Our guide to dance performances happening this weekend and in the week ahead.

EPHRAT ASHERIE DANCE at the Joyce Theater (Nov. 5-6, 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 7, 8 p.m.). Asherie, a choreographer and B-girl, is infectiously charismatic: Her nickname, Bounce, aptly describes both her physical buoyancy and her lightness of spirit. In Odeon, her companys official Joyce debut, Asherie engages with the music of the early-20th-century Brazilian composer Ernesto Nazareth, whose creative mix of musical styles, from waltzes to tangos to ragtime, reflects Asheries own blend of dance, from street and house dance to vogueing to concert dance. Adding to the charm of this production, the live music is overseen by Ehud Asherie, Ephrats brother, an accomplished jazz pianist. 212-242-0800, joyce.org

NAIRY BAGHRAMIAN AND MARIA HASSABI at 1014 Fifth Avenue (Nov. 6-8, 7 p.m.; through Nov. 10). A stately townhouse, built in 1906 and facing the Metropolitan Museum of Art, becomes a muse for Baghramian and Hassabi in Entre Deux Actes (Mnage Quatre). Presented by the Kitchen, a Chelsea-based arts organization, the work is a dialogue between dance and architecture and an examination of the inherent theatricality of domestic space. The influence of furniture designer Janette Laverrire, a friend of Baghramians who died in 2011, is present in the piece, as are erotic photographs by Carlo Mollino. The four lovers referred to in the title are those two artists and Baghramian and Hassabi. Currently all tickets have sold out, but more may be released closer to the performance dates. A waiting list will be available at the box office one hour before each show.212-255-5793, thekitchen.org

MARLENE MONTEIRO FREITAS at BAM Harvey Theater (Nov. 7-9, 7:30 p.m.). The great tragedy The Bacchae, by Euripides, centers on the hedonistic god Dionysus quest for revenge, famously told with the help of a lively Greek chorus. In Bacchae: Prelude to a Purge, Freitas, born in Cape Verde, takes that tale as her starting point and gives it a surreal spin with a chorus of eight dancers and five trumpeters whose funky moves and eccentric music making conjure an unpredictable theatrical world. In her bacchanal, Freitas dispenses with narrative, using dark, wacky humor and a cheeky take on Ravels Bolero to present a society of the absurd. 718-636-4100, bam.org

[Read about the events that our other critics have chosen for the week ahead.]

FROM THE HORSES MOUTH at the 14th Street Y (Nov. 7-8, 7:30 p.m.; through Nov. 10). For 21 years, Tina Croll and Jamie Cunningham have celebrated important personalities and milestones of modern dance with this series, a unique fusion of performance, storytelling and history. This iteration focuses on the 75th anniversary of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, located at the New York Public Librarys Performing Arts branch in Lincoln Center, an invaluable archive that has been protected and expanded over the years by a fiercely dedicated staff. Dance luminaries writers, historians, dancers and choreographers among them have lined up for this production to honor the collections legacy. Supplementary programming includes a critics panel on Wednesday and a lecture-demonstration on Nov. 8.14streety.org/fthm

KIA LABEIJA at Performance Space New York (Nov. 7-9, 7 p.m.). To many, LaBeija is a formidable presence on the vogueing scene, a dynamite dancer and a respected activist. Shes also an insightful photographer and a performance artist in conversation with dance history. This week, she presents Untitled, the Black Act, which responds to the modernist ballet Das Triadische Ballett, made over 100 years ago by Oskar Schlemmer, a choreographer and designer associated with the Bauhaus school. LaBeija zeros in on the dances third part, set on a black stage and infused with an otherworldly mysticism. She maintains the sense of wonder but makes it more personal, reimagining Schlemmers restrictive costumes in her quest for freedom. 212-477-5829, performancespacenewyork.org

PAUL MAHEKE AND MELIKA NGOMBE KOLONGO at Abrons Arts Center (Nov. 7-9, 7 p.m.). Maheke, a choreographer and performer of Congolese descent working in video and sound, explores identity, memory and history in his work; Ngombe Kolongo, also known as Nkisi, is an experimental musician, born in Congo, who is doing the same. Their work Snsa, a Performa biennial commission, takes inspiration from African Cosmology of the Bantu-Kongo: Principles of Life and Living, a 1991 book about the religious and philosophical principles of the Bantu-Kongo people of Central Africa. One meaning of the Bantu word snsa is to reveal, and Maheke and Nkisi use gesture, sound and light to create a work meditating on visibility and invisibility. 866-811-4111, abronsartscenter.org

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6 Dance Performances to See in N.Y.C. This Weekend - The New York Times

By: Erin Williams

Muncie, INPlySpace, an artist-in-residence program of the Muncie Arts and Culture Council, welcomes the Fall 2019 residents: Dana Harper, Sarah Trad, and Sydney Pursel. The visiting artists will be in Muncie for a period of four to twelve weeks this fall and will be leading public, collaborative art projects throughout the city until early December.

Dana Lynn Harper (Columbus, OH) joins PlySpace as the Fall Resident Fellow. While in Muncie, Harper will work with the Art Education Department at the Ball State University School of Art to engage students in a public Wand Making Workshop focusing on creative play. The Wand Making Workshop will be hosted at Minnetrista on November 2nd, from 2-4 PM. Details about this workshop can be found on the PlySpace.org website and social media. As part of her fellowship, Harper will also speak about her work at the Ball State University School of Art on October 29th from 6-7 PM in the Arts & Journalism Building, room 225. This lecture is open to the public.

