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Business

Tech companies offer lavish perks despite lay-offs

Tech companies offer lavish perks despite lay-offs

A hefty suite of employee perks remain at trendy start-ups, despite some companies recently laying off significant numbers of staff.

Melbourne link-in-bio site, Linktree, has continued its lavish offerings despite this week laying off 17 per cent of its staff – about 50 people – the Sydney Morning Heraldreported.

Remaining employees have access to above market wages and a $6000 lifestyle payment they can use on fitness items including yoga classes or a new bike.

The planned shift into a trendy new office in Melbourne’s Collingwood will also go ahead, despite the company’s forecasted growth not eventuating.

“To meet the needs of our users throughout the last year, we scaled many of our functions, made some big bets and set ambitious hiring targets to meet them. I assumed the favorable economic environment would persist into 2022,” chief executive Alex Zaccaria wrote in a blog post this week.

“Instead, conditions changed faster than expected and those assumptions I made were wrong. I have many learnings to take into the next phase of building Linktree. That next phase involves narrowing our focus on our long-term strategy by reducing roles that are no longer aligned with our roadmap.”

In support of employees likely shocked at the lay-offs, the company gave all staff a mental health day on Friday.

“For a company like ours, so focused on culture and camaraderie, this will be difficult news. I don’t expect anyone to be their normal selves. We will also be allocating you an additional mental health day that you can take at a time that suits you,” Mr Zaccaria wrote.

Elsewhere, despite a round of lay-offs at Sydney blockchain start-up Immutable, it is offering staff a bonus of up to $16,000 if they refer a new employee.

Healthcare start-up Eucalyptus, which is behind the Software, Pilot and Juniper brands, made about 20 per cent of its workforce redundant last month but has upheld its free food and drinks offering.

Online graphic design company Canva, which had its value cut by about $20 million by investors, has also maintained its free meals and will still offer its annual Vibe & Thrive allowance that employees can claim for “whatever best supports their wellbeing”.

It can be spent on anything from health memberships to celebrations, wellbeing and education.

Industry sources who spoke to the Sydney Morning Herald anonymously said companies were saving money by offering employee perks rather than increases to their salaries.

“Free kombucha is way cheaper than paying an extra $40,000 in salary to someone who wants to work somewhere cool,” one told the publication.

While labor shortages still present a threat to the technology industry, supply has crept up on demand, largely due to talented people being let go from major companies, talent marketplace Expert360’s Bridget Loudon said.

“There are more talented engineers at the moment. This is largely driven by lay-offs in the tech sector from the majors to earlier-stage companies,” she told the publication.

Industries across Australia have resorted to offering thousands of dollars in incentives to secure staff, with people in high-demand areas such as healthcare, trades, transport, retail, manufacturing and logistics receiving thousands of dollars in cash bonuses.

They range from $1000 to $15,000 across the country, with one Grill’d franchise saying it was ready to pay prospective store managers $10,000 just to sign on.

McDonald’s Chatswood store manager Rhys Taylor told the Australian Financial Reviewthat incentives were advertised on in-store posters, with the fast-food chain losing staff quicker than they could be replaced at some stores.

Last month, the Australian Retailers Association announced that the post-pandemic worker shortage had worsened over autumn.

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Categories
US

What’s inside Democrats’ $740 billion tax, climate and health care bill

What's inside Democrats' $740 billion tax, climate and health care bill

Senate Democrats passed a $740 billion reconciliation package on Sunday that includes provisions that increase taxes on large corporations, address climate change and lower prescription drug costs.

Why it matters: The bill, though much smaller and less ambitious than what many Democrats wanted, has cleared its tallest hurdle and is expected to pass the House before heading to President Biden’s desk for his signature.

Taxes:
  • The bill puts a 15% minimum tax on corporations that earn more than $1 billion in annual profits, which is projected to raise at least $258 billion over the next 10 years.
  • It allocates $80 billion of additional funding over ten years for the IRS to in part hire additional staff members and strengthen tax collection and enforcement on corporations and high-income earners.
  • The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the new IRS investment could raise $203 billion in new revenue over the next decade, resulting in a net gain of $124 billion.
  • It does not include new taxes on families making $400,000 or less and no new taxes on small businesses.
Health care:
  • The bill increases health care spending by $98 billion, primarily by extending enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies create through the American Rescue Plan for an additional three years.
  • It allows Medicare to negotiate the prices of certain drugs and puts a $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for people.
  • It originally contained a provision that would have capped out-of-pocket spending on insulin for patients enrolled in private insurance to $35, though it was blocked by Senate Republicans who argued that it violated the rules of reconciliation.
Climate:
  • The bill invests roughly $370 billion into initiatives to promote clean energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, likely becoming the most important climate bill in US history.
  • It gives tax credits to clean energy technologies, like existing nuclear power plants and advanced nuclear technologies, clean hydrogen, carbon capture and storage as well as wind and solar power.
  • It gives buyers who purchase North American-built electric vehicles up to $7,500 in federal tax credits to encourage the adoption of electric vehicles while jump-starting America’s electric vehicle industry.
  • It creates a methane fee program to fine corporations that emit the powerful greenhouse gas above federal limits.
  • Democrats have said the bill’s climate provisions put the US on a path to reduce its carbon emissions by up to 40% based on 2005 levels by 2030.

