Boat loans ranging for up to 20 years in length are available and can be obtained with ease. Both secured and unsecured loans are the two primary types of loans for all types of boats.

Secured loans are those that are secured against collateral such as a home or other valuable property from the borrowers. These sorts of loans are available at a low interest rate with flexible repayment terms.

Unsecured boat loans require no collateral. These loans will not require you to use your home or other valuable asset to guarantee your loan. Unsecured loans are generally provided at a higher rate of interest but the borrowers don’t need to place any of their other assets as collateral in order to obtain the boat loan. Keep in mind that bad credit holders may also be eligible in obtaining unsecured loans.

The Internet has revolutionized the whole finance market with the entry of online lenders allowing you to pick and choose from a wide set of options when it comes to finding a loan that meets all of your requirements. Applying for boat loans on the internet is very easy and secure and approval is very quick.

Before you enter and submit any of your financial information on the internet, verify the site is reputable and secure site. The following are some indicators to look for when trying to determine if a site is secure:

- Look for site certificates such as TRUSTe, Verisign, Geo Trust or the like.

- Click on the actual certificate logo to verify the site certificate is current and up to date.

- Verify, in the address bar of your browser, that you see: The https:// in front of the domain name identifies the page of the website you are in is a secure page where you can enter sensitive financial data.

One of the numbers we have been waiting for is national healthcare spending. You will remember there are few controls on spending included in the Affordable Care Act, and those that will have an impact are not due to come into force until 2014. Despite this, there was only a marginal increase in 2010. In fact, it was the second-smallest increase over the last fifty years. So what factors have brought us to this point? Obviously, the consistently high levels of unemployment have reduced family incomes. Add in the fear of unemployment and those still in work have been paying down their debts and refusing discretionary spending. To maintain their profitability, insurers have been passing on more costs to us through higher deductibles and co-payments. More employers have been cutting their health benefits and passing on more of the cost to their employees. The net effect has been a significant reduction in the use of medical services. We have refused to consult physicians as often. We delay going to hospital until our conditions are too serious to ignore. We have been asking for fewer prescriptions. The result is the spending per head of population was $8,402 in 2010.

The effect of this on the healthcare services sector and the health insurance industry has been profound. Faced with declining revenues and knowing that families do not have the cash or savings to spend freely, they have held their costs. The pharmaceutical industry has been hardest hit. Many drugs have now run out of patent protection and generic drugs mean big savings to us. Big Pharma is also struggling because fewer new drugs are coming through the pipeline. Unless there are some scientific breakthroughs soon, the profitability of drug manufacture will decline dramatically.

The result for us at a national level is mostly good news. The rise of insurance rates has slowed significantly. Although you may have seen increases in your last renewal notices or your employer may have passed on more of the cost to you, the trend is in your favor. Should the trend continue, you will see your costs falling. Why so? Because almost 6 million people fell out of private insurance in 2009. A further 3.7 million discontinued insurance in 2010. This is not sustainable and, to counter the trend, the health insurance quotes for 2012 will moderate if not fall. This is not to raise false hopes with the promise of cheap health insurance tomorrow. But simply to reflect an economic reality that, when we are a stone, we cannot be forced to give up blood to the insurance industry.

If you love music and you love organizing events, learning how to promote concerts can be a profitable business for you. People who promote concerts are called concert promoters and they make money through this venture.

Concerts are big events that cannot be managed by the musicians themselves, so a concert promoter is often needed to stage a live concert on a venue that you choose. Of course, individuals, a group or a company can become concert promoters and if you want to find business in this line of work you can also become one.

Keep in mind that organizing such event has a lot of responsibilities so you also have to make sure that you are prepared to take all these responsibilities as a concert promoter. To help you start learning about it, here are a few tips that might help you in finding out how to promote concerts.

- Be familiar of good concert venues. Concert promoters choose the venue of the event, thus you have to be at least knowledgeable on some good venues for concerts. Of course, you also have to reserve and rent the venues for the particular dates that the concert will be held.

