. Mexico, Chile and other Latin American countries are contemplating new taxes aimed at boosting receipts from foreign tech firms such as Alphabet Inc. and Facebook Inc.
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Higher tax bills: Such taxes, which are separate from corporate income taxes that many companies already pay, are broadly known as digital taxes and could add billions of dollars to companies’ tax bills. They seek to impose levies on digital services sold by global companies in a given country from units based outside that country.
A fan: In Europe, where the digital tax has run into opposition, some countries have signaled they are prepared to act unilaterally. U.K. Treasury chief Philip Hammond, who is set to make his annual budget statement on Monday, said earlier this month that his country is prepared to “go it alone with a digital services tax.”
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Bloomin' Brands Inc., Chegg Inc., Knoll Inc. and Qiagen NV are among the companies slated to report earnings Monday.
The U.S. Commerce Department publishes Americans’ personal income and spending figures for September. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expect consumer spending ticked up and income continued to grow at a steady rate in September.
Philip Hammon, the U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer, will present his budget to parliament at 3:30 p.m. GMT (11:30 a.m. ET).
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The U.S.-based Conference Board on Tuesday releases October consumer confidence data. In September, confidence hit an 18-year high, as robust job growth and a strong economic outlook bolstered Americans’ expectations for the future. Economists think confidence fell in October.
China on Wednesday publishes its official gauge of the country’s factory activity. Economists expect the official purchasing managers index to edge lower to about 50.6 in October from September’s 50.8, which was a seven-month low. Also on Wednesday, Brazil’s central bank is widely expected to keep its benchmark Selic rate on hold at 6.5%, a historic low.
The U.S. Labor Department on Friday releases its employment report for October. Economists expect the unemployment rate held steady and the economy churned out 188,000 jobs in October.
Investors in General Electric Co. are bracing for the troubled company to slash or suspend its dividend when it reports quarterly results this week. For some, such a cut may come as a relief.
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Red Hat has become the dominant provider of the Linux operating system to companies. PHOTO: VACLAV SALEK/CTK/ZUMA PRESS
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International Business Machines Corp. agreed to buy software-and-services company Red Hat Inc. for about $33 billion in its biggest acquisition ever, a deal aimed at helping IBM Chief Executive Ginni Rometty boost a cloud-computing business central to her efforts to revive the technology company.
HSBC Holdings PLC said it reined in costs and beat analysts profit estimates for the third quarter, sending its shares sharply higher early Monday.
As Kmart prepares to close dozens of stores as part of the bankruptcy plan of parent Sears Holdings Corp., millions of people are asking, “What took so long?”
Saudi Arabia’s state oil company Saudi Arabian Oil Co. is turning to Kevin SigRist, a former North Carolina state pension executive to manage its retirement money at a time when U.S. ties to the kingdom are under scrutiny.
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Lloyds Banking to Pay Equal Pension After Landmark Ruling |
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A ruling by the U.K. High Court requiring Lloyds Banking Group PLC to equalize pension benefits for men and women could have implications for thousands of other corporate pension plans, resulting in additional costs.
The court on Friday ruled that the British bank’s pension trustee has to amend a defined-benefit pension plan to retroactively increase payouts to address a dispute filed in 2016 by female claimants who pointed out that their pensions were increasing at a lower rate than those of their male counterparts.
The ruling will likely cost Lloyds between £100 million ($128.3 million) and £150 million, according to the judge, Sir Paul Morgan.
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Saint-Gobain Lifts Prices to Compensate for Higher Costs |
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Building materials supplier Compagnie de Saint-Gobain SA plans to keep raising prices to offset higher raw materials, energy and transportation costs.
“We are pushing prices in all geographies, a little bit everywhere,” Chief Financial Officer Guillaume Texier said Thursday in an interview with CFO Journal. “Pricing is one of the top priorities for this year,” Mr. Texier added.
The French company raised prices for its products by 3.5% year-over-year in the three months through September, compared with a 3% increase in the second quarter and 2.1% in the first quarter, Mr. Texier said.
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A worker on the Model 3 assembly line at the Tesla factory in Fremont, Calif., in June. PHOTO: BRIAN MOLYNEAUX FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents are examining whether Tesla Inc. misstated information about production of its Model 3 sedans and misled investors about the company’s business going back to early 2017, people familiar with the matter say.
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Walmart Inc. agreed to pay $160 million to settle a long-running shareholder class-action suit related to the U.S. government’s continuing investigation of the retailer for alleged bribery.
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The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plans to redo Obama-era rules to curb payday loans, aiming to impose fewer restrictions on the industry.
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A port being developed in the southern Iranian city of Chabahar underscores some of the dilemmas U.S. policy makers face in implementing sanctions against Tehran.
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Many farmers say final crop choices might not be made until just weeks or days before planting gets under way, partly because of uncertainty over tariffs. PHOTO: DAN KOECK/REUTERS
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American farmers hit by the U.S.-China trade battle are preparing to reshape the U.S. Farm Belt by planting more corn and less soybeans next year over a land mass potentially equal to the size of Connecticut.
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Chinese companies are setting up shop in the U.S. to obtain the scrap paper and plastic their government has deemed too dirty to import.
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Online companies that hook up travelers willing to deliver items to shoppers abroad are building a new industry, but their users often participate in an age-old tradition: customs evasion.
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Mexicans who participated in a public consultation on the future of the Mexico City airport voted to cancel the $13.3 billion project, which was already under construction, vote organizers said Sunday.
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Royal Philips NV, a Dutch health technology company, said its supervisory board intends to propose the reappointment of Abhijit Bhattacharya as finance chief at its annual general meeting on May 9, 2019.
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Mr. Bhattacharya became CFO and member of the board in 2015. Philips' supervisory board also plans to suggest the reappointment of Chief Executive Frans van Houten, the company said in a statement.
Patisserie Holdings PLC, a British café chain, said it has accepted the resignation of Chris Marsh as the company's finance director with immediate effect. The company said it will reserve its position in respect of any potential claims it might have against Mr. Marsh. This comes after Patisserie Holdings' shares were suspended from trading earlier this month following the discovery of accounting irregularities.
Kiekert AG, a Heiligenhaus, Germany-based maker of car locking systems, said its Chief Financial Officer Ulrich-Nicolaus Kranz is stepping down from his post at the end of the year. The company will announce his successor within the next few weeks, it said in a statement.
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