2012 Theme Recap and 2013 New Year Motto

Looking back on 2012 I have to smile.  It was a year filled with some good, some bad, and some ugly.... but I came through the year improved for the experience.  Overall it was a fine year, and I have enjoyed the journey.

I wrote on my blog (here and here) about working to "be a better person" in 2012.  It is not that I was a schmuck... I just wanted to focus on improvements.

There were four areas of attention:

• Belief in Self
• Intention in Action
• Joy in Family and Friends
• Fun in Success

In the end, the "theme" was subjective, as it is hard to say if I am any "better".  However, I do view the year as a success.  I did believe in myself, took action, found joy with friends and family and had fun in my success.  I also hope I helped others along the way.  Many who teach goal setting profess that a goal MUST be measurable, which is why I went with a "theme" (it allowed much more flexibility).  It is certainly open to opinion and there are those who would criticize,.... while others might applaud.  Yet in the end, I did try to be better ever day.

I learned through trial and error that there are three kinds of people we encounter:

1.  Givers:  These are folks who enjoy helping people excel along the way.  They do not lead with the "what's in it for me" mentality and are never jealous of the successes achieved by others.  They know that your success is proof they can find their own victories.  These people make introductions, promote others, and do all they can to create "win / win" situations.  

2.  Indifferents:  These are the ones who do not care much about about your efforts.  But wait, before you judge... these people are okay, too.  It is not every's job to be caught up in the lives of others.  What is important to us will not always be on the same level of importance to someone else.  The world can be demanding and there is not time to be engaged with each person's cause.  Sometimes people just do not have the bandwidth to see your efforts and lend a hand, or they do not share your beliefs.  Don't get bummed when people are indifferent.  Often they wish they were the givers (or think they are the givers) all the time.  Usually they do give sometimes (just not to you), and usually when it is convenient for them.  Don't fret... and help them if you can, and keep going toward your goals.

Meanwhile there is the third kind of person:

3.  Jerks: The people who think that everyone is out to get them and they chagrin anything that is a win for another person.  They are confident that people are cheating if they are in the lead.  These people can suck the energy out of the room, and cause a lot of hurt along the way.  They do not do it on purpose, and will rationalize all day why the other person is surely wrong, but they have a darkness deep inside.   You cannot change their soul.  They are jealous, needy, and greedy.  Often they are invisible until it is too late.  When you do business with a jerk you eventually find out.... and it is painful.  

Fortunately, the givers out-number the jerks (Indifferents exist on a situation by situation basis and are harder to quantify).  Part of my mantra for 2013 will include the words "fewer jerks".  I am trying to learn to identify and avoid those who are clearly selfish or self-centered in their pursuits.  I am writing a private mantra for the year, and it is all about the importance of the good people in my life and mutually beneficial opportunities.  

A win for one is a win for both when all parties see opportunities as unlimited.  Those who see a pie with a finite number of slices will always get nasty when seeking their slice.  I choose not to believe that we live in a finite world. 

We need meaningful connections is we desire meaningful success.  Build relationships, but choose you people wisely.

******************

In 2013 I am going to attempt to live by the motto:

         "Value People, Have Fun, and Make a Difference!!!"

I hear from people from all over the world that they desire to have a stronger network, and they had hoped that social media was the answer.... but after nearly a decade online, many isolated.  A "link" a "like" or a "friend-request" is not necessarily meaningful.  We need the human-to-human interaction to be more engaging to find the real results of networking.

I believe that we are still living in difficult times and that in the new year we need meaningful connections with others more than ever before.  It is why the topic of networking continues to grow in popularity.  

(When I began speaking professionally 4 years ago I was told that the topic was overdone and nobody cared.... meanwhile I have found that through the recession the power of business relationships has become more important).

Please join me in 2013 in stirring the pot to encourage people to invest in each other beyond creating a digital phone book of strangers.  Remember that when you deal with another person there is always a human on the other side of your interaction that has their own "stuff" going on in their life.  Networking is not about how they can help you.... but how you can create a mutual web of shared success.

Happy New Year 2013.

Have A Great Year

thom singer

Fourth Circuit on Duke Lacrosse

A couple of weeks late on this. The Fourth Circuit held that all the Fourth Amendment claims by the Duke lacrosse players against the investigating police officers should have been dismissed on qualified immunity grounds.The court did allow state law malicious prosecution claims by the three indicted players, but not by the 30+ players who never were indicted, to proceed. Some thoughts follow.

1) The claim by the three indicted players for a Fourth Amendment malicious prosecution violation failed because the independent decision of the prosecutor to seek and indictment (and the independent decision of the grand jury to indict) broke the causal chain between the officers' conduct and the unconstitutional prosecution. Absent allegations that the officers affirmatively misled or unduly pressured the prosecutor to seek that indictment, his acts insulate the officers from liability. The court further rejected the argument that the police and Nifong conspired to seek an unconstitutional indictment and prosecution, emphasizing the duty of police and prosecutors to work together in seeking to establish probable cause and to seek indictments; a "conspiracy" thus could be alleged in every case. On a related point, the court in a footnote rejected an overlapping Fourteenth Amendment substantive due process claim against the officers for fabricating evidence. Substantive due process is not available when there is an "explicit textual source" for a constitutional claim; because the claim could be brought under the Fourth Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment could not provide the basis for a claim.

This result seems correct, although it illustrates well the difficulty (if not impossibility) of using § 1983 to challenge misconduct in the criminal justice system. A prosecutor enjoys absolute immunity in seeking and obtaining an indictment, while his conduct insulates police officers from liability, at least absent affirmative lies or concealment of evidence. The court was a bit too dismissive of the possibility of a conspiracy to indict, although that may have been because the complaint itself showed Nifong as the bad actor, taking weak evidence, which the officers themselves insisted was weak, and moving forward with an indictment. On the other hand, because police never themselves initiate a prosecution, perhaps the Fourth Amendment is the wrong source; perhaps cases of fabricated evidence should be handled under substantive due process--after all, it is hard to imagine what misconduct could be more "outrageous" than fabricating evidence.