Go deeper: Biden’s BFD

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Categories
US

Here’s what’s in the Inflation Reduction Act, the sweeping health and climate bill passed Sunday

Here's what's in the Inflation Reduction Act, the sweeping health and climate bill passed Sunday

The Senate passed Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act on a party-line vote Sunday afternoon, delivering the long-awaited centerpiece to President Biden’s agenda.

Democrats rallied behind the $430 billion climate, health care and tax overhaul after Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (DN.Y.) reached a last-minute deal with Sen. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.), who had held up previous proposals.

The House is expected to approve the legislation on Friday and send it to Biden’s desk.

Here’s a summary of what’s in the Inflation Reduction Act:

ENVIRONMENT, ENERGY AND CLIMATE

Businesses would get incentives for deployment of lower-carbon and carbon-free energy sources.

  • Tax credits are extended for energy production and investment in technologies including wind, solar and geothermal energies. The investment tax credit also now applies to battery storage and biogas.
  • Tax credits would be created or extended for additional technologies and energy sources including nuclear energy, hydrogen energy coming from clean sources, biofuels and technology that captures carbon from fossil fuel power plants.
  • Many of the incentives also contain bonuses for companies based on how much they pay their workers and offer credits for manufacturing their steel, iron and other components in the US

Consumers and businesses get incentives to make cleaner energy choices.

  • Tax credits are extended for residential clean energy expenses including rooftop solar, heat pumps and small wind energy systems. Consumers can get credits for 30 percent of expenditures through 2032, and the credit phases down after that.
  • Tax credits of up to $7,500 are offered to consumers who buy electric vehicles — but this credit comes with stipulations that may make it difficult for vehicles to actually qualify.
  • A tax credit would be expanded for energy efficiency in commercial buildings.

Some fossil fuel production on public lands would be bolstered.

  • The future of solar and wind on public lands and wind in public waters would be tied to requirements to hold lease sales that open up new oil and gas production.
  • The bill reinstates the results of a recent offshore oil and gas lease sale that was struck down on environmental grounds. The Interior Department would be required to hold at least three more offshore oil and gas lease sales by next October.

New programs boost investment in climate.

  • A new program aims to reduce emissions of the planet-warming gas methane from oil and gas by both providing grants and loans to help companies reign in their emissions and levying fees on producers with excess methane emissions.
  • $27 billion would go to a green bank that would provide more incentives for clean energy technology.

Costs increase for fossil fuel production on public lands.

  • Minimum royalties increase for companies to pay the government for oil and gas they extract on public lands and waters. A royalty is added to the extraction of gas that is later burned off or released as waste instead of sold as fuel.

Communities that face high pollution burdens get relief.

  • $3 billion would go to environmental justice block grants — community-led programs addressing harms from climate change and pollutants, including $20 million for technical assistance at the community level, through fiscal 2026.
  • More than $3 billion is allocated to funds for air pollution monitoring in low-income communities. Nearly half of the funds — $117 million — would specifically go to communities in close proximity to industrial pollutants.
  • An excise tax on imported petroleum and crude oil products to fund the cleanup of industrial disaster sites increases from 9.7 cents to 16.4 cents per barrel. The reinstatement of the tax is projected to raise $11 billion.
  • The bill permanently extends and increases the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, a tax on coal production to finance claims from workers with the condition. Black lung, caused by long-term exposure to and inhalation of coal dust, is believed to affect at least 10 percent of coal miners with at least 25 years’ experience, according to a 2018 study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

— Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk

HEALTH CARE

Medicare can negotiate lower prices.

The bill would allow Medicare to negotiate prices for some drugs for the first time, a policy Democrats have been trying to enact for years over the fierce objections of the pharmaceutical industry. The provisions save more than $200 billion over 10 years.