- Arrange for the performers or artists and make sure they are what the sponsors would want to put on stage. If the sponsors already have someone in mind, you can also make suggestions as well, if you think there are other more suitable to the occasion or the event. Of course, you will also be hiring the performers and arrange with them to make a contract.

- Arrange everything for your performers. Plan and arrange their transportation, their lodging and make sure that they are well taken cared of during the whole time that they will be performing on your organized concert.

- Find creative ways to advertise the concert that you are organizing. Of course, you have to make sure that the concert will also be a success by making sure a lot of people watch it. it is not enough to inform people. You have to make them come to the concert, or at least make sure the tickets are all sold.

- Maintain partnerships with local establishments and radio stations in every potential place for concerts. This will help you advertise the events fast and will also help you avoid being in trouble with the law when it comes to laws and regulations pertaining to distribution of flyers and posting of ads.

- Use the internet to your advantage. Yes, you can find great ways to advertise the concert online or sell tickets online, so you can take advantage of that as well.

Learning how to promote concerts in theory may be simple but of course, when you are already in the situation it is important to understand that a lot of responsibilities lie on you and that you have to be sure that you are indeed prepared to shoulder such responsibilities.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) benchmarking process means that, for small businesses, the quality of taxpayers’ record-keeping is about to take the spotlight.

In statements released, the Australian Taxation Office has said that: “if taxpayers’ keep good records then the taxpayer has nothing to fear. Fail to keep good records and the onus will be on the taxpayer to prove the ATO wrong, if and when they apply the benchmark and issue a default assessment”

What this means for businesses is that if the taxpayer can not substantiate their lodgments they must prove the ATO wrong or else the industry set benchmark will be applied by the ATO.

For example: John runs a small sandwich shop with a turnover of $150,000. The key ratio’s the ATO would be looking at for a sandwich shop would be Labour/Sales, Rent/Sales and Cost of Goods Sold/Sales. All of Johns ratio’s are substantially different to that of the ATO. John receives a letter from the ATO stating that his lodgments are different to the benchmarks. Does John need to worry?

Well this depends on the accuracy of his lodgment. If they are correct and John is able to substantiate his claims then whether they fall outside the benchmarks or not he is correct and can back up his claims. However, if he failed to keep records of his claims then the ATO will enforce the benchmarks set.

The ATO says that in dealing with the cash economy it isn’t their intention to issue arbitrary default assessments, and that there is a robust process they follow in relation to benchmarking audits.

Many businesses have already received letters from the Australian Taxation Office advising that the previous years assessments have fallen outside the benchmark for that industry. This has caused unwanted alarm in many cash businesses across Australia. However, as long as the tax payer has good record keeping they have no reason to be alarmed.

Additional information can be found about the business benchmarking process directly on the ATO Website.

Supply Chain Finance can also be known as Supplier Finance or Reverse Factoring. The term “supply chain” in this context is used to refer to the network of organisations and activities involved with producing, distributing and paying for goods and services provided by one or more suppliers to a single customer. For example a large company being supplied by numerous smaller businesses. “Supply Chain Finance” refers to the provision of finance to a number of supplier businesses, within a single supply chain, under one umbrella arrangement that has been initially set up by the customer at the top of the supply chain.

An example of Supply Chain Finance would be where a supermarket is purchasing products from a wide range of smaller suppliers. The supermarket will arrange a Supply Chain Financing agreement with a financier such that all of their suppliers have the option of accessing finance under the umbrella arrangement. This is often provided at competitive rates that reflect the size of the supermarkets business rather than the size of the individual supplier businesses. In this way, the suppliers benefit from the arrangement as they are able to access finance at much lower rates than they would typically be able to achieve in their own right.

Some arrangements may be as simple as funding the outstanding sales invoice to the supermarket or similar large business, but in some cases there may be other services bolted onto the arrangement to help improve the management of the entire supply process.