2) The claims against the City of Durham had to be dismissed once the court held that there was no underlying violation. The same for the "stigma-plus" S/D/P claims against police officers who made public statements suggesting the players' guilt. The DA's independent decision to seek the indictment broke any causal connection between the statements and the indictment, eliminating any "plus" necessary to state a claim. The latter was an unfortunate way to resolve it--I would have liked to hear the court take on whether "stigma-plus" was a valid theory of liability.

3) Judge Wilkinson wrote a strongly worded concurrence, criticizing the e plaintiffs' lawyers for overreaching, both in the dramatic numbers of claims asserted (23, 32, and 40, among the three complaints--and the unindicted players, who never got dragged into the system, actually brought more claims than the indicted players), the "sweeping scope" of the litigation, and the "overwrought" nature of the claims and the allegations. Wilkinson had a stronger position against "stigma-plus" claims as inconsistent with SCOTUS precedent; he also read Iqbal to require particular allegations of precisely what each supervisor did to cause the violations alleged; simply naming names, without identifying their conduct, is insufficient.

4) The state-law malicious prosecution claims remain alive against the officers, as do the claims against Duke University (who could not appeal at this non-final stage) and Nifong (who did not appeal the denial of his motion to dismiss. And despite Wilkinson's point that this case continues more than six years after the criminal charges against the three players were dismissed and coming up on seven years since the infamous party, the case goes on.

Richard Sherman successfully appeals drug test result: Did NFL avoid StarCaps II?

Seattle Seahawks corner back Richard Sherman, who threatened to sue the NFL if they suspended him for a positive drug test result, successfully appealed the result on grounds the test was corrupted. Had Sherman been suspended and sued, he likely would have relied on the StarCaps litigation - where Minnesota state law was viewed as protecting NFL players in spite of conflicting CBA provisions (the players ultimately lost the case but succeeded in showing state law applied).

I discuss the legal impact of Sherman's appeal with Seattle's NBC TV Affiliate, King TV:

Links Dec 27

Facebook paid £2.9m tax on £840m profits made outside US, figures show Guardian
Dec 23 - Facebook channelled the bulk of its profits through Ireland and on to the Cayman Islands. Facebook Ireland made "gross 2011 profits of £840m – or £3.1m per each of its 287 staff. Despite the high gross profit, Facebook Ireland was able to cut its tax bill to just €3.2m by using an accounting technique called the "Double Irish"."

Ireland, US Reach FATCA Deal Tax-News
Dec 27 - "The agreement provides that Irish financial institutions will report to the Irish Revenue Commissioners in respect of US account-holders. In exchange, US financial institutions will be required to report to the IRS in respect of any Irish-resident account-holders. This information will then be automatically exchanged by the two tax authorities on an annual basis."

Swiss Bankers Welcome Enhanced Due Diligence Measures Tax-News
Dec 27 - The Federal Department of Finance commented: “With the planned implementation of the revised recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), serious tax offences will be qualified as predicate offences for money laundering in future. In the event that they suspect money laundering, financial intermediaries should also report these cases to the Money Laundering Reporting Office Switzerland.”

Greece: Tax evasion scrutinized Kathimerini
Dec 26 - "Greece’s two financial prosecutors are expected to confirm by the end of the week whether the latest version of the so-called Lagarde list of Greeks who had deposits at the Geneva branch of HSBC is the same as the one they had been investigating over the last few weeks."

See also:
Greece not doing enough to fight tax dodgers, say EU and IMF The Telegraph
Dec 24 - "Greece's drive to crack down on tax evasion risks "falling idle" and must be reinvigorated, a report by the European Union and International Monetary Fund said on Monday."

Kabul blames tax evasion on "foreign" firms Deutsche Welle
Dec 24 - "The Afghan finance ministry has accused some NATO-linked foreign companies of "running away" from paying taxes. This follows a claim by President Hamid Karzai that corruption is his country is "imposed" from outside."

How to derail the corporate tax evasion gravy train Digital Journal
Dec 25 - " The legislators have apparently taken the “Wild West/no laws” myth of online transactions much too literally and put tax evasion in the too hard basket."

Young Swiss market liberals hail Depardieu's tax move France 24
Dec 23 - "Members of the youth section of the Swiss Liberal Party (PLR) have written to French actor Gerard Depardieu inviting him to Switzerland if things don't work out in Belgium. Their letter, published in the Internet edition of the daily paper Le Matin, congratulated him for having fled increased taxes in France."

Ukraine reminds Santas about tax Reuters
Dec 26 - "Cash-strapped Ukraine on Wednesday reminded entertainers making money by posing as Did Moroz - the local version of Santa Claus - and his helpers to pay income tax."

NCAA Investigators: are they like prosecutors or cops?

Geoff Rapp has some thoughtful comments on this question in a story in today's Los Angeles Times.  Here's an excerpt:

"The NCAA does not operate like a prosecutor's office or a police department where there are clearly understood constitutional limits," said Geoffrey C. Rapp, a University of Toledo law professor and editor of the Sports Law blog. "They don't have a structure in place to ensure consistency."

For more, click here.

Lance Armstrong and what constitutes fraud

ESPN reports that Britain's Sunday Times has sued Lance Armstrong, seeking to recover more than 1 million pounds (more than $ 1.6 million) that the paper paid to Armstrong to settle a prior defamation action that Armstrong brought against the paper for repeating allegations that Armstrong doped. The theory is that Armstrong initiated "baseless and fraudulent" proceedings by alleging that doping allegations were false and insisting in settlement negotiations that he had never doped.

UK law is obviously quite different than US law. Still, I cannot imagine this suit can work. By bringing the suit, Armstrong simply put the paper to its burden of proving its allegations were true (a key difference between UK and US defamation law, where the plaintiff must prove falsehood). He was free to deny the truth of those allegations, both in bringing the suit and engaging in settlement negotiations.

Given my First Amendment views, I am no fan of British defamation law or of worthless defamation suits that are designed to intimidate the press. But the notion that such suits, and their settlement, constitute actionable fraud seems equally wrong.

December Taxcast

In December’s Taxcast from the Tax Justice Network: Banks – too big to fail and now too big to prosecute? Thanks but no thanks to Starbucks cynical offer to pay some corporation tax after all, and we discuss a new system rating corporate tax responsibility for consumers that will be out in 2013. And – how we can reform our tax system to stop abuse.