  • It would allow Medicare to negotiate lower prices for 10 high-cost drugs beginning in 2026, ramping up to 20 drugs by 2029. There is a steep penalty if a drug company doesn’t come to the table: a tax of up to 95 percent of the sales of the drug. There is also a ceiling that the negotiated price cannot rise above.
  • In a deal with moderates including Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), only older drugs are subject to negotiation after a period of nine years for most drugs and 13 years for more complex “biologic” drugs. That means the negotiations are more limited than many Democrats wanted.

Drug costs can be capped but largely only for Medicare.

The bill includes other measures to cap drug costs. The provisions still largely apply only to seniors on Medicare, not the millions of people who get health insurance through their jobs, in part because complex Senate rules limited how expansive the provisions would be.

  • If drug companies raise prices in Medicare faster than the rate of inflation, they must pay rebates back to the government for the difference.
  • Democrats tried to apply this provision to the private market, but the parliamentarian ruled it violated the Senate rules used to bypass a GOP filibuster.
  • In one of the most tangible provisions for patients, the bill caps out-of-pocket drug costs at $2,000 a year for seniors on Medicare, starting in 2025.
  • The bill also caps patients’ insulin costs at $35 a month, but only for seniors on Medicare. Republicans voted against overruling the Senate parliamentarian to extend that protection to patients with private insurance.

People enrolled in ACA plans get an extension on premium assistance.

The measure also builds on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) by extending enhanced financial assistance to help people enrolled in ACA plans afford premiums for three years. The extra help would otherwise have expired at the end of this year, setting up a cliff. The provision expands eligibility to allow more middle-class people to receive premium help and increases the amount of help overall.

—Peter Sullivan

TAXES

Large corporations will pay for climate and health measures within the bill.

The bill introduces new taxes on corporations to pay for its climate and health care measures.

The centerpiece of its tax plan is a 15 percent minimum tax on the income that big corporations report to their shareholders, a tax known as the minimum book tax. Initial proposals put the amount of revenue raised by the book tax at $313 billion — more than 40 percent of the $740 billion raised by the legislation as a whole.

The tax applies to companies reporting $1 billion in annual earnings. It would impact only around 150 large firms, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.

Sinema demanded some last-minute exclusions to the minimum tax that were favorable to the US manufacturing sector and private equity firms.

  • The tax will exempt companies taking advantage of accelerated depreciation, a popular deduction that helps pay for capital investments such as new equipment.
  • Small businesses that are subsidiaries of highly profitable private equity firms will also be exempted from the minimum tax.

The IRS gets a funding boost.

Another key measure allocates $80 billion to increase enforcement at the IRS. Democrats hope that, with more employees and better technology, the IRS can more closely examine wealthy individuals and ensure they aren’t dodging taxes. That extra revenue is expected to lower the deficit by $203 billion over the next decade.

Stock buybacks will get an additional tax.

The bill enacts a 1 percent excise tax on stock buybacks to replace the revenues lost by appeasing Sinema. Democrats expect the provision to raise $74 million over a decade.

Share repurchases by S&P 500 companies have soared in recent years and are on track to surpass $1 trillion this year. Companies buy back their stock to reward shareholders and increase their stock price by artificially limiting supply.

  • The tax will impact the nation’s largest companies that rely on multibillion-dollar buybacks to raise their stock price, including Apple, Nike and Exxon Mobil.
  • Democrats have criticized the practice, arguing that companies should invest in workers and innovation instead of repurchasing stock.

To further recover revenue lost to the private equity sector, the bill also extends a set of limitations on losses that businesses can deduct from their taxes. The limits prevent wealthy individuals from significantly bringing down or even wiping out their income tax liability. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said that extending the caps would raise $52 billion.

— Tobias Burns and Karl Evers-Hillstrom

.

Categories
US

Here’s what’s in the Inflation Reduction Act, the sweeping health and climate bill passed Sunday

Here's what's in the Inflation Reduction Act, the sweeping health and climate bill passed Sunday

The Senate passed Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act on a party-line vote Sunday afternoon, delivering the long-awaited centerpiece to President Biden’s agenda.

Democrats rallied behind the $430 billion climate, health care and tax overhaul after Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (DN.Y.) reached a last-minute deal with Sen. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.), who had held up previous proposals.

The House is expected to approve the legislation on Friday and send it to Biden’s desk.

Here’s a summary of what’s in the Inflation Reduction Act:

ENVIRONMENT, ENERGY AND CLIMATE

Businesses would get incentives for deployment of lower-carbon and carbon-free energy sources.