In addition, Harper will exhibit a new series of work, Field Guides, at the PlySpace Gallery on November 7th from 5-8 PM, during the First Thursday gallery walk in November. Field Guides is a playful and boisterous sculptural exhibition exploring the artists belief in spirit guides. Spirit guides are believed to be supernatural beings that provide support, guidance, and love when we need it most. This abstract idea is translated into hanging sculptures made up of layers of texture, pattern, and color, and utilizing textiles, paper, and plastics. Harper holds a BFA from The Ohio State University in 2009 and an MFA from Penn State University in 2013. Harper was awarded an ArtPrize Seed Grant, ArtFile Emerging Artist Grant and a Ringholz Foundation Award. In addition, Harper was awarded an NEA studio grant to attend an artist residency at Womens Studio Workshop. She has had solo exhibitions at Front/Space Gallery & Museum, Manifest Gallery and ROY G BIV among many others.

Sarah Trad (Philadelphia, PA) is a video artist and curator. She joins PlySpace as a Resident Co-Fellow in November. Trad will work with the Islamic community in Muncie, and with the Ball State University School of Art, to teach community centered workshops on traditional Middle Eastern design using the nuno felting technique. Samples completed during these workshops will be exhibited in a public exhibition. Trad will also produce new work while at PlySpace, focusing on her own Middle Eastern heritage. She has participated in multiple artist residencies including the 77Art Residency in Rutland, Vermont and is a recipient of the Carol N. Schmuckler Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film. Sarahs work has been shown at The Warehouse Gallery (Syracuse, NY), Kitchen Table Gallery (Philadelphia, PA), Gravy Studio and Gallery (Philadelphia, PA) and the Everson Museum of Art (Syracuse, NY). She is currently a part of the Philadelphia artist-run gallery, Little Berlin.

Sydney Jane Brooke Campbell Maybrier Pursel (Lawrence, KS) joins PlySpace as the second Resident Co-Fellow in November. While at PlySpace, Pursel will complete a rendition of her project, The Feast, an educational performance where she creates handmade plates and place settings that celebrate the many Native American tribes of the United States. Pursel will cook and serve Native American traditional foods from Native American-owned companies using her handcrafted plates. The event hopes to educate, bring awareness to, and spark dialogue surrounding issues affecting Indian Country, both historically and presently. More information about The Feast, including how to participate, will be announced on the PlySpace website (www.plyspace.org).

Pursel is an interdisciplinary artist specializing in interactive, socially engaged, and performance arts. Through art she explores personal identity drawing from her Indigenous and Irish Catholic roots. Her work has been shown at public parks, universities, galleries, and alternative spaces across the U.S. and Canada. Pursel received her MFA in Expanded Media at the University of Kansas and her BFA in Painting from the University of Missouri. She was the first recipient of the Ucross Fellowship for Native American Visual Artists, received a Rocket Grant through the Charlotte Street Foundation and the Spencer Museum of Art, was selected for the Indigenous Arts Initiative Residency program through the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission and the University of Kansas, was awarded a BeWildReWild Community Art Grant through the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation. Pursel is an enrolled member of the Ioway Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska.

Both Trad and Pursel will speak about their work during a special PlySpace panel discussion held November 14th from 6-8 PM at the Ball State University School of Art, Arts & Journalism Building, Rm 225. They will be joined by artist Toby Kaufmann-Buhler (Lafayette, IN) and moderator Tania Said (Muncie, IN), Director of Education for the David Owsley Museum of Art at Ball State University. Heritage in Practice: A Panel Discussion will ask the three interdisciplinary artists to reflect on their use of personal and cultural heritage in their artwork. Each panelist has a unique method for working within the sometimes sticky practice of uniting art, performance, and installation with personal family heritage, genealogy, or culture. The artists will share a short presentation about how they successfully use personal, family, and cultural heritage in their work and will discuss the complexities of heritage work as a panel.

More information about PlySpace Fall Term events can be found on the PlySpace website at http://www.PlySpace.org/events and the PlySpace Facebook page. Learn more about the residents by visiting http://www.PlySpace.org/our-residents. Questions or comments about the PlySpace Residency program, events, and community collaborations can be directed to the Residency Coordinator, Erin Williams, at hello@plyspace.org.

PlySpace is a program of Muncie Arts and Culture Council in partnership with the City of Muncie, Ball State University School of Art, and Sustainable Muncie Corporation. PlySpace is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

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Muncie Arts and Culture Council Announces Fall 2019 PlySpace Residents and Events - munciejournal.com

Yesterday, two things happened at Apple that seem unrelated, but actually have more to do with one another than you might think. The company released a high-end version of its AirPods, now called the AirPods Pro. It did thison the same day it announced its third-quarter earnings. And while the two things aren't directly connected, the AirPods Pro represent Apple's best chance at turning around its financial performance as iPhone growth continues to slow.

We'll get to the financial results in a minute, but first, the new toys. The new AirPods Pro are, in my opinion, the best in-ear buds you can buy based on the combination of smart design, incredible sound, and top-notch noise cancellation. They're almost $100 more than the previous version ($50 more than the wireless charging case version), but that's worth it for the better fit, sweat-resistant design, and noise cancellation.

Here's my breakdown of why they're worth it, plus why they matter so much to Apple:

Design

The AirPods Pro are actually a little shorter, but stockier than the original AirPods. They also extend into the ear canal further than the non-pro version, which means they form a much better seal. You'll also notice that they have a flat area on the stem, which is where you can use tap controls to play or pause music, skip to the next song, or toggle through the various noise-cancellation settings (we'll get to that in a minute).