The Benefits of Supply Chain Finance
The benefits of Supply Chain Finance to the large business arranging it in respect of their suppliers is that they are able to enjoy credit periods from their suppliers. These are being funded at competitive rates that their individual suppliers may not have been able to achieve in their own right. This will encourage their suppliers to continue to provide that level of credit when they may not otherwise have been able to afford it.

The key benefit from the perspective of the suppliers within the arrangement is that they are able to access finance at rates that would normally be reserved for businesses that are much larger, for example, national or global supermarket chains.

In recent times we have seen a few examples of this type of arrangement being established by some major companies and these types of arrangements can be provided by a number of funders that also provide more traditional invoice finance and factoring facilities.

Alternative to Supply Chain Factoring & Reverse Factoring
However, a Supply Chain Finance or Reverse Factoring arrangement may not always be the right answer for a particular supplier as there can often be other issues that cause a supplier to seek a facility that is independent of their customer. An example might be not wishing their financing to be connected to their customer. The take up of a Supply Chain Finance arrangement may not be unanimous amongst the suppliers to a particular business and each situation needs to be reviewed on its own merits and compared with other options available independently within the market.

The Future
Although Supply Chain Finance appears to have taken off relatively slowly within the UK so far there are examples of new arrangements emerging and the product is likely to feature increasingly within the Invoice Finance market.

Enterprises in Albania must follow financial accounting and reporting rules aimed at providing investors with a true and fair view of the financial situation of the enterprise. These rules increase transparency and international comparability of the results of an enterprise or a group, and are a strong step into the foreigner market. International Accounting Standards (IAS) and National Accounting Standards (NAS) are widely used by Multinational Enterprises (MNEs).

Financial accounting and reporting rules are quickly shifting away from traditional legal concepts applied in commercial and fiscal laws. They are increasingly based on a fair presentation approach. The results shown for financial purposes may differ considerably from the profits shown in the books of single enterprises or in the tax returns. MNEs therefore risk being confronted with unwarranted requests for tax profits adjustments or with the requirement that profits shown for financial purposes in a given country be taxable in that country.
The national and international business community is of the view that it is important for tax authorities and policy makers to understand the reasons why the results shown in financial statements of an enterprise or a group differs from the taxable results of such enterprise or group.

Different approaches followed to determine taxable profits
Some countries in Europe follow the concept of dependence in determining the taxable results. This means that the profits resulting from the commercial accounts are taken as the primary basis for tax assessment. Subject to the relevant taxation rules, certain fiscal adjustments have to be made in order to calculate the taxable profits.

Other countries, in particular those with a common law tradition, follow the concept of independence. Two separate sets of rules are applied, one for the commercial results and another for tax purposes. Such countries do not rely heavily on commercial accounting rules for taxation, which may have as a consequence that the two systems differ considerably.
Both systems have advantages and shortcomings. With separate taxation rules, two sets of rules must be applied, which may increase the compliance burden for enterprises. It may also be easier to deviate for tax purposes from certain principles followed in commercial accounting. However, even when taxation is based on the commercial accounts, certain tax adjustments are unavoidable.

For the time being, it would be unrealistic to ask for a common approach in this respect. Each country is free to decide whether the determination of the taxable results should be based primarily on commercial accounts or derived from the application of a separate set of taxation rules.
Countries have the right to follow different approaches with respect to the relationship between commercial and tax accounting (dependence/independence). Both approaches have advantages and shortcomings. However, in both cases, well-established principles of taxation must not be disregarded.

Differences between commercial accounting and capital market rules
Commercial law prescribes how the financial results of a single enterprise are determined. These rules are often set out in specific accounting laws. Accounting and reporting rules are based on the principle of fair presentation and are mainly designed to increase transparency for investors. The standards must be applied consistently to the whole group. Sometimes, enterprises are given a choice with regard to the application of a given method or rule. The uniform application is examined by external auditors and is enforceable by supervisory bodies. Specific accounting and reporting standards for companies increase transparency and comparability, mainly for investors. A convergence of the principles governing existing accounting and reporting standards is desirable in order to increase comparability and to facilitate multiple listings. However, possible tax implications for companies, especially in countries relying on commercial accounts as primary basis for tax assessment, have to be kept in mind, and the convergence should not deteriorate the tax position of enterprises.

