Even as the cost of heating, groceries and fuel soars, the Government is pressing ahead with consultations on a new online sales tax. ParcelHero questions how much more consumers have to take.

The Government has announced a consultation period for its proposed Online Sales Tax (OST). The home delivery expert ParcelHero warns that, whatever the fine print, if a new tax is introduced consumers will end up paying more.

ParcelHero’s Head of Consumer Research, David Jinks M.I.LT., says: ‘A year ago, Chancellor Rishi Sunak hastily ditched his controversial plan to introduce a new online tax, as many shoppers had little choice but to shop online because of lockdowns. Now, despite the fact the pandemic is not over, inflation is rising and we are all facing increased heating and energy bills, Mr Sunak is once more pushing forward with his plans.

‘The Chancellor wants to raise money to fund a reduction in business rates on retail brick and mortar stores. Britain’s business rates raise £25bn a year for the Chancellor’s coffers and are the highest in Europe. High Street retailers are understandably upset at a return to paying the full amount, following a brief payment holiday and reductions during the pandemic.

‘Mr Sunak proposes to fund this reduction by taxing online sellers who, he argues, are likely to have a lower rate burden than physical stores. This plan is clearly flawed, however, as even the consultation document itself acknowledges the higher costs online sellers pay for delivery networks, marketing and warehousing technology. Nor does it consider that every successful High Street store also sells online. In effect, the Online Sales Tax will mean progressive retailers, with an effective website as well as physical stores, will be taxed twice.

‘The Government’s consultation paper outlines a wide variety of options for the new tax. These include whether it would be a 1 or 2% tax on every order, or a flat fee of something like £1 on every online sale. It also discusses whether online services, as well as physical sales, would be caught in its net.

‘The paper examines whether the new charge would be applied to the seller, to the online marketplace/platform on which the goods are sold, or to the consumer directly. In any of these models, you can be sure the costs will be passed on to the hard-pressed shopper.

‘In our view, there is no need for an Online Sales Tax of any kind to plug the hole in the Government’s coffers. The paper claims, “There is no alternative with widespread support that would raise sufficient revenue to replace business rates in their entirety.” This ignores fast-growing support for a Commercial Landowner Levy (CLL) to replace business rates entirely.

‘The CLL would be based on land value alone and would exclude premises and machinery from calculations. It would be paid for by landowners, rather than the businesses that occupy their property, so that empty or derelict buildings would be caught by the new tax system. In other words, the company that owns the valuable land the property is on, and takes all the rents, foots the bill.

‘The discussion document is titled “Sales Tax: Assessing an option to help rebalance taxation of the retail sector”. But that implies there is a difference between online sellers and High Street sellers that needs rebalancing. That is a ridiculously outmoded idea. Today every retailer, from a small craft store to a huge fashion chain, should sell online as well as in-store. Evolution will leave behind those that don’t.

‘As many multichannel retailers point out in the discussion document itself, if the scale of business rates reductions introduced during Covid is markedly reduced, or if the reductions are targeted only at small retailers, most stores will lose more money on the sales tax than they gain from any business rate rebate.

‘The consultation runs until 20 May, 2022. We believe everyone with an interest, from retailers to consumers, should respond. An online sales tax will be another burden on internet shoppers and the Government should scrap the plans once and for all and introduce a Commercial Land Levy instead.

 Mitrade, the Melbourne-based Forex and OTC derivatives online trading broker, has received four exalted Forex awards by the International Business Magazine at International Business Awards 2022 (Asia).

Mitrade was named the Best Forex Trading Platform Australia 2022, the Most Transparent Forex Broker Global 2022, the Best Forex Educational Resources Global 2022, and the Most Trusted Forex Broker Asia 2022.

International Business Magazine recognizes better risk management, rapid growth, cross-platform compatibility, and transparency in the execution of transactions along with other elements of the ecosystem of Forex trading. International Business Magazine champions best performing Forex brands on the regional and global levels.

They reward performers for pioneering technology, super-responsive customer support, market research tools, tiered approach to trading education, and a user-friendly interface.

This award is a yardstick of success for Mitrade as award winners are nominated and selected by a team of unbiased, dynamic, and well-trained field experts. The award process is supervised by expert panelists who are experts in key subject matters, judging panelists who make up the research team, and an editor. The team carries out in-depth analysis and declares as winners the best performers among Forex trading service providers."We feel privileged and profoundly humbled upon receiving these awards for providing devoted trading services to our worldwide customers. These prizes reflect our commitment to consistently innovate and upgrade our trading platform. In this moment of elation and pride, we extend our gratitude to our customers who embraced our self-developed trading platform and valued our technology. We strive to supply an intuitive trading platform to traders in Australia and around the world. This achievement encouraged our team to further improve our services for our users and be an inspiring leader in Forex trading," said a representative of Mitrade.