  • Tax credits are extended for energy production and investment in technologies including wind, solar and geothermal energies. The investment tax credit also now applies to battery storage and biogas.
  • Tax credits would be created or extended for additional technologies and energy sources including nuclear energy, hydrogen energy coming from clean sources, biofuels and technology that captures carbon from fossil fuel power plants.
  • Many of the incentives also contain bonuses for companies based on how much they pay their workers and offer credits for manufacturing their steel, iron and other components in the US

Consumers and businesses get incentives to make cleaner energy choices.

  • Tax credits are extended for residential clean energy expenses including rooftop solar, heat pumps and small wind energy systems. Consumers can get credits for 30 percent of expenditures through 2032, and the credit phases down after that.
  • Tax credits of up to $7,500 are offered to consumers who buy electric vehicles — but this credit comes with stipulations that may make it difficult for vehicles to actually qualify.
  • A tax credit would be expanded for energy efficiency in commercial buildings.

Some fossil fuel production on public lands would be bolstered.

  • The future of solar and wind on public lands and wind in public waters would be tied to requirements to hold lease sales that open up new oil and gas production.
  • The bill reinstates the results of a recent offshore oil and gas lease sale that was struck down on environmental grounds. The Interior Department would be required to hold at least three more offshore oil and gas lease sales by next October.

New programs boost investment in climate.

  • A new program aims to reduce emissions of the planet-warming gas methane from oil and gas by both providing grants and loans to help companies reign in their emissions and levying fees on producers with excess methane emissions.
  • $27 billion would go to a green bank that would provide more incentives for clean energy technology.

Costs increase for fossil fuel production on public lands.

  • Minimum royalties increase for companies to pay the government for oil and gas they extract on public lands and waters. A royalty is added to the extraction of gas that is later burned off or released as waste instead of sold as fuel.

Communities that face high pollution burdens get relief.

  • $3 billion would go to environmental justice block grants — community-led programs addressing harms from climate change and pollutants, including $20 million for technical assistance at the community level, through fiscal 2026.
  • More than $3 billion is allocated to funds for air pollution monitoring in low-income communities. Nearly half of the funds — $117 million — would specifically go to communities in close proximity to industrial pollutants.
  • An excise tax on imported petroleum and crude oil products to fund the cleanup of industrial disaster sites increases from 9.7 cents to 16.4 cents per barrel. The reinstatement of the tax is projected to raise $11 billion.
  • The bill permanently extends and increases the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, a tax on coal production to finance claims from workers with the condition. Black lung, caused by long-term exposure to and inhalation of coal dust, is believed to affect at least 10 percent of coal miners with at least 25 years’ experience, according to a 2018 study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

— Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk

HEALTH CARE

Medicare can negotiate lower prices.

The bill would allow Medicare to negotiate prices for some drugs for the first time, a policy Democrats have been trying to enact for years over the fierce objections of the pharmaceutical industry. The provisions save more than $200 billion over 10 years.

  • It would allow Medicare to negotiate lower prices for 10 high-cost drugs beginning in 2026, ramping up to 20 drugs by 2029. There is a steep penalty if a drug company doesn’t come to the table: a tax of up to 95 percent of the sales of the drug. There is also a ceiling that the negotiated price cannot rise above.
  • In a deal with moderates including Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), only older drugs are subject to negotiation after a period of nine years for most drugs and 13 years for more complex “biologic” drugs. That means the negotiations are more limited than many Democrats wanted.

Drug costs can be capped but largely only for Medicare.

The bill includes other measures to cap drug costs. The provisions still largely apply only to seniors on Medicare, not the millions of people who get health insurance through their jobs, in part because complex Senate rules limited how expansive the provisions would be.

  • If drug companies raise prices in Medicare faster than the rate of inflation, they must pay rebates back to the government for the difference.
  • Democrats tried to apply this provision to the private market, but the parliamentarian ruled it violated the Senate rules used to bypass a GOP filibuster.
  • In one of the most tangible provisions for patients, the bill caps out-of-pocket drug costs at $2,000 a year for seniors on Medicare, starting in 2025.
  • The bill also caps patients’ insulin costs at $35 a month, but only for seniors on Medicare. Republicans voted against overruling the Senate parliamentarian to extend that protection to patients with private insurance.

People enrolled in ACA plans get an extension on premium assistance.

The measure also builds on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) by extending enhanced financial assistance to help people enrolled in ACA plans afford premiums for three years. The extra help would otherwise have expired at the end of this year, setting up a cliff. The provision expands eligibility to allow more middle-class people to receive premium help and increases the amount of help overall.