I've long been a huge fan of the original AirPods, even more than I thought I would be. Overall, the Pro version seem a little more balanced in my ear, perhaps due to the fact that it feels like more of the weight is resting in your ear instead of hanging out.And, just like the AirPods, connecting them to your devices is simple and fast. In fact, the AirPods Pro seem to do an even better job of switching back and forth between different devices.

By the way, in addition to the noise cancellation, which we'll get to in a second, they have another ridiculously cool feature.They work with the "Find My" feature on the iPhone, meaning that if you lose them, they'll show up on a map.

And, even better, for the times when you realize that the map shows they're in your homeor office, or wherever, you can have them play a sound to help you find them in the seat cushion. It even lets you choose which earbud to play since it's not that helpful for the left earbud to be chirping if you're holding it in your hand while looking for the right.

Sound

Thanks to the audio-sharing feature, I was able to compare the AirPods Pro against both the AirPods and the PowerBeats Pro. While I'm not going to pretend my comparison was highly scientific, the AirPods Pro sound really good. They were fuller and clearer than the AirPods, and while the PowerBeats Pro have more deep punchy bass, the AirPods Pro have a more balanced tone throughout. Bottom line: they sound really, really good.

Part of that is because of all the technology Apple has packed into such a small piece of hardware. Apple says the AirPods Pro have an in-ear microphone that listens inside your ear, which not only helps with noise cancellation but also tunes the sound based on the shape of your ear.

Noise Cancellation

I imagine this is the reason you came to this party, and Apple doesn't disappoint. The active noise cancellation (ANC) is really good. In fact, I was sitting in my carwhen I first put them in my ears, and I actually thought my car had stopped running. If you love the simplicity of the AirPods butcrave the ability to shut out the outside world, say on an airplaneor in a busy office, the Pro version delivers.

But even more impressive, is the Transparency modewhich actually pipes in just a bit of ambient noise for those times when you need to be more aware of your surroundings. since the AirPods Pro form a seal, just turning off ANC doesn't necessarily let in much ambient noise, but in a totally Apple-way, the company solves that problem for when you're walking down a busy street, or just want to know what's happening around you while you work.

Why They Matter to Apple

The other release yesterday forApple was its quarterly earnings announcement. The big news is that while iPhone sales were down a little over 9 percent, the company actually increased its revenue by almost 2 percent, largely driven by wearables. In fact, Apple says its wearable category--made up of AirPods and Apple Watch--grew by 54 percent. Most of that growth was driven by AirPods, which are already Apple's second-best-selling product launch (after the original iPad).

That's not hard to believe when you see the ubiquitous white stems hanging out of every pair of ears on the subway or in a coffee shop.Apple's wearable products are easily its best growth driver over the next five years, largely because the smartphone market is already so saturated.

But even more importantly, wearables, and especially the AirPods, are a driver for growth because they are smart and personal, which is what Apple's brand has always represented. People love Apple's products because they have a personal connectionand because they just work.

In that regard, the AirPods Pro are the perfect Apple product. They sound amazing, are super simple to use, and they are designed to be worn. It doesn't get any more personal than that.

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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The AirPods Pro Are the Best In-Ear Buds You Can Buy, and Apple's Most Important Product - Inc.

Muhammed Goolab, executive committee member of the South African Reward Association (Sara), answers frequently asked questions about your pay.

* Why do my friends get paid more than me if we do the same work? Several factors determine individual pay levels. Some industries pay more for a specific skill, or may even pay a premium for skills on which they place more value.

A company's financial performance, as well as the individual's performance, can also contribute to different salaries for the same skill.

* How do I get more cash out of my salary? Most organisations in South Africa offer cost-to-company packages which indicate the total direct and indirect (for example, pension and medical scheme benefits) pay that an employee receives in a year.

Cost-to-company packages generally allow employees to adjust some of the benefits of their package, such as pension fund and medical scheme contributions.

Excerpt from:
Understand how to get the best out of your pay - Independent Online

This week: He kupu i t mtou Kaikmihana, that's Te Reo for "a word from the Commissioner". I'm taking a look at Inland Revenue's annual report for the year ended 30th June 2019.

Each year, every government department prepares an annual report for its minister and for the reporting lines to Parliament. These will set out its activities in the previous 12 months, its performance against agreed measures and also include its financial statements.

Inland Revenues is a treasure trove of information as you can imagine, a lot of detail to poke through here. And in fact, there is so much in this I could probably spend two or three podcasts on the matter. Instead, what I'm going to do this week is start with some headline numbers about Inland Revenue itself, the tax it collects and the data it shares and then finish with some observations about the state of the organisation itself.

The report is grouped around five areas. They are Making It Easier for Customers, Helping Meet People Meet Their Obligations, Managing Ourselves Well, Governance and Management and the biggie, How We Performed, a sort of NCEA assessment of Inland Revenue.

Big budget, big staff levels

Now Inland Revenue was given $847.5 million in appropriations for the year 2018-19 to spend and it actually finished up spending $828 million of that. The bulk of it goes to what it calls Services for customers, $616 million. Then the other areas that receives money are policy advice, $11 million, services to other agencies, $6 million and the big one, Business Transformation, $215 million.

It spent about 97% of its budget. And it is saying in one of the headline items that the Commissioner points out in ther report is that through Business Transformation to date, it's released $60 million in administration savings and improved compliance outcomes as a result by raising additional revenue of about $90 million.

So to achieve that result Inland Revenue has just over 5,000 staff as of 30th June 2019, now that is down 800 since 2015 and about 90% are full time now. The average age is 44.6 which is quite old, I think. And a really interesting point here is that 65% of all its staff are female, but, and women will not be surprised to see this, is that 50% of all managers are male. One of Inland Revenues metrics is trying to improve on that matter.