Click on http://traffic.libsyn.com/taxcast/Dec_Taxcast.mp3 or see www.tackletaxhavens.com/taxcast

The 12 Days of Conference - Day Thirteen

Over the past twelve days this blog was graced by informative posts about the meetings industry by a variety of guest bloggers.  "The 12 Days of Conference" turned out to be more than I expected, so today I wrap it up with the last post (yes, Day Thirteen.... always provide more than is expected!)

CLICK HERE to read the whole "12 Days of Conference" series!

Give Them More Than They Are Expecting

by Thom Singer

When you are planning an event (or doing anything), make sure that you are providing more than your attendees expect.  Too often we are conditioned to expect less than promised, so when something exceeds expectations the "WOW FACTOR" goes way up.  People enjoy positive surprises, so a little extra in the "Conference Attendee Experience" will have a lasting impact..

What you provide will vary from event to event, but you should look for ways to be sure that your conference is not a "cookie cutter" experience from the earliest promotions to the after-event follow up.

Like "Day 13" of a twelve day series, when you add something unexpected, people will take notice (you are reading this right now. right?).  The result of going beyond the normal and providing an extra will always make your participants take notice.  When an event ends all your attendees have are the memories, thus you need to ensure up front that there is something that will stick in their brains.

Some ideas that can go beyond the normal:

• Speakers and topics that are not the "same" as what are seen and heard at other events

• Unique venues and decoration that spur creativity

• Meaningful engagement of host organization staff with attendees

• Creative meal experiences that encourage an atmosphere for networking and learning

• A surprise program (not everything needs to be in the promotional materials)

• Post-event online programs to keep people engaged

Be creative.  If you simply copy an add-on from other events, then it no longer will stand out.  Doing the same thing as others by definition is the same... not different.  This can be hard work, because being creative is not  easy.  (Sure, it looks easy when it is pulled off successfully).  There needs to be a commitment from all levels at the host organization to find ways to deliver something that will add value and serve the attendee community.

Playing it "safe" and "same" will not cause anyone to take notice.  The best event planners are risk takers, not those who are buried behind checklists that ensure all is just like last year.  Go beyond the expectations every single time, and your event will become a "happening".

Good luck!

(What ideas do you have to add here?)

Have A Great Day.

thom singer

Thom Singer is known as "The Conference Catalyst". He works with meeting planners and conference organizers to set the tone for a meeting. His presentations educate, inspire and motivate attendees to engage deeper in the event and make meaningful connections. http://www.conferencecatalyst.com 

The 12 Days of Conference - Day Twelve

As we prepare for 2013 I am hosting a series of blog posts called "The 12 Days of Conference". Each day a different expert from the meeting, convention planning, speaking and hotel industries will add their single best idea on how to create better events or other tips for how to improve the "Conference Attendee Experience" in the new year.

Planning is the New Black

By Lina Roque

Pre-show, during, and post-show: plan your exhibit experiences around your target audience. 

·         Pre-show strategy

Is your goal to generate leads for your sales team, sell product on the floor or increase brand recognition?

Consider your target demographic– you should know your target market so intimately that you understand what drives them both personally and professionally. This is a great chance for some face time with clients in a more relaxed environment. Sending pre-show invitations such as and invitations with a small gift prior to an event can really boost attendance rates.

A well trained, successful sales person knows which questions to ask prospects early in the lead capture process in order to identify whether or not the prospect will be a good candidate for your products or services. Make sure your trade show team knows which questions to ask and keep them motivated by setting some realistic goals, such as collecting a certain number of email addresses, approaching a certain number of attendees, or handing out a certain number of brochures.

·         Attract attendees to your booth

Part of your planning should be thinking about how you can engage visitors using all five senses. People tend to remember experiences much longer than they remember casual conversations or static product displays. Visualize the feeling you want to deliver to attendees when they step into your booth space. Do you need to order creative promotional items? Giveaways? Music?

Make your trade show exhibit booth an experience to remember. Your trade show booth gives attendees something to do when they visit your booth. This encourages them to stay longer in your space and hopefully have more meaningful conversations with your staffers; it provides an experience they can't get at a retail store. Appeal to the other senses (smell and taste) by providing a complementary coffee or fresh snacks that will attract extra attendees.

Most tradeshows host large evening events. Think about how you can maximize the opportunity, one idea we’ve heard of is hire a college drama group to stage a mock protest or a Flash Mob to highlight your product. There are creative ways to attract attendees to your booth.

Be sure your design communicates who you are, what you do and how you can meet your target markets needs. Create eye-catching trade show exhibits with outstanding signage with simple text and/or illustrations. Strategic lighting within your trade show booth that highlights logos and graphics can be an eye catching way to engage attendees. The use of interactive technology such as iPads can be a knowledge center for attendees for you to highlight your product or service.

·         Post show strategy

Throughout the day, your team will probably have picked up a good number of business leads – make sure you get this information from your team at the end of the day.
Social media is playing an increasingly bigger role in exhibitions and trade shows, consider following up with your leads on Twitter as an icebreaker, and then set meetings via email and phone call.

For more information on creating and designing trade show exhibits, contact The Exhibit Source.

Lina Roque is the Social Media Coordinator for The Exhibit Source, a design-based exhibit house that provides a complete selection of event marketing and trade show exhibit solutions. Although new to the trade show industry, Lina is looking forward to using social media to connect and help clients and perspectives meet their exhibit needs. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/linaroque. Follow The Exhibit Source on Twitter at www.twitter.com/thexhibitsource

Cool Things My Friends Do - Austin Auctioneers Mike and Sherri Hanley

Each Friday on this blog I enjoy highlighting some of the cool things my friends do in their work and personal lives. 

Ever you ever been to an auction?  I mean a real auction with those fast-talking auctioneers who get the whole place buzzing with excitement?  My friends Mike and Sherri Hanley (of SR Custom Events and Auctions) are real-to-goodness auctioneers. 