Different approaches and different purposes

Commercial, financial and taxation rules serve their own purposes and, as a consequence, differences in the results should be expected and accepted.

o Commercial accounting rules are used to determine the commercial results of a single entity. They establish, in particular, whether a profit or a loss has resulted for a given period. The rules may form part of a country’s commercial or company law. They are intended to protect the rights of shareholders and creditors and, as a consequence, the prudence principle occupies an important place.

o Financial accounting and reporting rules are part of a country’s capital market regulations. Their objective is to give investors (and other stakeholders) a reliable and, as accurate as possible, picture of the financial situation of the economic entity (group) at a given moment (financial position, performance, cash flows). The guiding principle is “fair presentation” or “true and fair view”. Other important rules in this respect are “substance over form”, “market value measurement”, and – as a consequence of true and fair – the factual prohibition of hidden reserves.

o Taxation rules are used to determine taxable profits. Their objective is to define the tax liability of enterprises to the tax administration for a given year. The rules must be susceptible to compliance by taxpayers and control and enforcement by tax authorities. Taxation rules for companies are usually designed to preserve economic neutrality, so that business decisions are not unduly influenced by fiscal measures. The rules may also provide for non-fiscal objectives. Tax laws reflect general principles of taxation, such as non-discrimination or taxation according to economic capacity, but also practicalities, such as availability of funds for payment of the liability (realization), fairness between different categories of taxpayers (neutrality), the annual character of the liability (loss carryovers, standardized depreciations), long-term profitability (prudence, imparity, valuation below market value) and other such factors. For example, tax systems may prescribe special timing rules for the recognition (or deferral) of income, loss carryovers from other years and other rules peculiar to the field of taxation.

The approaches followed for the calculation of commercial, financial and taxation statements serve different purposes. Although the respective rules are focused on the same general object (the results of a business entity in a given period), it is important to understand that, under existing concepts, the rules applied in financial accounting and those applied for tax purposes should not be expected to be strictly comparable.

The good of interactions between accounting and taxation rules

As a result of demands by international capital markets (globalization), widely used accounting and reporting standards are expected to lead to a certain harmonization in the area of accounting and reporting. On the other hand, so long as each country imposes its own taxes, implementing its own tax policies, a similar degree of harmonization of taxation rules is not to be expected. At the same time, the more the rules used for financial accounting differ from those used in the field of taxation, and the more the results of a group become transparent, the more obvious the differences that result from the application of the two sets of rules become. Tax authorities should not use the financial results of an entity (in the same country or in third countries) as a pretext for an adjustment of the taxable profits of an enterprise or to justify transfer pricing corrections.
The rules applied for financial accounting and those used for tax purposes may differ considerably and may lead to results that cannot reasonably be compared. Tax authorities and policy makers should accept that the underlying principles of financial accounting are not always compatible with basic principles and practices used in the field of taxation. From a tax policy perspective, it is important that taxation rules are not undermined by an inappropriate extension of financial reporting requirements.

Internationally recognized accounting standards can be seen as a coherent set of rules for accounting and reporting that should give investors a “true and fair view” of the financial situation (balance sheet), performance (income statement) and changes in the financial position (cash flow) of an economic entity at a given moment.

In the field of taxation, some widely accepted principles clearly deviate from concepts used for financial accounting and reporting purposes. In addition, tax laws often provide for non-fiscal objectives, e.g. the granting of specific incentives (for R&D, for special reserves, to promote self-financing, to attract certain business activities, etc.). They may be designed to influence the behavior of enterprises by granting incentives or using disincentives (e.g. environmental taxes or relieves). Furthermore, a country’s taxation system is the result of a political decision-making process and therefore, in many cases, neither neutral for businesses nor fully internally consistent.
Taxation and financial accounting rules serve different purposes, have different objectives and are based on different principles. Although both sets of rules are used to measure the annual results of an enterprise, differences in the results or in the methods applied have to be accepted. Financial accounting looks at the enterprise as an economic entity, whereas taxation is normally based on a separate entity approach.