But there's been a fair amount of churn through its staff. I mean 938 staff left during the year, which is a near 20% loss. Now, they hire people as well, and that's something that I'll pick up on later on. So, it's got a lot of money to deliver services. But a fair chunk of that $200 million is in part of the Business Transformation, which has been its main focus.

"The one that takes"

Anyway, for the year it collected $77.9 billion of tax revenue. Now included in that is nearly $985 million of tax differences. It identified this as part of its audit activities and investigation activities. That is a fairly significant number and we will see more of that going on.

But Inland Revenue, its main focus through the year quite frankly, has been managing its transformation to implement its so-called Business Transformation. And the key thing here was Release Three, the third stage of its transformation, which happened in April. That was when it moved over Pay As You Earn and also was the stage where it was automatically issuing refunds and assessments for taxpayers.

That as you are probably well aware, put huge strain on its resources. The report notes on page 31, "We received 41% of all calls for the year between April and June 2019." This was over 1.6 million calls compared with 1.4 million for the same period previously in 2018. I will say that they suffered a disruption because of the having to evacuate the office in Palmerston North, the call centre there, because it was found to be earthquake prone.

But quite apart from all the calls that received, people also quite reasonably turned up at their offices and the Manukau office had more than a thousand visits on some days. Many people also then went online with massive numbers of people were hitting the online system. Between 26th of April when the system went live and the end of June, there were 16.9 million login to its myIR system, an increase of 90%, or nearly double from the same period in 2018. On its busiest day, there were almost 500,000 logins, so the system put itself under some strain, but Inland Revenue feels it managed with that. It's a matter of debate whether you think that, but there's no doubt it was an ambitious call on an ambitious project and I would expect that next year it should run a little bit more smoothly.

Interestingly, it's now saying that 88.8% of all returns were filed digitally up from 83% in previous years and that 86.8% of tax payments were made on time, which is down from 87.9% and this is a measure that I think Inland Revenue needs to have a closer look at because it has a penalty system. But we do know that the payment on time rate between 85 and 87% is no better than other tax agencies that don't charge late payment penalties, and this has been a bane of my life. I think it's clogged up the system and it's particularly noticeable when you look at what happens with child support debt. You have a penalty system. It's not working. It's been clearly not working both by its own standards and judged internationally and yet we still persist with it.

Talking of tax debt, at 30th June 2019 Inland Revenues' tax debt, excluding student loans and child support stood at $3.5 billion, up 13% from 2018 when it was $3.1 billion. That's after writing off $532 million of overdue debt and in the previous June 2018 year it wrote off $613 million.

The key thing of note here is that the level of GST debt is up 45% from $815 million to $1.18 billion and the amount of Pay As You Earn is also up 24% from $375 million to $466 million. They're explaining that that rise in overall debt being the result of a number of factors including late filing penalties and late payment penalties, interest in default assessments.

Is the penalties system working?

That all just bears out the point I've just made, if people aren't paying on time and we're hammering with penalties and we're still not collecting it, maybe Inland Revenue needs to rethink its approach about those penalties. Because you can see that in child support, the amount of child support debt is actually down a little bit in June 2019 to $2.2 billion, but $1.6 billion of that represents penalties.

As part of its efforts to collect Child Support,Inland Revenue's obtained four arrest warrants from the courts, of which one was executed and so far, it's collected $11,000 as a result of that. And then it's looked at another 14 summonses for examination of financial means and 20 charging orders against property and warrants. Key focus here is chasing down people who are overseas who owe child support and under its reciprocal arrangement with Australia, collected about $46.4 million from Australia.

It actually sent $14.7 million over to Australia. And this information sharing is one of the things that Inland Revenue does a lot of, which people don't realise here. For example, the repot talks about passport information sharing programme with the Department of Internal Affairs and that resulted in 1,409 contact records match for parents who had a child support debt in 2018-2019. As a result, 120 customers made payments of over $234,000.

Information sharing

It sent plenty of information with the Australian Tax Office (ATO) in relation to student loan customers. They sent 149,000 requests to the ATO asking, "Can you tell us all about that?" And maybe that's not doing as well as it should do because the level of overdue student loan debt is now $1.48 billion and that's up 12% basically because of overseas-based student loan holders. In fact, they issued a couple of arrest warrants.

The information sharing goes not just to the ATO, it goes with WorkSafe is one area where it's passed information to other agencies. And the big one, the one that people should be really aware of, and I'm starting to see come across my desk, is international compliance. Inland Revenue and New Zealand are part of the Common Reporting Standard or the initiative run by the OECD to counter offshore tax evasion. In September 2018 Inland Revenue swapped data with other tax agencies around the world. It sent out 600,000 account reports too other agencies saying "We have people here [with financial accounts] who have an overseas address or overseas tax information number, there's 600,000 of them. In turn Inland Revenue received similar details about over 700,000 such accounts. You may recall that I've mentioned in a past podcastthat Inland Revenue's looking into this in more detail and that is just the tip of the iceberg, the 700,000 records to work through. That's a lot of people. And I think quite a few more than what I've seen will be receiving a "Please tell us a bit more about your finances."

Enforcing compliance

Talking about tax evasion and addressing additional compliance, Inland Revenue overall found discrepancies as I called it, of $985 million and its return on its investment was $7.54 per dollar. In other words, every dollar it put into its investigation activities, it got $7.54 back identified $985 million in total tax position differences. That involved over 12,305 cases.