They are "Charity Benefit Auction Specialists" who believe in giving their clients two Professional Auctioneers for the price of one.  Mike and Sherri both attend the event and use their co-auctioneering style to create banter and fun to keep the crowd engaged.  Also, with a lot of attendees, it is very beneficial to have two people to provide

not only bid calling, but professional ring/color/bid spotting.

Together they have over 40 years of experience in non profit event planning and fundraising.  They work hard in advance to consult clients on crowd analysis, evening agenda, Live and Silent Auction strategy, timing, order, placement, etc...to ensure the entire evening goes smoothly.

Also, if needed they can provide "Auction Boosters."  These are items to be added on a reserve basis to round out your auction.  For example, you may have a lot of  trips and jewelry, but we could add movie, music and/or Sports memorabilia.

Finally, among  the many strategies that have proven successful over the years that they will share with you is what they call Paddles Up or Fund-a-Need.  This is a direct ask from the crowd that results in $1000's of dollars in just a few minutes during the Live Auction.  

Mike and Sherri are looking forward to 2013 and the work they will be doing for Empower Network, Habitat for Humanity, Purpose Medical, Ace Academy and many more.

More information can be found on www.austinauctioneer.com

Have A Great Day

thom singer

Links Dec 21

Europe needs joint effort to tackle tax avoidance: EU Reuters
Dec 20 - On "an action plan detailed by EU taxation policy commissioner Algirdas Semeta on Thursday to deal with inventive and increasingly common tactics used by big companies and others to reduce their tax bills."

Netherlands To Support Tax Collection In Developing Countries Tax-News
Dec 19 - Very positive news - Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Lilianne Ploumen has announced plans to assist developing countries in the collection of taxes. Further, existing tax treaties will be examined to assess the effects of the accords on tax revenues in developing countries.

Family trusts face greater scrutiny from banks when New Zealand's anti-money laundering law comes into force next June interest .co .nz
Dec 19 - "New Zealand's reputation has also taken a hit from a long list of New Zealand registered companies, often so-called offshore finance companies, committing crimes overseas."

CHART: The Global Corporate Tax Rate Plummeted In The Last Decade Think Progress
Dec 19 - Countering a conservative myth that corporations suffer from too-high taxes, a Deutsche Bank report illustrates how the global effective corporate tax rate has dropped significantly in the past decade.

Vietnam: Many foreign firms under tax evasion question vietnamnet
Dec 13 - Reporting on challenges faced by Vietnam with transfer pricing. Cites as one example: "Coming to Vietnam in 1993, Coca Cola has continuously invested in production expansion; its revenue growth is always strong, but the tax agency said they have not collected any coin of taxes from the company."

U.S.: 515 Groups Send Letters to White House & Congress Americans for Tax Fairness
Dec 20 - A letter sent to President Barack Obama and Capitol Hill in support of revenue-positive changes to the corporate tax code and to voice strong opposition to a territorial tax system.

In Russia, unheeded cries of corruption Reuters
Dec 18 - On challenges of journalists reporting on corruption in Russia. Cites President Barack Obama signing into law the so-called Magnitsky Act, which will deny visas to Russia officials thought to be connected with the violent death in jail of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer pursuing a state-level tax fraud.

UK: Revenue & Customs offers deal on tax avoidance sheltering £3.5bn Guardian
Dec 20 - "HM Revenue & Customs is to write to some of Britain's wealthiest bankers, hedge fund managers and celebrities offering a chance to settle income tax avoidance schemes estimated to have sheltered more than £3.5bn through film financing structures and other tax-motivated partnerships."

UBS Traders' 'Humongous' Libor-Fixing Boasts CNBC
Dec 19 - On the shocking content of emails and instant messaging by UBS traders involved in rigging Libor, released by The U.K.'s Financial Services Authority.

Tax avoidance could earn you a seat in the Lords Farmers Weekly
Dec 20 - An amusing account, by an English farmer, of a tax strategy structured via his "farming holding company "Carrbucks" registered in the little-known Caribbean atoll of "Amoral"".

The 12 Days of Conference - Day Eleven

As we prepare for 2013 I am hosting a series of blog posts called "The 12 Days of Conference". Each day a different expert from the meeting, convention planning, speaking and hotel industries will add their single best idea on how to create better events or other tips for how to improve the "Conference Attendee Experience" in the new year.

The Truth Can Set Your Meeting Free

by Barbara Palmer

As an editor at PCMA Convene magazine, I don’t plan events — I just write about them. (And the thought has occurred to me that I wouldn’t last a month as a meeting planner — I have enormous respect for the complexity and demands of the job.)

But in talking with literally hundreds of planners, I’ve noticed the same thing in many top performers: They know their biggest problems can lead to their biggest successes.

Take, for example, the PCMA Learning Lounge, which debuted at Convening Leaders 2010 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The concept  —dozens of short presentations offered simultaneously in a variety of formats — was wildly popular, much emulated, and has since become a regular meeting component. (It’s also where I met Thom — he was a standing-room-only presenter at the 2012 Convening Leaders Learning Lounge in San Diego.)

But maybe my favorite thing about the Learning Lounge is that it was created as a direct result of a problem.  In 2009, Kelly Peacy, PCMA’s senior vice president, education & meetings, was wrestling with the fact that the MGM Grand’s arena seats 16,000, and Convening Leaders was expecting 4,000 attendees. How to shrink the space so that attendees didn’t feel swallowed up?

           

The solution?  Use half the space for general sessions and to fill the other half with education, including the Learning Lounge. Link: http://pcmaconvene.com/?p=973

I wrote a story for Convene earlier this year about Danielle Cote, vice president for event marketing for Sage North America, who was more than dismayed when RFID chips in attendee badges revealed that her meeting’s expensive keynote sessions weren’t attracting nearly the number or kind of attendees she had assumed. The data, she said, was “gut-wrenching.”

But instead of wringing her hands, Danielle took action. Working with meeting architect and speaker Sarah Michel, of Perfecting Connecting, the pair reinvented the keynote session at the 2012 meeting, using a modified Open Space concept — called “Sage City” — that engaged attendees, vendors, and Sage employees before, during, and after the meetings.  The innovation not only doubled the level of attendance, it created new ways for the software company to learn about how their customers used their products. [link to story: http://content.yudu.com/A1z362/ConOct2012/resources/40.htm]

I see a few key things in both examples: Neither Kelly or Danielle denied that they had a problem or sugarcoated their challenges. They looked at them clearly and dove right into the middle of them.  And then they executed their problem-solving solutions to high standards, calling in expert help where needed.