Policy makers in the fields of taxation and accounting must be aware of these differences. Tax authorities must respect them and refrain from using companies’ financial results for tax adjustments.

By Eduart GJOKUTAJ

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The emergence of digital and Internet technologies in recent years have brought about new printing trends that will forever change the printing industry. These printing industry trends have changed the way companies do business from the design to the printing phase of operations.

In Australia, the printing industry has met these new printing trends with open arms as many have updated their workflow and production strategies to meet the changing demands. On the other hand, many of those who never made these important changes have struggled because of the growing competition by non-print and online media.

According to the Rochester Institute of Technology School of Print Media, there has been a growing media competition considering the fact that print advertising is driven by newspaper, magazine and periodical revenues while “the Internet is chipping away at traditional media usage and communication.”

The recent developments in the printing industry can be attributed to several printing trends:

Workflow DigitisationOne of the most important printing industry trends has been the electronic delivery of files as desktop publishing takes full control of the printing process. There is an emerging need for the electronic delivery of graphics and images, which has made film media process obsolete. The industry has adopted automated workflow processes that would link customers, printing systems and services like never before.
Technology IntegrationPrinting trends are gearing towards full workflow automation with the development of computer-to-plate imaging technologies that allow desktop publishing applications to output directly to a printing plate. Many printing presses are integrating “hybrid” printing by combining different reproduction processes since many print jobs are complex with specialised coating or printing requirements. There is a growing trend in cross media conversion from one file to any information distribution and electronic publishing methods. The advancement of digital technologies such as Direct Imaging offset presses and Inkjet printers have made colour printing cost effective.
Changing DemandsPrinting trends have also pointed towards shorter production runs and schedules in an effort to compete with digital printing. Printing production now shifts closer to the point of distribution as printing trends move away from being press-centric to printer-centric. A greater volume of printing jobs has moved away from printing companies to those produced by desktop printing and offshore printing firms.

The implementation of new printing industry trends such as the workflow digitisation, technology integration and changing demands have transformed companies into more efficient and effective businesses. However, some niche pre-print operations are now rendered obsolete because desktop publishing has eliminated the need for pre-press and film-based processes. The implementation of a digitised workflow has further automated the printing process and at the same time freed the operation from labour-intensive tasks that may hamper production schedules. Despite the growing significance of online-based services, the printing industry remains strong and enduring as it adopts new strategies to achieve success in the future.

Western historical experience with taxation has been that a government’s increased financial dependency on tax revenues may generate governance benefits, because it encourages the accountability of the state to its citizens. Explicit or implicit agreement about who should pay tax, at what rates and for what purposes was reached through bargaining between the ruler and the potential taxpayers. In contemporary OECD countries issues of taxation remain central and important – especially around elections.

In contrast, taxation is not high on the domestic political agenda in Balkan countries. With the exception of Greece, the politics of taxation are, in general, limited to involve a few specialized interest groups, and tend to take place in non-public arenas. Small lobby groups pressure for exemptions, for rate reductions on imports, or bargain with officials or ministers about tax liabilities.

Local government taxation is, however, a major exception to this. Around election time, this form of taxation is often high on the political agenda of both national and local politicians.

But, this politicization of local government taxes does not increase tax compliance among citizens. To the contrary, it often undermines local government tax collection efforts. The main reason why issues of taxation has not entered the political agenda in those countries is that only a minority of citizens pay direct taxes to the state and the failure of revenue-raising seems most acute in countries that receive large amounts of aid. Partly as a result of this, donors are increasingly directly involved in recipient country tax policy making and administration. Typically, donors push for ambitious overall revenue targets. This may, in some contexts, have significant but unintended negative influences on (i) taxpayers’ rights through coercive tax enforcement, and (ii) accountability by empowering the bureaucracy at the expense of elected politicians.