Mitrade witnessed brisk growth since it went through the restructuring process in 2019. Key reasons behind its massive and generous acceptance by the global trading community are low threshold trading, extensive market research tools, and a straightforward trading platform.

Mitrade has a user-friendly app for Android and iOS users, and an innovative WebTrader, which respond to users to different platforms. Mitrade has also broadened its platform offerings to 400 products including commodities such as gold, Forex, US shares like Tesla, crypto currencies, and indices. 

The founders of Mitrade are experts in technology and finance veterans. Their iron will to achieve excellence and innovation has made possible for Mitrade to win illustrious awards and the trust of the global trading community. The founding team has first-hand intelligence of the specific needs of swing traders and savvy investors. Keeping this in consideration, the founders came up with inventive solutions to streamline trading procedures. On top of this, the founding team has maintained a customer-first strategy.
Mitrade lowers the cost of trading by offering zero commissions. It provides educational programs that suit beginner, intermediate, and advanced level traders. Mitrade furnishes its mobile and web apps with live support. The self-developed platform administers dynamic charting and real-time email and SMS push notifications as well. On top of this, Mitrade regularly updates its systems to ensure that users enjoy an excellent trading experience.

Mitrade's mobile app has hit 1 million downloads on Google Play. The company also has amassed 1,100,000 active users in less than two years. Its transparent transaction execution and user-friendly interfaces have been the key factors in attracting new users from around the world.

For continuous innovation and service delivery, Mitrade has won the Most Innovative Forex financial technology Broker 2021 award by Global Brands Magazine. Mitrade has also won the Best Forex Broker Asia 2021 award by FxDailyInfo. Mitrade has a decorated collection of awards to its credit.

Looks to Invest in Global Web3, Gaming and Fintech Startups
- Cake DeFi has launched Cake DeFi Ventures, its US$100 million venture arm committed to accelerating growth of tech firms, with a focus on investing in Web3, gaming and fintech startups.
- Cake DeFi Ventures has earmarked US$100 million for investments over the next two years.
- Deploys first investment in US-based media startup, The Edge Of Company, Inc.

Cake DeFi, a Singapore-based fintech platform that makes DeFi (decentralised finance) services and applications accessible for everyone, has launched Cake DeFi Ventures (CDV), its venture capital arm with US$100 million in earmarked capital.

Cake DeFi Ventures (CDV) is looking to invest in technology startups in Web3, gaming and fintech - especially those in the metaverse, NFT, blockchain and esports industries - that will bring synergistic value to Cake DeFi's core business. Based in Singapore, CDV will look for global investment opportunities in startups around the world.

CDV is led by Cake DeFi's Co-founders Dr Julian Hosp (Chief Executive Officer) and U-Zyn Chua (Chief Technology Officer) along with newly appointed Investment Partner Nicholas Khoo:

- Dr Julian Hosp is a seasoned blockchain entrepreneur, widely regarded as a leading influencer in the crypto and blockchain space. His vision is to bring blockchain awareness and understanding to a billion people by 2025.- U-Zyn Chua, a blockchain engineer, enthusiast and investor for over a decade, was a Smart Nation Fellow on blockchain for the Singapore government. He was also the Lead Architect for the world's first Central Bank Digital Currency (CDBC) - the Sand Dollar in the Bahamas.

- Nicholas Khoo brings over 20 years in the tech sector with diversified experience in startups and multinationals such as Visa. For more than ten years, Nicholas has invested in a number of successful and fast-growing tech startups and has also served on the investment committees of investors such as the Global Fund.

Portfolio companies of CDV will receive strong support from Cake DeFi's global and experienced leadership team, and the opportunity to access Cake DeFi's connections, resources and expertise within the global blockchain industry.

"By launching Cake DeFi Ventures, we want to bring cryptocurrency and blockchain capabilities to the world. Cake DeFi is one of Southeast Asia's fastest-growing fintech platforms. The projects that we invest in can expect to receive strong support scaling globally," said Dr. Julian Hosp, Co-founder and CEO of Cake DeFi.

Deploys First Strategic Investment into US-Based 'The Edge Of Company, Inc.'

At the time of CDV's launch, the firm was in early to late-stage discussions with a number of global startups, including those in Southeast Asia, the U.S. and Europe. For its first strategic investment, Cake DeFi has selected tech, media and events startup, The Edge Of Company, which has been building the community and ecosystem for the NFT and Web3 space."The entire team at The Edge Of Company is honored to have Cake DeFi Ventures as part of the Edge family. Their know-how, relationships, and strategic insights will help propel this Web3 rocketship to new heights across our platform of tech, media, and events," said Jeff Kelley, Co-Founder, The Edge Of Company, Inc.