If you are attending Convening Leaders in Orlando in January, you’ll see the Learning Lounge in action, of course, but you can hear Danielle and Sarah tell the story of Sage City at on Tuesday, Jan. 15, at 10:30 a.m. 

Hope to see you there! 

Barbara Palmer is senior editor of Convene magazine. A resident of Brooklyn, she has worked as a writer and editor at newspapers, magazines, and non-profit organizations. 

Mutual Options in MLB Player Contracts

Wendy Thurm over at FanGraphs has written an interesting story looking at the use of mutual options in MLB player contracts.  As she notes, the mutual option only vests if both the player and the team agree to extend the contract for another season.  Not surprisingly, Wendy finds that these clauses have rarely been exercised by both parties, as usually one of the two sides determines it would be more advantageous to walk away from the agreement.  Nevertheless, she identifies several reasons why it may make sense for such a provision to be included in a player's contract.

Check out the full piece here.

Links Dec 20

Failure to Count Uncounted
Dec 17 - Alex Cobham reports from the conference of the DFID-funded International Centre for Tax and Development in Cape Town. This "brings together researchers from around the world to work on various research themes – including tax havens and corporate tax shenanigans, and of course an effort to generate improved data… All the presentations are now available, including some intriguing insights into the difficulties faced by African revenue authorities. Too much is uncounted, here too."

Vale settles Brazil, Swiss tax cases, to take Q4 charge Reuters
Dec 19 - "Brazil's Vale SA, the world's second-largest mining company, settled tax disputes in Switzerland and Brazil  ... Vale agreed to pay 212 million Swiss francs ($232 million) to the Swiss federal government, and 663 million reais ($317 million) to the government of Brazil's Minas Gerais state."

Senegal sees 2013 mining revenue tax earnings at $30m mineweb
Dec 17 - Senegal is seeking to boost money it collects from the growing mining industry. The budget document handed to reporters at the 14 December National Assembly said “The mining sector makes a very weak contribution to the budget of the state”.

Zambia: State to Probe Siphoned K40 Trillion allAfrica
Dec 20 - "Government will institute investigations into reports that the country lost a shocking K40 trillion from 2000 to 2010 in tax evasion and corruption, mainly in the mining sector." See also: Clip Tax Evasion Now!

EU lets Catholic Church off its billion-euro tax bill The Independent
Dec 19 - "The Vatican has received a generous early Christmas present from European Union chiefs with the announcement that illegal tax exemption from 2006 to 2011, which saved the Catholic Church billions of euros, will not have to be paid back." Hat tip Offshore Watch.

Cayman Islands: Premier Is Named to Replace Ousted Predecessor New York Times
Dec 19 - "The governor of the Cayman Islands on Wednesday appointed Juliana O’Connor-Connolly as the new premier of the British territory. The former premier, W. McKeeva Bush, was ousted Tuesday by the Legislative Assembly, a week after his arrest in a corruption investigation." See our recent post Cayman Islands Premier arrested in corruption probe

"The Friends of bank secrecy" in retreat NZZ (In German)
Dec 19 - Following a meeting by Swiss President Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf with Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker and Finance Minister Luc Frieden, the report notes the initialling of a FATCA agreement with the U.S. by Switzerland, and Luxembourg's intent to enter FATCA negotiations in 2013. A spokeswoman for EU Tax Commissioner Algirdas Šemeta is reported as saying that since Switzerland is a close neighbor with a special access to the single market, one would expect Switzerland to show to the EU an "equivalent openness" as that shown to the U.S.

US charges three Swiss bankers in offshore account case Reuters
Dec 19 - "Three Swiss bankers accused of conspiring with American clients to hide more than $420 million from the tax-collecting U.S. Internal Revenue Service were indicted, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan said on Wednesday." The bank was not named.

Media shake heads and point fingers at UBS swissinfo
Dec 20 - "Thursday brought more bad press for Swiss bank UBS in the form of critical editorials as well as the news that two former traders were arrested in New York on Wednesday".  Zurich based Tages-Anzeiger pointed out, “Anybody curious to know where there is smoke or fire at the bank need only glance at the annual report – at the very back of which is a list of pending legal processes around the world.”

UBS Libor Scandal: Should Taxpayers Have to Pay for Bank Wrongdoing? U.S. PIRG
Dec 18 - Following news reports that UBS will soon reach a settlement with regulators over its role in the Libor scandal, U.S. PIRG is calling on the federal government to bar the bank from pushing hundreds of millions of dollars in costs onto taxpayers by writing off the settlement payment as a tax deduction. A 2012 report by U.S. PIRG on the tax deductibility of costs from corporate wrongdoing can be found here.

Did Obama and Cameron Require HSBC to Aid the Prosecution of Tax Frauds? Huffington Post
Dec 18 - William K. Black asks the question: "as part of the HSBC settlement, did Obama and Cameron's officials require HSBC to blow the whistle on tax frauds? Did they require HSBC to provide them with a full intelligence briefing on how the networks of tax evasion and tax havens function?"

Big Banks Flunk OCC Risk Tests American Banker
Dec 13 - "The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency recently graded the 19 largest national banks on five factors designed to gauge how well they are being run. The results are startling."

Corporate tax breaks in the mix The Hill
Dec 19 - Sarah Anderson of the Institute for Policy Studies reports, "Tax hikes for millionaires and Social Security cuts for grannies. Those two divisive issues have dominated media coverage of the “fiscal cliff” debate. But now President Obama is hinting that corporate tax breaks might be in the mix."

Malta Holding Companies Review 2012/13 Tax-News
Nov 20 - "Malta, like Cyprus, has been obliged to dismantle its old 'offshore' companies regime as a trade-off for joining the European Union." The piece notes: "with investment-friendly government policies and some interesting tax planning opportunities, Malta remains one of the most favourable places in the EU in which to locate an international holding company."