—Peter Sullivan

TAXES

Large corporations will pay for climate and health measures within the bill.

The bill introduces new taxes on corporations to pay for its climate and health care measures.

The centerpiece of its tax plan is a 15 percent minimum tax on the income that big corporations report to their shareholders, a tax known as the minimum book tax. Initial proposals put the amount of revenue raised by the book tax at $313 billion — more than 40 percent of the $740 billion raised by the legislation as a whole.

The tax applies to companies reporting $1 billion in annual earnings. It would impact only around 150 large firms, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.

Sinema demanded some last-minute exclusions to the minimum tax that were favorable to the US manufacturing sector and private equity firms.

  • The tax will exempt companies taking advantage of accelerated depreciation, a popular deduction that helps pay for capital investments such as new equipment.
  • Small businesses that are subsidiaries of highly profitable private equity firms will also be exempted from the minimum tax.

The IRS gets a funding boost.

Another key measure allocates $80 billion to increase enforcement at the IRS. Democrats hope that, with more employees and better technology, the IRS can more closely examine wealthy individuals and ensure they aren’t dodging taxes. That extra revenue is expected to lower the deficit by $203 billion over the next decade.

Stock buybacks will get an additional tax.

The bill enacts a 1 percent excise tax on stock buybacks to replace the revenues lost by appeasing Sinema. Democrats expect the provision to raise $74 million over a decade.

Share repurchases by S&P 500 companies have soared in recent years and are on track to surpass $1 trillion this year. Companies buy back their stock to reward shareholders and increase their stock price by artificially limiting supply.

  • The tax will impact the nation’s largest companies that rely on multibillion-dollar buybacks to raise their stock price, including Apple, Nike and Exxon Mobil.
  • Democrats have criticized the practice, arguing that companies should invest in workers and innovation instead of repurchasing stock.

To further recover revenue lost to the private equity sector, the bill also extends a set of limitations on losses that businesses can deduct from their taxes. The limits prevent wealthy individuals from significantly bringing down or even wiping out their income tax liability. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said that extending the caps would raise $52 billion.

— Tobias Burns and Karl Evers-Hillstrom

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Categories
Entertainment

Johnny Depp suffers from erectile dysfunction, court documents claim

Johnny Depp suffers from erectile dysfunction, court documents claim

Johnny Depp suffers from erectile dysfunction, attorneys for Amber Heard claimed in newly unsealed court documents.

The actress’ legal team argued in a March 28 filing, obtained by Page Sixthat the purported medical malady may have contributed to her ex-husband’s allegedly violent behaviour.

“Though Mr. Depp would rather not disclose his erectile dysfunction condition, such condition absolutely is relevant to sexual violence, including Mr. Depp’s anger and use of a bottle to rape Amber Heard,” the documents alleged.

Depp has consistently denied Heard’s allegations of rape and violence.

Heard’s lawyers went on to claim that Depp’s supposed penile problem would make it “more probable” that he would become “angry or agitated” in encounters with the Aquaman star and cause him to “resort to a bottle.”

In May, Heard, 36, broke down in tears during the former couple’s defamation trial as she testified that the Pirates of the Caribbean star, 59, allegedly raped her with a liquor bottle and threatened to “carve up” her face with it during a March 2015 altercation.

“I didn’t know if the bottle he had inside me was broken,” she said, breathing heavily as she held back tears. “I couldn’t feel it. I couldn’t feel anything.”

According to the court documents, the alleged incident occurred in Australia during the same fight that left Depp with a severed finger — something he claimed on the stand happened when Heard flung a vodka bottle at him. The two had only gotten married a month earlier.

During a cross-examination, Depp’s lawyer grilled Heard about the alleged sexual assault, for which the Justice League star admitted she did not seek medical attention.

“As I have always said, I don’t remember exactly what happened first, or the sequence,” she said.

The unsealed documents also revealed text message exchanges between Depp and Marilyn Manson — who similarly has been accused of and denied sexual abuse — as well as the Edward Scissorhands star’s attempt to bring up his ex-wife’s “brief stint as an exotic dancer” at trial.

The jury ultimately awarded Depp $15 million ($A21.35 million) over claims he was defamed by a 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which Heard made allegations of sexual violence. She was awarded $2 million ($A2.85 million) over her claims that Depp’s lawyer had made false and damaging comments about her.

Depp’s team did not immediately respond to Page Six‘s request for comment on the erectile dysfunction allegation.

This article originally appeared in the New York Post and was reproduced with permission.

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