"As an extension of our multiple blockchains support and having built up an R&D arm with cryptography deep tech capability, investing in companies that bring synergies to Cake DeFi's core business will allow us to enhance and broaden our Web3 offerings," said U-Zyn Chua, Co-founder and CTO of Cake DeFi.

To apply for funding from CDV, please email contact@cakedefi.vc with the project details. CDV will be in touch with shortlisted projects. Venture capital firms or investment funds interested in co-investment opportunities or strategic partnerships may also reach out for further discussion.

Organized by VetCoin Foundation, the event is packed with several expert discussions

The VetCoin Foundation 501c3, a non-profit organization working with the veteran community to provide them with a more stable and secure future by using blockchain technology, is organizing a one-day event called 'Leave No Veteran Behind' in Tampa, Florida, on May 12, 2022. This event aims to bring veterans under one roof and explore new options in the Web3/Metaverse, a market expected to grow to $8 Trillion in the next decade.

With National Military Appreciation Month celebrated every year in May, the event is appropriately timed to serve as a platform to educate the veterans about possible solutions that blockchain could offer to build a bright future. The event organizers will also recognize a local veteran-owned business with a business incubator grant, and all attendees will be given a free NFT as a token of appreciation.

"The goal of the Vetaverse is to help the heroes create a better and secure future by utilizing the power of new technologies such as blockchain and web3. The purpose of this event is to offer a platform to our veteran community to gather and learn from the experts and be aware of the options that are available today," said Dr. Aaron Bazin, President of VetCoin Foundation.War changes people. Hence, it is even more crucial to help the veteran community create a safe future with financial security as the topmost priority. At present, there are 17 million veterans in the country, and women vets are turning into the fastest growing homeless population in the USA. "The situation is alarming and needs immediate action. We have to help our veterans who are struggling with problems like mental health issues, financial insecurity, difficulty accessing capital, biggest of them being homelessness," Dr. Bazin added.

The VetCoin Foundation's value proposition is based on three principles - connect, enable, and transform. The organization's overarching aim is to provide veterans with access to the blockchain economy and will allow them to buy and invest in building their future. The token VetCoin is entirely secure, fully transparent, and the first cryptocurrency dedicated to the veteran community.

Dr. Bazin said about VetCoin, "VetCoin is an ERC-20 token on the secure Polygon blockchain. The number of tokens commemorates June 14, 1775, the founding day of the U.S. Armed Forces. Our mantra is to give back to the community with each transaction."

The VetCoin team is a brilliant mix of US servicemen and civilians with extensive blockchain experience, making this project come to life. The organization's core values can be summed up in one word, "SERVICE": selfless business model, empathy, resilience, vision, integrity, courtesy, and empowerment.
 

“Cyberwarfare is becoming a reality as attacks are used to disrupt essential services. Hackers took control of banking, government, military websites, even TV channels to damage the usual operations of these entities. The battles in the digital world can have a significant impact on communications and propaganda distribution on both sides.”

●      Estateguru Marketplace Limited opens its UK office in Manchester

●      Estateguru Group is an international property investing and financing platform, which has funded over €500m in loans to over 3,000 business plans and projects across Continental Europe

●      Estateguru operates in eight other markets across Europe including Finland, Spain, Portugal, Estonia and Germany

Today, Estateguru Marketplace Limited, the property investment and financing platform, announces its first office opening in Manchester. It plans to start facilitating loans once fully FCA approved.

Following final approval from the FCA, the technology firm will facilitate property-backed loans for SMEs and present investment opportunities for both retail and institutional investors looking to get a return on their capital through real estate and development projects.

Estateguru Group was founded in Tallinn, Estonia in 2013 and has funded over €500 million in loans to 3,000 development projects and business plans across Europe since then. It hit the €100 million lending mark in 2019 and has grown exponentially since, breaking half a billion in loans in January of this year.

Estateguru Marketplace Limited will begin its operations in Manchester, funding property and development projects across the North West region before expanding its services across the country, with a London office in the pipeline.

The Estateguru Marketplace Limited office opening closely follows the Estateguru new office opening in Berlin, Germany, and is evidence of its mission to become the largest real estate investment platform in Europe by 2025.

Ross Gandy, Managing Director of Estateguru Marketplace Ltd, comments:

“Estateguru Group has an outstanding track record across Europe and one I am confident we can replicate here in the UK. Our offering is two-fold - not only do we offer an accessible route into real estate for retail investors, and a reliable source of investment for large institutions, but our ability to provide competitive alternative finance options to SME borrowers is absolutely crucial in supporting innovative development projects that ultimately have a positive impact on the region and the local people.”