As part of the research programme, I have analyzed the relationship between taxation and accountability in the context of tax reforms carried out in a number Balkan countries. I focused on three interrelated issues affecting the relationship between taxation and accountability:
i) The internal accountability of the tax system was assessed with reference to administrative reforms of the tax system;
ii) ii) the democratic accountability of the tax reforms was analyzed by assessing whether the tax reforms created closer links between governments and their citizens; and iii) we also studied to what extent external accountability relations between governments and international donors affected domestic accountability relations.

In this part of the research project I emphasized the ongoing tax reforms in Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia, and Serbia where reforms were introduced as part of the economic restructuring agreements with the international donor community.

The research has found that generally, the tax reforms have only to a limited extent succeeded in widening the tax net. Only formal business corporations appear visibly affected by the central government tax reforms. However, our research suggests that a voice and an organized response to the new revenue policies are developing within the business communities in the specific countries. The fact that these issues are being treated through formal, public organizations, rather than through bribery and public deals may indicate the beginning of a link between economic elites and government in issues of revenue generation.

My research indicates that it is not easy to introduce democratic accountability through externally imposed tax reforms. The tax reforms carried out in were to a large extent formulated and imposed by the international donor community. To meet the targets set by the IMF and Ministry of Finance, the revenue authorities in have focused on increasing collection and compliance from existing taxpayers rather than attempting the more complicated task of widening the tax base. Attempts to meet externally set tax-to-GDP targets may undermine democratic accountability if legal processes and taxpayers’ rights are set aside in order to comply with external accountability demands. The semi-military operations to prevent smuggling and tax evasion in Uganda illustrate this concern. Our findings suggest that if coercion is accepted as an integral part of tax collection it is unlikely that state-society relations can become more accountable and democratic.

A case that was recently decided in the Federal Court highlights a problem in relation to the keeping of business records. During the 1988 income year, a unit trust engaged in the purchase of a significant investment. It was not a good investment. Not too long afterwards the investment was worthless and in May 1993 the investment was sold for $1. This resulted in the unit trust incurring a capital loss of nearly $2.5m.

All of the units in the trust were sold from the original owner to a new owner in two tranches. One was in June 1993 and the other was in June 1995.

Capital losses may only be deducted for tax purposes against capital gains. Put another way, capital losses may not be used as a deduction against normal income. Due to this, the capital losses were carried forward by the unit trust until a capital gain was made by the unit trust in 2001.

The Australia Taxation Office (“ATO”) raised amended assessments against the ultimate beneficiaries of the trust and would not allow the capital loss of $2.5m to be set off against the capital gain made in 2001. The beneficiaries objected to this and the matter found its way to the Federal Court.

The main argument of the ATO was that the trust had fundamentally changed through some things that happened in 1993. I won’t go into the details of that.

However, the ATO also argued that the taxpayers could not prove that the purchase of the investment occurred in 1988 because, among other things, the primary documents that evidence the transaction no longer existed. This was so even though the financial statements of the unit trust showed the acquisition and there was verbal evidence from the people who actually engaged in the transaction. I note that the financial statements were prepared by a reputable firm of Chartered Accountants.

In his testimony before the court, the original owner of the units said that he did not have any of the business records of any of his companies or entities from 21 years ago. I know of few people that would.

So here’s the point. Generally, businesses are required to keep their records for a five year period under the Australian taxation law. But when it comes to capital gains tax, you need to keep records of everything that may be relevant to working out whether you have made a capital gain or capital loss. And, according to the ATO publication “Record Keeping For Small Business”, “You must keep these records for five years after you sell or otherwise dispose of an asset…”. So, you may need to keep the records for a very long time.

You will note in the case I refer to above that the ATO required the taxpayer to produce business records of a transaction that was 21 years old. Further, the disposal of the investment occurred in 1993, so that was 16 years earlier (not five).

The moral of the story is this: if you think that a transaction may have long term significant tax implications, don’t (ever?) throw out the primary documents that relate to that transaction. Keeping an electronic (scanned) image is something that you should consider.

Wishing you easier business.

John M. Jeffreys