TJ, now you know why Maurice is spelled Mqurice in cyberspace. It originates from my time in Belgium and frustration with BP's systems people and the azerty keyboard.
Meanwhile, pre-written post for my brief visit to cyberspace. 33 degrees and quite sweaty, so I can't stick it out here too long in a small room with minimal cooling.
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TJ, I have been cogitating about New Zealand's proposed tax law change. I suspect it is really the "Mqurice Winn Capital Gains Tax Law".
The government using their Inland Revenue Department [IRD] conducted a multi-year assault on the Mqurice QCOM fortress stocked full of capital gains. They found that all their assaults failed apart from one minor technicality which neither our accountants nor the investigators found. The investigation had to go to the IRD Geek department in some back-office dungeon full of kleptocratic troglodytes for them to come up with it.
I would love to have been a fly on the wall.
It seems that the IRD has recommended to the government that legislation is needed to capture people like me, keep us hostage and deprive us of our wealth for their own personal purposes such as funding artists they want to patronize, paying Maoris to do weird superstitious incantations to create ritual for self-important government officials at ceremonies, to have overseas holidays, free lunches, limousines, perks and baubles of office.
It must rile the greedy government kleptocrats no end to know that I am sitting comfy en France avec dirty great QCOM capital gains and regular 40% dividends eating camembert, baguettes, cherries, apricots, figs, nectarines, and other delicious things in a perfect climate hovering around 30 degrees Celsius while they shiver in their Helengrad freezer.
So, they are changing the law, specifically to catch me. I suppose it's an honour to have a law made for me. But they should call it the Mqurice Capital Gains Tax rather than some boring title.
They have been offended that individuals have been investing overseas and enjoying capital gains while people who invest through mutual funds are subject to capital gains taxes. They say they want to level the playing field, a very popular political cliche in NZ, which means the government wants more money. They could level it by cutting taxes, but they don't take that option.
There is much argument over the tax, but the government and their bludging supporters will vote for it. NZ has become a nation of bludgers, which ironic given its history. They say wealth lasts three generations before the spendthrift wastrels destroy it. The destructive process is well underway in NZ. People are fleeing NZ in droves. That of course is the productive people, not the bludgers, because a bludger can't get into other countries and if they can, they aren't allowed to suck on the nanny-state tit.
10% of NZ's population is overseas. That's increasing daily. NZ is being restocked with Islamic Jihad and others who are likely to vote for more of Helen Clark and Big Brother kleptocracy.
Fortunately, though unfortunately really, thanks to the Globalstar debacle, I have large tax losses to carry forwards, so any capital gains tax will take a while to whittle away my losses. I have been wondering how to use those losses to get them off the books. It wouldn't be good in a net present value sense to leave them sitting there unused while the government destroys them by continued financial relativity theory inflationary attack on them.
Plus, they are untidy, icky things. I want nice tidy profits which are taxed in an orderly way, with no complex accounting to deal with. Governments of course do NOT like things simple. Neither do lawyers and accoutants. Talk about an Axis of Evil. Iran/Iraq/North Korea have got nothing on Government/Lawyers/Accountants.
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But one good thing about NZ is that it is generally still not very corrupt. Even the police make money on the side by selling their bodies for sex rather than extortion: nzherald.co.nz
Because prostitution is legal in NZ, it's not a criminal thing she was doing. I imagine a lot of her customers would have thought it great fun and worth paying extra for, if she would wear her uniform, or at least part of it, during sexual activities. I bet there were crowds lining up. The tax on her brothel activities probably covered her police salary. Maybe all police should do it. But she was disciplined and told it wasn't compatible with her police career.
Meanwhile, competition continues in mobile cyberspace, with Telstra planning on starting a New Zealand W-CDMA network, aka 3GSM, aka UMTS, aka HSDPA, aka 3G, all of which deliver royalties to QCOM coffers and many of which buy ASICs from QCOM. nzherald.co.nz
QCOM profits, revenues, R&D, market share and other measurements were up, up and up again. Which, perversely, meant a crash in the share price. It is now $35 or thereabouts. Down from $53 at the recent peak. QCOM has bought $1.5 bn at around $44 and $42, so they obviously think that it's a bargain at $35, and they are the insiders best able to measure the value of the company compared with their stash of cash.
Personally, I think they blew the money at around $44 and wonder why they didn't do that buying at the time they bought a load a couple of years ago at $30 a share [pre-split, so that would be $15 in today's prices] when they had the same $billions sitting in the bank, wondering what to do.
While cyberspace burgeons and my profits with it, oil prices "dive", though not very far. nzherald.co.nz I think "dive" should mean below $50 a barrel and "plummet" would be down to $40 a barrel or maybe $30 a barrel. "Diving" to $72 is barely dipping a toe in the water. It's not like those Acapulco cliff divers.
So, I'll continue to watch and ponder the capital gains tax developments. Maybe a house purchase in France would be a good idea, returning to [some of] my ancestral roots. The climate is my style. I have no idea what the tax laws are. Or maybe Australia would be good. San Diego area is nice too.
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