There are some interesting snippets in here about high wealth individuals, that is people worth more than $50 million. According to Inland Revenue, high-wealth individual customers and their respective groups pay more than $700 million in income tax and collect over $1 billion of pay as you earn. So that's a fairly significant amount of the over $80 billion of tax income.

This is a reasonably small group of people representing maybe 200-300 people in there, and Inland Revenue says they identified $44 million of discrepancies as a result of investigations into this area.

In the hidden economy, theres some very interesting stuff in here. They found an additional revenue of about $109 million and that is they also found over fraudulent refunds and entitlements about another $30 million. But what's interesting to see here is that the proportion of people saying that they participated in cash jobs is starting to fall slightly.

Fewer people are asking for this. When they started measuring this in 2011, 34% of people said they participate in a cash job. It's now down to 27% but the level of people who said they were likely to ask for a cash price discount has gone from 27% and dropped to 16%. However, the number of people who said they would report themselves as being likely to participate in cash jobs, is 19%, same as 2018.

And here's the big one though. Only 49% of people agreed in 2018 that cash jobs were acceptable, but that's down from 72% in 2011. That's one of those interesting measures that people point the finger at multinationals but are not averse to getting a bit of a discount for cash.

It's the same thing, whether it's tax avoidance by a multinational or flat-out tax evasion. You're on the same spectrum. Well, the argument would be that tax avoidance is within the means of the law. Whereas tax evasion, taking a discount for cash isn't. Anyway, it's encouraging to see this improvement in behaviours there.

Bright-line test returns

And finally, the tax revenue they collected from property tax compliance that is looking at the Bright-line test, et cetera, had a return for investment of $9.58 per dollar. So that's nearly 50% above its target of $6.42 per dollar. And that added another $109 million. And just on the Bright-line test Inland Revenue got in touch with a thousand taxpayers over their returns filed in the 2017 income year about the Bright-line test possibly applying.

So that's a fair snippet of what Inland Revenue has done during the year. And there's plenty more in the report to go through and I might pick out particular aspects in future podcasts.

The IRD has poor staff engagement

Well what about the state of the organisation itself? How did it perform against its measures? According to Inland Revenue it achieved 36 out of the 48 output performance targets for the year and that's compared with 43 out of 50 in the 2017-18 year. Now where it fell down in its own measures is its services for customers when it met 28 of the 40. But it met all the other top performance targets for services to other agencies, policy advice and on Business Transformation.

But the area that concerns me is the staff engagement rate. I deal with Inland Revenue staff pretty much every day, and I deal with them at all levels. Those who are answering the phones, dealing with requests up to the policy officials. What I think the Revenue Minister and the Finance and Expenditure Committee should be concerned about is that the staff engagement by Inland Revenue's own measure is a mere 29%.

That's actually an improvement from the year to June 2018 when it was 27% and when this was first measured in the June 2017 year, it was 44% and even then that annual report noted that that was below the Australasian government average or expectation of 51%.

These measurements have only happened in the last three years. The 2016 report simply notes that staff engagement rose during the year. Now if its staff engagement rose during the year 2016 it implies that the staff engagement since the Business Transformation project really took off, which began in 2016 has halved to all intents and purposes. That is a major concern because it affects everyone in the system. Taxpayers, if Inland Revenue staff are of low morale, that feeds through to the rest of how they deal with us. The pressures they're under and there's wider implications for the government of underperformance in revenue collection. So I think this is a matter that the Commissioner of Inland Revenue, Inland Revenue management and the Minister of Revenue and The Finance and Expenditure Select Committee should all be asking very hard questions as to what's going on here.

The staff turnover in Inland Revenue has been quite dramatic over the past five years the organisation is losing on average just under 700 people a year and that's a lot of experience to be walking out the door. And so from a base of 5,800 in 2015, you can say that two thirds of that, almost 60% of those that were there in 2015 would appear to have gone by now. That's a massive turnover. The report notes that the turnover has decreased but it is expected to increase commenting, "Turnover turnover's decreasing, reflecting the period of significant organizational changes occurred in 2017-18, as we work through further changes to reach our future operating model, we expect turnover is likely to increase."

"Customers"? Really?

I don't like being called a customer by Inland Revenue. It's actually quite amusing to see the use of the word "customer" here in the report. The report refers to customers over 500 times, but taxpayers, merely 47 times. But as a stakeholder, as a tax agent and as a taxpayer, the performance of Inland Revenue is very dependent on the morale of its staff. And what I'm seeing here in this report and it continues a trend that has emerged in the last three reports is not good.

I have experienced that. When you're talking with Inland Revenue staff, you can sense that they're frustrated, they're incredibly professional, they're always professional. I know people will say, "I've had bad experiences with Inland Revenue," but my experience is they're wholly professional at all times, but they're being asked to do a lot.

There's now overtime back, and the report says it saw 740 odd people had to come in and work extra hours [as part of Release 3]. They shifted a whole pile of people from the investigation area to help with the phones. And that's not something that should be a regular pattern. And so already pressured staff have been asked to do a lot and to see the staff engagement is just 29% is a major concern to me.

Well that's it for the Week in tax. More next week. I'm Terry Baucher, and you can find this podcast on my website, http://www.baucher.tax or wherever you get your podcasts. Please send me your feedback and tell your friends and clients. Until next time, have a great week. Ka kite no!

This article is a transcript of the October 25, 2019 edition of The Week In Tax, a podcast by Terry Baucher. This transcript is here with permission andhas been lightly edited for clarity.

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Terry Baucher takes his annual chance to review the performance of the IRD and finds professionalism but frustratingly low levels of improvement and...