Marek Pärtel, Co-founder and Chairman of Estateguru Group, comments:

“Reaching the significant milestone of €500 million lent was the perfect way to start 2022, and set the tone for the year ahead. We have seen the demand for financing grow throughout Europe and especially from SME companies who are looking for professional, reliable financing partners with expertise in the sector. As such, Estateguru Marketplace Limited office opening in the UK market has came at a perfect time and is another huge step towards reaching Estateguru Group mission to becoming the largest real estate investment platform in Europe by 2025. We are excited to see the difference that Estateguru Marketplace Limited can make to the UK property and investment spaces.”

A fresh contender in the Cloud Asset Management space has just been announced, with the official launch of the ‘Vitado by Certero’ solution for managing and optimizing multi-cloud costs. Focusing on the market leaders AWS and Azure to begin with and with Google Cloud Platform and more soon on the way, the new solution is aimed at helping businesses prevent some of the $26 Billion annual over-spending on cloud, as reported recently by Gartner analysts. This will enable customers to gain visibility, control governance, monitor utilization, take advantage of bring your own license (BYOL), manage costs and optimize value for money from the cloud.

Vitado by Certero is very much an intelligence solution, focused on the management and cost-optimization of cloud resources as business assets, rather than being another cloud operations tool. Businesses need a clear way to see, understand, manage and communicate expenditure in the cloud across business functions – not just cloud infrastructure engineers, but also those in financial and leadership roles need a solution they can also access to get the bigger picture and the bottom line – what are we spending, why, by who and what do we need to do to reduce wastage – it’s all there in Vitado, as CEO John Lunt explains:

“It’s all about connecting the dots and optimizing how technology can help to solve real-world challenges. With the growth and complexity of hybrid, multi-cloud environments, we see that as creating a means to really understand cloud assets and the new ways in which these assets are owned, managed and optimized right across businesses”.

That means not just needing a centralized, trusted information source to make informed decisions, but also a way of interacting with all of that information in a meaningful way to get next-level asset intelligence. 

Accessibility here is the key - not just a solution for cloud specialists, but everyone who needs to understand cloud assets from a financial, business operations, risk and strategic leadership perspective - the non-technical stakeholders. Enterprise cloud management needs that collaborative understanding and communication so that accountability for costs can be properly managed, not just from within IT.

The logical approach to the cloud challenge is typical of Vitado’s parent company Certero, a leader in the hardware and software asset management space. It’s not enough to just pull-in data from cloud portals and paint some graphs – it’s how your solution automates complexities and transforms data into meaningful, actionable intelligence that will give you the edge. 

With the announcement of Vitado by Certero, organizations can benefit from a single, unified multi-cloud solution that automates and proactively alerts stakeholders to issues so that they can avoid unexpected costs and governance risks before they become a problem.

Vitado also helps to bridge the gap between the on-prem and cloud worlds, with the solution being activated upon the broader Certero ITAM & SAM unified platform. No small advantage of which, is enabling an end-to-end solution for managing Bring Your Own License (BYOL) with Azure Hybrid Benefit (AHB).

“The cost-savings with BYOL are simply staggering – as much as 85% when you take infrastructure into account as well” concludes Certero CEO John Lunt.

This unifying capability to span cloud vendors like AWS and Azure and bring your on-prem licensing into view as well all within a single console, is ahead of the game with cloud management solutions and opens up a new level of cost-reducing opportunity.

Lokyata, a company focused on delivering products that digitize, automate, and scale lenders’ credit decisions, has released its latest enhancements to BankAnalyze, a real-time, automated credit decisioning tool that enables lenders to instantly review a bank statement and render an “approve,” “reject” or “manual review” decision.

BankAnalyze helps financial institutions, auto finance companies, and consumer lenders alike easily configure auto-fund and auto-deny rules, reducing the time and cost of managing loan decisioning. Lokyata’s latest updates include enhanced capabilities for self-service transaction category tagging, updating, and training that significantly streamlines the process for users.

Because it leverages open application programming interface (API) technology, BankAnalyze can function as either a stand-alone feature or an embedded fintech solution to extend the value of lenders’ existing loan origination systems (LOS) by providing customer-permissioned bank statement analysis including: Average Monthly Net Income; Minimum Balance; Average Monthly Loan Payments; and Insufficient Funds (NSF) notifications. Financial institutions can then develop a corresponding points system and automate the approval process based on that system.

Additionally, the business rules settings in BankAnalyze now allow lenders to create their own underwriting criteria to further support automated decisioning and counter inaccuracies often found in aggregators’ category tags – something can greatly affect crucial summaries, calculations, and scores. These are then immediately recalculated through the system, automatically reflecting the tag changes. 

“BankAnalyze is a next-generation tool designed to modernize how lenders manage decisioning,” said Steve Bireley, CTO at Lokyata. “By providing lenders with direct access to real-time borrower account information and the ability to design their own rules engines and decisioning trees, we are bringing a level of intelligent automation and improvement to the process that benefits lenders and borrowers alike”