The 12 Days of Conference - Day Ten

As we prepare for 2013 I am hosting a series of blog posts called "The 12 Days of Conference". Each day a different expert from the meeting, convention planning, speaking and hotel industries will add their single best idea on how to create better events or other tips for how to improve the "Conference Attendee Experience" in the new year.

Be Open to Wonderment

by Dana Freker Doody

In this season of lights and carols, recognize the delight in discovery reflected in a child’s eyes. Capture it in your memory bank as you would capture on film the Christmas morning rush.

It is our own childlike qualities that drive us to discover, probe and wonder. I believe those are some of the most important qualities we need in event planning today. When our attendees come to our tradeshows and events it is vital to put them in the frame of mind you capture in your memory bank, help put them in the mode for discovery and wonderment.

Creating fascinating experiences and settings can help your attendees engage with one another, with the learning content, with your exhibitors or sponsors. Specifically in tradeshows, where I am most at home, that can mean rearranging your floorplan into different shapes or even neighborhoods of like exhibitors. It may mean incentivizing your big exhibitors to move away from the front door or launching material handling packages that encourage everyone to bring more product. A fascinating experience on a trade show floor could be the latest game or it could be a town hall space at the center of the show where education, engagement and even social media come to life.

The rarity of the delights found during the Christmas season adds to its appeal. “Mom, look! There’s a huge inflatable Santa Claus riding on a motorcycle in that yard.” We don’t see that every day. And that’s the point.

Help your attendees to see, hear, smell, taste and touch something they don’t every day. If your conference schedule is always the same, you’re a yard without Harley Santa. When you shake things up, tweak that schedule, play with the floorplan, introduce a new idea, your community says “Look! Harley Santa!” That discovery opens their mind for the next new thing, the next opportunity, the next relationship, and the next.

Start talking with your team about how you can create entrees to discovery and wonderment within your conference or event. It starts, I think, with lots of questions.

Why do we do it this way?

What if we added this?

Would people react differently if this was over here?

Which pieces of our event should be enhanced?

Can we set politics aside and talk about attendee mindsets?

Could you support us in this trial initiative?

When is the ideal time for our attendees?

What if we started from scratch?

Should we go for a walk to clear our minds?

What’s in it for them?

What’s in it for us?

Will you take a step back and think about this other idea?

What if, what if, what if?

What amazes you?

What can we change today to improve the conference and event experience for your community?

Start small. Don’t go Clark Griswold on us, because too much of anything can be a bad thing. But don’t be afraid to try. This isn’t the season of comfort and joy because it’s same-old, same-old. Capture that wonderment, and be merry.

Dana Freker Doody is Vice President of Corporate Communications for The Expo Group where she oversees in-house and client-side programs for this general services contractor and custom exhibit house. A 12-year veteran of the industry and The Expo Group, Dana helps drive the company’s service promise pulling from previous experience at Disneyland, brings communications knowledge from her days at The Dallas Morning News and rebels against the status quo thanks to … well, no one is really sure. 

Seasons Greetings from TJN-USA

Regards and Season's Greetings.

Let's start by opening the presents.

Given your interest in tax justice issues, we at TJN-USA thought you might be interested in a totally free link to a 56 minute version of the award-winning Sundance documentary

"We're Not Broke" -- the leading film about corp tax dodging and the role of tax activism in the Occupy movement. 

After nearly a year of box office distribution, in the interests of having a wider impact, the film makers have generously offered to make the film freely available, to get as many people as possible at home and abroad to see it. 

SO HERE IT IS! Password: 56min2012

Please feel free to share widely with your friends and interested organizations. (We have found that the film works very well as an occasion for discussion and panels about tax fairness, and would be happy to share our knowledge of that, if it is iPod interest.)

NOW FOR THE BAD REASON -- and the reason why getting this film seen by as many 

people as possible right now may be so important.

Today's word from DC is this: in the urge to cut a fiscal cliff deal w the Republicans in Congress, Obama MAY WELL BE turning to his corporate cronies, and quietly negotiating a corp tax deal that will slash US nominal corp tax rates, or even move toward a territorial tax, plus permit Repatriation of accumulated offshore profits at ultra low rates. 

This would undoubtedly really  please big TNCs like Honeywell, JP Morgan,  Exelon, and GE. 

But it would be DISASTROUS for global and local tax justice, for many reasons. Notably: 

1. It would further discriminate against small biz, over half of whom are taxed as partnerships/ LLCs or Sub- S corps, and also don't make use of sophisticated structures like offshoring intellectual property or passive service companies. Indeed, their taxes will actually going up next year, because they are taxed at individual rates. 

2.  It would look the other way at the fact that one key source for the $1.6 trillion of corp profits now  parked offshore has been the highly dubious offshoring of IP to low tax jurisdiction like Bermuda and Ireland by firms like GE, Pfizer, Apple, and Google -- to the tune of $70 b per year of lost US tax revenue. 

This high- tech dodging, which has exploded in the last decade, is largely responsible for the fact that the US corp tax is at an all time low, in terms not only of EFFECTIVE average tax rates but also revenue generation. Since many states tie their corp income taxes to the federal system, this is also having a negative effect at that level. 

3. In terms of ending destructive global " tax competition" -- the destructive economic arms race that began in the 1980s, this is precisely the wrong move. Back in January, we saw Canada slash its federal corp tax rate to 15%; the UK soon followed with a cut to 21%. The EU's beleaguered economies are under pressure to follow suit. 

If the US  -- still by far the world's largest economy, with by far the most significant TNCs -- now joins the race, the prospects for ending this arms race -- let alone  reforms like country-by-county reporting, transfer pricing reform,  or global unitary taxation -- will be very dim indeed. 

4. In terms of the impact on developing countries, even big players like China and India have found it difficult to keep up with TNCs ability to move profits beyond the reach of taxes -- let alone poor countries, some of which are actually seeing companies demand NEGATIVE corp tax rates, after subsidies and forgiveness schemes are considered, in order to invest in them. The impending US corp tax gutting, widely described in the MSM as a " reform, " would only exacerbate this problem.  

In short:  i really hope that i am wrong. But it may well be the case that in the next few days and weeks, behind closed  doors, the Obama Administration caves in to the business lobby and "seals the deal" on the US fiscal cliff by giving away the store on all these corp tax issues that are really CENTRAL to our whole tax justice agenda. 