Maro Itoje heads a list of England players snubbed by World Rugby for its player of the year award despite their march to the World Cup final. Tom Curry is the only member of Eddie Joness squad on the six-man shortlist and while the 21-year-old would become the youngest ever recipient of the award, a number of his team-mates are notable by their absence.

Itoje was named man of the match for his performance against New Zealand in last weekends World Cup semi-final and has been among the standout performances throughout the tournament. Like a host of other England players, including Owen Farrell, George Ford, Kyle Sinckler and Manu Tuilagi, he can consider himself unfortunate to be overlooked for the prestigious award, however.

Englands opponents in Saturdays final have two representatives on the shortlist with the flying winger Cheslin Kolbe joined by Pieter-Steph du Toit, having also played a key role in claiming the Rugby Championship title for South Africa. Alun Wyn Jones, who captained Wales to the Six Nations grand slam and World Cup semi-final, the All Black flanker Ardie Savea and the USAs Joe Taufetee who earlier this year became the most prolific try-scoring front-row forward in history, complete the nominees.

The 21-year-old Curry is the youngest member of Englands squad but he will not become the youngest ever World Cup winner if Eddie Joness side lift the trophy. That record is still held by Frans Steyn, who was 20 when South Africa beat England in the 2007 final, and who is on the bench for the Springboks on Saturday.

The average of Englands XV is 27 years and 60 days, making it the youngest team to start a World Cup final in the professional era, however. And the 23-year-old Sam Underhill, who has dovetailed to devastating effect at flanker with Curry, said: Its definitely a positive having younger players in the side. Theres a lot of energy and enthusiasm to be had from that. Its been good for the squad dynamic as well, as we can mix experience with guys who are keen to learn, which has been good. So I think by and large its been a good thing, but I dont think its something that you really notice.

You look at the younger players and they dont seem that young. You look at Tom Curry; hes the youngest in the squad but he doesnt seem like a young player or a junior player which fills you with a lot of confidence.

Meanwhile, Prince Harry has sent a good luck message to the England squad before Saturdays final. Buckingham Palace has confirmed that the Duke of Sussex will be in attendance for the match. He is a longstanding England supporter as well as being a patron of the Rugby Football Union and included a photograph of his five-month old son Archie in an England jersey in his video message.

When asked if he had received support from the Royal Family, Underhill said: Not personally! But as a group weve had a couple of messages from Prince Harry. He sent us a nice message of support, which was nice to receive. He showed his little lad in an England shirt, so that was a nice touch. Im still waiting on my personal message!

Read the original here:
England World Cup final stars snubbed on player of the year shortlist - The Guardian

Dundee manager James McPake hailed his sides classy 3-0 victory at Alloa as the best performance of the season.

The Dens Park side dominated a lopsided affair at the Indodrill stadium in chalking up back-to-back league wins for the first time since May 2018.

The visitors deservedly went ahead in the 15th minute when Kane Hemmings notched the first of his double.

The former Oxford player doubled the Tayside outfits lead six minutes before the break before turning provider for substitute Sean Mackie to wrap up the scoring in the 75th minute.

Hemmings should also have left with the match ball but hit a wild shot well wide at the end.

McPake, whose team remain six points behind Championship leaders and city rivals United, said: Weve been as good at times in certain games but as a compete performance, yeah, that was it against a very good and dangerous team.

To come and perform at that level for 94 minutes, Im very pleased.

When youve footballers in there with the pedigree of Graham Dorrans, Paul McGowan and Shaun Byrne theyve got a way of playing that they enjoy and have an understanding now.

I thought Graham was outstanding and you can see he is now getting to a level of fitness that only games bring.

Im delighted hes at my football club but the other players complimented him as well.

The visitors had history on their side as they looked to build on Fridays 2-1 victory at Ayr, having not been beaten at Alloa on league duty since 1939.

McPake had confidence in the same group of players to come up with the goods after naming an identical starting XI from the trip to Somerset Park.

Aside from a low left-footed effort from Adam Brown that had Conor Hazard diving to his left to make a routine save, Dundee dominated the early stages.

The central midfield triumvirate of Graham Dorrans, Shaun Byrne and Paul McGowan dictated the direction of play as Alloa chased shadows.

Dundees first sight of goal came after eight minutes when Andrew Nelson advanced from midfield before hitting a wayward shot harmlessly wide.

But Hemmings made no mistake from close range as he notched his second of the season in the 15th minute.

The forward exchanged passes with Declan McDaid before drilling a low drive through the legs of Jamie MacDonald.

The away side had their tails up and continued to press.

Nelson hit a fizzing drive from outside the area over the bar before Cammy Kerr, from a similar distance, also fired high of the frame moments later.

Although McPakes side continued to exert their influence, penetrating their opponents rearguard was not so straight forward.

That was until six minutes before the break when Hemmings doubled his and his teams lead.

The forward was picked out at the back post by Jordan Marshalls menacing delivery and cooly placed a right-footed volley past the hapless MacDonald.

Alloa briefly thought they had dragged themselves back into the game seconds before the break but Liam Buchanans effort was disallowed for offside.

Alloa overturning a half-time two-goal deficit to earn a point against Queen of the South at the weekend would have served as a warning to the Dundee players when they returned for the second period.

Alloa did manage to conjure their best chance of the game but Liam Buchanan shot well over after being picked out by Scott Taggart on the edge of the box.

Dundee midfielder Paul McGowan was as just as wasteful when he swung an effort off target from 18 yards.

Alloa were much improved following the break but Hemmings came close to grabbing his hat-trick in the 62nd minute.

