Home and revenue tax return

After several months of having to work from home due to Covid-19, the novelty might have worn off, but the practice seems to have caught on. Eight out of 10 workers now say they prefer to work from home or have flexible working arrangements, a survey commissioned by The Straits Times of nearly 1,800 people has found. Just one in 10 wanted to return to the office full-time, while the rest said they were already back in the office before the Government's announcement that more employees will be allowed to return to the office from Sept 28. But the top complaint among Singaporean workers about having to return to the workplace was the resumption of their daily commute. They are also concerned about the safety of their work environments, and afraid of being exposed to Covid-19. Asked about their biggest challenge going back to the office, words and phrases that appeared prominently included "public transport", "mask" and "many people". Three out of 10 felt wearing a mask in … [Read more...] about 8 in 10 in Singapore want to work from home or have more flexibility

SINGAPORE - There appeared to be no rush in the Central Business District on Monday morning (Sept 28) even as rules were eased to allow more people to return to workplaces. When The Straits Times visited Raffles Place during morning rush hour at around 9am, there was a slow but steady stream of people making their way from the MRT station to their workplaces. The morning crowd was similar to that of Friday at about the same time last week, before the easing of workplace rules kicked in on Monday. All the 30 workers interviewed by The Straits Times said they had been back to their workplaces since July after the two-month circuit breaker ended. Barista Shawn Tan, 23, who works at a Starbucks Coffee outlet in Raffles Place, said there was "no significant difference" in the number of customers on Monday compared with the last few weeks. He now sees an average of 10 to 15 customers from 7.30am to 10am but said he noticed one regular customer on Monday whom he had not seen for … [Read more...] about No rush of workers in CBD on Monday morning even as Covid-19 rules ease for more people to return to workplaces

REUTERS: New West Bromwich Albion manager Sam Allardyce will have a baptism by fire in his first game in charge after 19 months when they host Aston Villa in the West Midlands derby at The Hawthorns on Sunday. Allardyce, the first managerial change at a Premier League club this season, has the testing task of keeping intact his record of never being relegated from the Premier League, with West Brom second-bottom in the table. With more than 500 top-flight games across seven clubs on his CV, Allardyce is a master of survival and has a proven record of pulling struggling teams out of a hole, but West Brom may be his biggest challenge yet. With one win in 13, West Brom look bereft of confidence and take on a Villa side that last beat them on penalties in the Championship playoffs en route to promotion to the top flight in 2019. Manchester United and Leeds United will also rekindle an age-old rivalry on Sunday at Old Trafford, where Leeds have not won a league game since … [Read more...] about Soccer-Fiery derby awaits West Brom’s Allardyce on Premier League return

NEW YORK: The US$900 billion coronavirus relief package passed by the US Congress on Monday (Dec 22) contains a high-profile tax loophole for business meals, but not the one thing most requested by independent US restaurants which have been devastated by the pandemic: cash. The Republican-backed "three-martini lunch deduction" doubles an existing tax break, allowing companies to write off 100 per cent of business dining expenses through 2022. The loophole's defenders say it supports the hard-hit restaurant industry. This is "a pro-worker, pro-restaurant, and pro-small business bill," said US Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina. However, it has been derided by economists, Democrats, and even the staunchly conservative Wall Street Journal op-ed page as politically tone deaf, given the millions of sick and out-of-work Americans. The tax break will cost taxpayers US$6.3 billion through 2023, analysis by a congressional committee shows. It will also fail to boost the restaurant … [Read more...] about Despite ‘three martini’ tax break, COVID-19 bill leaves struggling US restaurants cold

The New York Times admitted Friday (Dec 18) that it could not verify the claims of a Canadian man whose account of committing atrocities for the Islamic State in Syria was a central part of its 2018 podcast Caliphate. The series had won a Peabody Award, the first ever for a podcast produced by the newspaper, but within hours administrators said the Times would return the award. The Overseas Press Club of America said it was rescinding its honour for Caliphate. With a major hole blown in the narrative, the Times affixed an audio correction to the beginning of each part of the 12-part podcast and published an investigation into what went wrong with the story in Friday's newspaper. The story's central reporter, Rukmini Callimachi, will be reassigned off the terrorism beat, the Times said. Dean Baquet, the paper's executive editor, said in a podcast distributed Friday that “this failing wasn't about any one reporter. I think this was an institutional failing.” The Times … [Read more...] about New York Times admits Caliphate podcast didn’t meet standards, returns Peabody Award