NOW, what can we do about it?  As usual, the first step is education. So watch the film, and then connect up with US tax activists like Citizens for Tax Justice, TJN-US, and Americans for Fair Taxes (/TaxFairness) that are leading the opposition on the ground in DC. 

Second, lets have a discussion about getting other grass roots organizations with an interest in these issues involved. 

Third, Of course those of us who are journalists or self styled pundits should be writing and tweeting and digging. THIS IS CLEARLY A SITUATION THAT NEEDS MORE PUBLIC AWARENESS -- as well as public hearings. 

Finally, here in the US, some may even want to call their Congressperson or Senator about this. 

Or organize the kind of mass protests that have proved so catalytic in the UK. 

ANY OTHER IDEAS?  This is an opportunity as well as an emergency. I know it is Christmas/ etc. but that's kind of a blessing. 

Yours in solidarity, 

Jim Henry

TJN

A Good Week for Sports Law

First, a new law employment report finds: "Legal jobs in the sports industry are red-hot right now". Any good news on legal employment is good news, but it's particularly encouraging to see it concern our area of law -- especially for those of us who teach students hands-on job skills in preparation for entering this awesome field.

Second, Aaron Zelinsky, author of two excellent sports law-related Yale Law Journal articles -- The Supreme Court (of Baseball) and The Justice as Commissioner: Benching the Judge Umpire Analogy -- has been chosen to become a United States Supreme Court clerk.  Aaron is also a contributor to Sports Law Blog, having authored Three Strikes for the National Labor Relations Act, among other contributions.

For those of you who don't know, it's almost impossible to become a Supreme Court clerk.  I don't know the exact percentage of applicants who get a slot, but it's probably less than 1%.  Just as revealing: many of whom that are not picked are themselves outstanding candidates.  To have a sports law author in this truly distinguished group is a positive sign for the scholarship we produce.  Aaron is possibly/probably the first sports law author to become a U.S. Supreme Court clerk.  It was only a matter of time and it's great that Aaron is the one to do it.

And of course, this good week of sports law news follows The Summer of Sports Law, as penned by the estimable Warren Zola.

And if by chance the Mayans prove right on Friday, at least sports law is going out with a bang!

Not just balls and strikes (redux)

I have returned to writing about the infield fly rule, an expansion of the short defense I wrote in October. Thinking about particular examples of infield fly situations (or non-examples) in the context of the full baseball rulebook brought me back to the judge/umpire/calling balls-and-strikes analogy. In particular, I come back to the argument (which I have made before) that one problem with the analogy is that it understates the complexity of the decisions that umpires have to make. And I keep returning to one historic play that demonstrates this complexity.

The Situation: (sorry not to have video to embed--it's really hard to find baseball footage online): Game 4 of the 1978 World Series between the Dodgers and Yankees; Dodgers leading 2 games to 1 and 3-1 with the Yankees batting in the bottom of the sixth. Reggie Jackson on first, Thurman Munson on second, one out; Lou Piniella batting. Piniella hits a low (ankle-high) line drive up the middle, to the left of Dodgers shortstop Bill Russell. Russell moves to his left, catches the ball at his shoe tops, drops it, picks it up as his body is continuing to move left, steps on second for the force out, then throws to first. Jackson had stopped running when he saw Russell initially catch the line drive and he is standing between first and second. As Russell's relay is coming, Jackson (imperceptibly) sticks out his right hip; the ball hits his hip and caroms into right field. Munson scores, Piniella is safe at first.

Several separate columns labeled this one of the five worst (or at least most controversial) calls in World Series or postseason history. Maybe. But look at the rules and facts the umpires had to determine on the fly:

1) Infield Fly: This is a potential infield fly situation (runners on first and second, less than two out). So the second-base umpire first had to determine that the ball hit was a line drive, to which the IFR does not apply, rather than a fly ball. Easy enough decision to make here--the ball clearly is a line drive and not easily playable--but the umpire at least must consider the rule in passing.

2) Intentionally Dropped Ball: Rule 6.05(l) provides that a batter is out and the ball is dead if an infielder intentionally drops a fair fly ball, including a line drive, where any force out is in effect. So the second base umpire had to determine whether Russell had intentionally dropped the ball to get a double play. He concluded it was not deliberate, presumably by reading where the ball was hit, how quickly and far Russell had to move to his left, and Russell's body language suggesting he was scrambling to pick the ball back up rather than being in control.

3) Interference: This is the one for which this play is remembered. Rule 7.09(f) provides that both the base runner and the batter are out and the ball is dead if a base runner "willfully and deliberately interferes" with a fielder in the act of fielding a batted ball with the "obvious intent to break up a double play." So the question is whether Jackson "willfully and deliberately" interfered with Russell's relay throw. The first base umpire decided he was not, presumably because Jackson was genuinely hung-up on the play. The runner need not move all the way out of the baseline as the throw is coming (they usually do as a matter of self-preservation).  It appears on slow-motion that Jackson did stick his right hip out as the ball approached, but the umpires did not have that luxury of breaking the play down that much.

Whether you think the call was right or wrong probably depends on your rooting interests--I was 10 years old and living in northern New Jersey at the time. My point is that the umpires actually had a huge amount to watch, process, and interpret. And it is far from a simple or robotic task.

Update: Someone found the play on YouTube for me. Here it is:

Links Dec 19

Uruguayan Congress approves deal to fight tax evasion Reuters
Dec 18 - On "an accord that will let Argentine tax inspectors dig up information on savers with Uruguayan bank accounts to crack down on evasion and money laundering ... The OECD had urged Uruguay to strike accords to share tax information with its biggest trading partners, among them Argentina and Brazil." However, note: "Tax agents will only be able to share information in specific cases where there is a strong likelihood of evasion." See our resource page on On Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes.

Is the Isle of Man negotiating the equivalent of a Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility? Tax Research UK
Dec 19 - The Isle of Man has now agreed to implement a FATCA style agreement with the UK. Jersey and Guernsey have not. What might explain the difference in approach?