The former Oxford marksmans left-footed effort across goal was well saved by the outstretched McDonald.

However, Hemmings then turned provider for Mackie to score in the 75th minute, just moments after the on loan Hibs player replaced Nelson.

Mackie cooly placed the ball into the gaping net from six yards.

Another chance came and went for Hemmings in his bid to achieve a personal milestone, the forward lashing McDaids lay-off well wide from ten yards.

Alloa manager Peter Grant said: The better team won, its the first time weve been outplayed and you have to give credit to the opposition I thought they were excellent.

Alloa: MacDonald, Robertson, Graham, Taggart, Deas, Hetherington, Trouten, OHara, Flannigan, Buchanan, Brown (ODonnell 83)

Substitutes not used: Henry, Gilhooly, Gillespie, Thomson, Malcolm

Dundee: Hazard; Kerr, McGhee, Forster, Marshall; Byrne, Dorrans (Ness 83); McDaid, McGowan (McPake 80), Nelson (Mackie 72); Hemmings

Substitutes not used: Ferrie, Meekings, Johnson, Robertson

Referee: Barry Cook

Attendance: 1,218

Originally posted here:
Classy Dundee cruise to 3-0 win at Alloa with best performance of the season - The Courier

We actually just had Tracy Letts in here earlier in the day and he kind of said something similar where he was like, I dont have any plan, I dont know.

Thats great to hear because Im a big fan of his, so Im glad hes working the same angle. But yeah, I think that, if you think too much about it, youll end up kind of putting yourself in a box that you dont need to be in. I never thought that I would be on West Wing when I was 17, that was not my plan. And there was, and it was an incredible experience. I never thought that Id be on Mad Men for seven years, like this show about advertising in the 60s than I never thought that was going to be what it was. Yeah. So I kinda have this thing of like, Well, you didnt plan that and that worked out, so maybe, you know, dont worry about it too much.

How much in your workthis is obviously a really intense up-close emotional piece. Not that Handmaids isnt, but him, he is also has all the broader weight of like politics kind of on its shoulders and stuff like that. When you approach something youre doing, how much of the outside world are you bringing to bear? I mean, do you feel like youre processing the world through your work. Do you think of it in those kinds of therapeutic terms?

Yeah, sometimes. Not all the time. Handmaids is so literal sometimes. That would be probably my biggest experience with some things going on in the world outside that everyone is experiencing and in all walks of life and Im doing something that I feel like is very parallel to that, and exercising my own feelings about it. And you know, my own opinions and emotions and that would be like the closest Ive gotten to that. Other than that, and this happens even on Handmaids too, I try to approach it from personal, not political. With Peggy, you know, I never thought of her as a girl in the 60s. I thought of her as a woman of any time, of any age who was dealing with the situation that she was dealing with. And that was my sort of way into her and to make her relatable. Same with June, you know, shes a mother and a wife and a woman and shes dealing with the situations the way that I think that this person would deal with them. And so I kind of try to make it a little bit more intimate, I guess, than thinking, Oh, Im going to tie in, you know, the world's problems into this character.

Watching Her Smell again, and I think the first time too, I kept thinking about a movie Id seen not too long before that, which was a movie called Madelines Madeline, a Josephine Decker film. And then I looked at your IMDb and I was like, Oh, shes working with her. That makes total sense. Can you talk a little bit about Shirley, where you play Shirley Jackson?

Yeah. Yeah. Thats also a really interesting different kind of movie. Its a brilliant script by writer named Sarah Gubbins, she just wrote this like the one of the best scripts Ive ever read. And then Josephine came in and kinda like turned it into her own sort of strange, magical film. Its one sort of a section of Shirleys life. We didnt want it to be a biopic. Theres stuff that weve kind of fudged and fictionalized that isnt exactly accurate. But what we did was try to follow the emotion of it, try to represent who Shirley is. And Stanley, her husband whos played by Michael Stuhlbarg, its really just as much about him as it is her. And just show this slice of their life, this slice of this marriage and this slice of what it was like to be that writer. She had a lot going on in her head. She was an addict. She was a very difficult person in a very difficult marriage. Stanley was the same. She was a very complicated artist. What Sarah did so brilliantly I think was just sort of make you feel like what it wouldve been to be like to be in Shirleys head for a little while. And it follows the parallel of her writing a book called Hangsaman, which was after The Lottery came out. So shes dealing with a lot of the press from that, a lot of blowback from that. People were very upset about that story.

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Inside the First Oscars of the Season - Vanity Fair

The LF-30 was styled at the Toyota Groups ED European Design Centre by a team led by Californian Ian Cartabiano. The team deliberately went radical, Cartabiano tells us.

The only reason to hold on the traditional [automotive] cues is to make the

visual transition for our traditional customer. But I think were at the point now where we should make a more futuristic and a braver statement and really take advantage of what EV technology can provide.

"Electrified design should really try to create something new rather than be mired in the past," says Cartabiano.

For me, its intentionally a new genre type of luxury performance vehicle. Its not really a sedan and its not a coupe and its not a crossover [but] a new type of luxury performance car that has the sleek attitude of a performance vehicle.

Cartabiano says it has more interior room than the companys flagship LS limousine, combined with the seating position and driving dynamics of an LC sports coupe. It could only happen with an electrified platform. I think the future of electrified design should really try to create something new, create a new expression of technology rather than be mired in the past.

The LF-30 won't be a loft on wheels, but it will be an exciting experience for the driver and passengers.

The interior packaging is realistic, even today, Cartabiano says. Its really an intriguing sense of space because [for] the driver ... you really do feel like youre in control but the rear of the car is this really great space for passengers. And I think thats a really exciting combination.

Sometimes its easy in the era of autonomous driving and electrification to make a living room, loft on wheels. Its kind of a go-to standard lately. But I dont think thats the only solution, especially for a luxury brand where [personal] ownership is important.

Lexus and Toyota more generally says it plans to offer full electric, hybrid (including plug-in hybrids) and fuel cell cars in the future to meet all needs in all markets. By 2025 it will have an electrified version of every Lexus model.

LEXUS LF-30Price Not for sale (concept model only)Engine Four in-wheel motors, with 110 kW/h battery packPower/torque (claimed) 400 kW/700 NmCruising distance (claimed) 500 kmAcceleration (claimed) 3.8 seconds

The author attended the Tokyo Motor Show as a guest of Lexus.

The future will be worth the wait; in the meantime there'll be an electrified version of every Lexus by 2025.

See the article here:
The future of motoring, according to Lexus - The Australian Financial Review

Fall marathon season is in full swing and along with perfect training conditions, runners are out in droves right now. Fittingly, there are three new books on the sport for fall, each with a very different focus in mind. No matter what chapter of running life you might be in or even if youve yet to enter a chapter one of these books is going to meet your needs.

From authors Cindy Kuzma and Carrie Jackson Cheadle comes "Rebound: Train Your Mind to Bounce Back Stronger from Sports Injuries," "Running That Doesnt Suck" from Lisa Jhung, and from Brian Metzler theres "Kicksology: The Hype, Culture & Cool of Running Shoes". All of these books written by experienced runners and journalists who have deep understanding of their subject matter.

Since an unfortunately high number of runners end up injured every year estimates go as high as 50 percent odds are you have faced, or will face, a layoff at some point in your running career. Whether its your first or 10th injury, however, you know that it is always hard to sit on the sidelines, missing your favorite activity. Cindy Kuzma and Carrie Cheadle understand this, which is why they wrote "Rebound" in hopes of making the tough period of injury lay off just a bit easier.

"Rebound" serves as a roadmap to help injured runners return to their sports stronger with a combination of tools allowing runners to take control of their recovery. The book includes the personal stories of athletes and researchers who offer up their wisdom and science, all backed up by Cheadles experience as a mental performance consultant.

According to Kuzma, there was a need for this book because most of the support for injured athletes comes in the form of physical, not emotional. Research offers us an increasing understanding of how the brain plays a key role in all stages of athletic performance and recovery, she says. Were glad we can contribute to the conversation and help offer much-needed support to athletes on the mental side of the rehab and recovery process.

Many runners, when injured, deal with guilt over how much the layoff impacts them emotionally. For this reason, the entire first chapter of Rebound addresses the roller coaster of emotions injured athletes face. What Ive learned from writing this book is that all those emotions are normal and natural, says Kuzma. Its OK and in fact, essential, to feel and express them.

The book goes on to offer mental drills to help injured athletes train their minds and learn to work through injury so that they can return physically and mentally stronger than before skills they can use in every area of their lives.

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Ever say to yourself "I want to run, but I can't?" Lisa Jhung, an experienced runner and journalist who writes about running, understands how hard it can be to get started, which is why she authored the newly released "Running That Doesnt Suck: How to Love Running Even if You Think You Hate It".

Jhung's book includes a know-thyself-to-become-a-runner quiz to help wannabe runners find the type of approach that might work best for their individual needs. The results help readers to then navigate the book and learn more about different ways in to running.

Read our interview with Jhung about the book.

Author Brian Metzler has been running pretty much all of his life, and as a journalist who covers the sport and its gear, has run in just about every type of shoe out there over 1,500 pairs, by his estimate. While not every runner might share his fascination for all that goes into running shoes, Kicksology offers up plenty of useful information for runners to digest.

I think runners of all experience levels will find fascinating some of the stories about the history of shoes, how shoes are made, and the recent advancements in shoes, says Metzler. Going inside shoe factories in both China and New England was eye opening for me. Then again, so was learning about how a shoe comes to life, what it costs to make a pair of shoes, and how some recent advancements have really helped improve marathon times.

"Kicksology" dives into the fads and science that have shaped running shoe trends, and does a good job of helping runners learn how to separate the hype from the real in order to become informed consumers. A chapter on running injuries and whether or not shoes can play a role in preventing them is a good example. Running shoes definitely dont cause injuries, says Metzler, but they can have a big impact on a runners fitness and performance.

The combination of a runners foot shape and running gait are entirely unique to that runner based on their anatomy, injury history and day-to-day postural traits and habits. Because of that, there are better and worse shoes for every individual.

That said, Metzler astutely points out in his book that most runners get mired down in the marketing of running shoes, often putting far too much stock in what a shoe can and cant deliver. The key to healthy, efficient running has less to do with shoes and more to do with the time, effort, care and passion that each of us puts into it, he points out in the book.

In his final chapter, Metzler takes a look at what runners can expect from running shoe development in the coming years, which may involve a good deal of personalization and customization. At the end of the day, no matter how they change, he says, running shoes will continue to play the role of inspiring and bringing runners together.

After all his research, does Metzler have a favorite shoe? They span a wide range, he says, but theyre all based on both the quality and uniqueness of the shoe, and also the emotional attachments I have from running in them.

A few that make the cut: The original Adidas Oregon from the early 80s; the Nike Air Tupu from 2002; the HOKA Speedgoat 2 from 2017; and the Altra Timp 1.5 from 2018. But as soon as I mention those, I can think of dozens more, too, he admits.

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More here:
Three must-read books for runners (and wannabe runners) - NBC News