Liechtenstein FMA Seeks Stronger Ties With Switzerland Tax-News
Dec 19 - "President of the Liechtenstein Financial Market Authority supervisory board Urs Roth-Cuony has urged both countries to work together to capitalize on their respective strengths with regard to financial services."

Luxembourg, US To Conclude FATCA In 2013 Tax-News
Dec 19 - "Luxembourg’s Finance Minister Luc Frieden has announced plans to begin negotiations shortly on an inter-governmental agreement between Luxembourg and the United States, implementing the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) ... the finance ministry underscored that the inter-governmental agreement will serve to enable the country’s financial institutions to conform in all legal certainty to the new US legislation and to guarantee the competitiveness of the Luxembourg financial sector."

Questions and Answers on the Task Force for Greece Europa
Dec 17 - "As regards anti-money laundering the Greek Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has reported 418 cases of suspected tax evasion to the tax authorities and to the tax investigation service (SDOE). Since the beginning of 2012, 267 cases relating to confirmed tax evasion have been sent to the Prosecutor´s office and assets worth €60m have been frozen."

Spain frees wanted ex-HSBC employee swissinfo
Dec 18 - "Spain’s National Court has granted conditional freedom to a former HSBC bank employee who is wanted by Switzerland for stealing confidential data on thousands of customers with Swiss accounts ... Several Spanish political parties oppose Falciani's possible extradition, saying he is helping uncover tax fraud."

UBS fined $1.53 billion for interest rate rigging swissinfo
Dec 18 - "UBS has agreed to pay approximately SFr1.4 billion ($1.53 billion) in fines to United States, British and Swiss authorities to resolve Libor-related investigations ...The charge is the latest blow for UBS, which already suffered a $2.3-billion loss in a rogue trading scandal earlier this year. In 2009, it paid a $780 million fine to settle a US tax investigation after nearly collapsing a year earlier under the weight of sub-prime losses."

Swiss, facing EU tax pressure, ponder how to attract firms Reuters
Dec 19 - "Happy Taxation" is a 2011 book by Pascal Broulis, finance minister of the Swiss canton of Vaud and celebrant of the low taxes that distinguish Switzerland. But as times get tougher, discontent about Swiss tax breaks is mounting."

France's Hollande Wants Deeper Euro-Zone Integration Wall Street Journal
Dec 14 - "France would push for deeper euro-zone integration and would be willing to use enhanced cooperation if its European Union partners raised objections, President Francois Hollande said."

Afghanistan Seeks Taxes From Contractors to U.S. Wall Street Journal
Dec 17 - "Afghanistan has launched tax audits of major contractors to the U.S. military, government officials say, in a bid to shore up the country's finances as the international military presence winds down and reconstruction funds dry up."

U.S.: Sen. Levin wants corporate tax revenue in a fiscal cliff deal Washington Post
Dec 14 -  More on a story linked earlier. "Sen. Carl Levin ... argues that corporations, too, should be contributing net revenue to deficit reduction, rather than just finding savings through entitlement programs and the small businesses who pay their taxes through the individual tax code."

The 12 Days of Conference - Day Nine

As we prepare for 2013 I am hosting a series of blog posts called "The 12 Days of Conference".  Each day a different expert from the meeting, convention planning, speaking and hotel industries will add their single best idea on how to create better events or other tips for how to improve the "Conference Attendee Experience" in the new year.

Create an event that you’d actually like to attend. 

By Elizabeth Luna

I don’t know about you, but I like to attend events that take risks—events that show me what works and what does not, so I can go into planning my next event with a repository of innovative ideas created from what I experienced.

     What we as planners don’t want to have happen, obviously, is to create an uninspiring event that doesn't show attendees anything new. The same-old-same-old event ultimately translates into a drop in next year’s attendance, something no planner wants to see.

     So, what can you do to avoid the repetition—to turn up the volume at your next event and really stimulate the minds of your attendees?

     It’s simple really—focus on the attendee experience and don’t be afraid to take a few risks along the way.

    

Here are some simple steps you can follow to keep focused on attendee engagement and meeting design. 

• No meeting should be planned without first completing two very important steps: 1) Identify and state goals and objectives for your meeting/event, and 2) Identify your target audience.

Once you have those identified:

• Plan the meeting through the eyes of your attendees – apply principles of what is important to you when attending a conference.  How early does the day start, how much time between sessions, networking time allowed, ability to interact with speakers during sessions vs. just simply listening to a lecture, opportunities to connect with experts outside of the session room, transportation to offsite events, white space in the schedule, etc.?

• The attendee experience literally means everything the attendee will see, hear and feel pre-conference, learn onsite and see and hear post-conference. This includes the way you reach out to your attendees pre-conference regarding details (emails vs. printed pieces, website interaction), what your attendees experience onsite (signage at the airport, welcome at the hotel, how they feel coming out of general session, options and taste of meal functions, learning experiences in the room, learning experiences outside of the room, new connections), and the experience after the event (follow-up from onsite experiences, opportunities to stay connected).

• At every possible moment, get input from potential attendees and engage with them in the planning of the event.  Be it education, networking or even schedule planning, the feeling of ownership in the end product creates an urgency not only to attend, but to champion the event for others to attend and be exponentially more participatory while onsite.

     In the planning process for WEC 2012 in St. Louis, the MPI team walked through the convention center as though we were attendees, we talked through the schedule as though we’d be the ones participating and not working.  During the event, we heard comments from attendees and saw increasing satisfaction scores for logistics, which showed that our efforts had made a definite difference. 

     In 2013, we’re calling WEC in Las Vegas, a “Laboratory of Risk.” We aren't going to be afraid to take risks. Some of what we do will work, some won’t, but the experience will be memorable and meaningful. We’ll be taking conference design and participant engagement to a new level, planning a truly innovative event our industry will not want to miss. It’s going to be an event designed, in theory and in practice, partially by them but completely for them.

_ _ _

Elizabeth Luna is the Manager of Live Events for Meeting Professionals International (MPI).  She has 10 years experience in the meetings and events industry including the last three and a half years at MPI. Prior to joining MPI, she was the Associate Director of Training and Events, managing a team that was responsible for planning and executing multiple annual events and monthly training programs. At MPI, she has been involved in managing both content and logistics for live events.