In early February, the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced its intention to revise tax rates on tips. As a result, according to experts, employees of restaurants, cafes, hotels, casinos and other establishments in the service sector will have to pay 2-3 times more taxes than now. American law requires staff who receive tips to keep scrupulous records of them.

The hospitality of submariners turned into tragedy New scandalous details have appeared in the story of the sinking of the Japanese training ship Ehime Maru off the Hawaiian coast. It turned out that there were 16 civilian passengers on board the American submarine Greeneville that rammed the Ehime Maru. Moreover, at the time of the fateful ascent, which cost the lives of nine Japanese sailors, two civilians were sitting at the controls in the command compartment.

One more country music album After a four-year break, the country group Grandmaster released a new album. The group approached this significant event with such a degree of popularity that it would be immodest to say that the album was long-awaited, but, on the other hand, the release of the disc did not go unnoticed. So many journalists and guests came to the presentation at the small “Zen Club” that it was absolutely impossible to breathe.

On February 20, Order No. 1240 of the Ministry of Internal Affairs comes into force. Like any departmental document defining the relationship between drivers and the traffic police, this one was received with caution by Russian motorists. Its contents gave rise to many rumors and fears.

State Duma deputy wants to save unprofitable mines in court State Duma deputy from the Rostov region Vladimir Katalnikov said that he is suing representatives of the State Administration for Mine Restructuring, who decided at an interdepartmental commission to immediately close four unprofitable mines of Rostovugol OJSC. According to Mr. Katalnikov, the decision was made without the consent of the owners of Rostovugol: the meeting of shareholders did not even discuss this issue.

The Internet deprives local budgets of money On October 1 this year, the 1998 US law on tax exemption for the Internet expires. The name of the law does not quite correspond to its essence: it did not prohibit American states from taxing purchases made over the Internet, but only declared a three-year moratorium on the introduction of new federal and local taxes on access to the Internet, as well as on federal taxation of services offered through the Internet.

Federal authorities are pulling the rug out from under the feet of the capital's mayor City land, and especially capital land, which the federal authorities have so far been able to approach only on tiptoe, they will soon be able to “take away” mercilessly and on an especially large scale. The grounds for this are prepared in the bill “On the delimitation of state ownership of land” and - in case of delays with this document - in the draft presidential decree on the same topic.

Ural doctors fear power outages The chief doctors of municipal clinics and hospitals in Yekaterinburg are in a panic - they are expecting a power outage and heat in the near future. In some clinics, power outages have already begun. This happened after the Sverdlovsk Regional Duma approved new principles for financing medical institutions. Until recently, utility bills of municipal medical institutions were paid by the territorial Compulsory Health Insurance Funds (MHIF).

Defense industry feared privatization Two defense plants in Taganrog - Priboy and Krasny Gidropress - were asked to prepare for corporatization. However, the defense industry is not at all eager to become the masters of their production. Moreover, the management and labor collective of Priboi openly oppose any form of privatization of the plant and want to maintain the status of a state enterprise at all costs.

The Yurga Abrasive Plant (Kemerovo region) has finally found a source of alumina. An agreement on its regular supplies was reached with SUAL-Holding, the second largest aluminum company in Russia. The holding has plenty of alumina, and part of it will be supplied to the abrasive plant in Yurga for processing into white corundum. This year, the Yurga Abrasive Plant plans to increase production capacity utilization by 3-3.5 times. To do this, you need to obtain 2500-3000 tons of alumina monthly.

Deputy Governor of the Kirov Region Vladimir Malyshev committed suicide with a shot from a carbine. This happened on February 12, but official sources still do not comment on the reasons for the official’s death. It is known that Malyshev was closely associated with the influential Sputnik corporation in Kirov (it owns a chain of shops, cafes, restaurants, etc.), which supports the Kirov branch of the Unity party.

Will Russia be able to surround the Network? There is no consensus in the world yet on how to collect taxes from online commerce. But in Russia this problem is not yet seriously discussed at all. That does not prevent domestic tax authorities from undertaking experimental checks of the inhabitants of the virtual space. Solving the problem of collecting taxes online is likely to become much easier in the near future.

At the festival of plastic theaters they looked for the Russian way The festival opened with a risky manifesto from choreographer Gennady Abramov, who declared that we were present at the birth of “Russian modern dance,” an alternative to the Western one. As a result, the participants—Abramov’s students and colleagues in the “Expressive Plastic Class” (the festival is formally dedicated to its tenth anniversary)—had to “work out” this statement.

Aluminum holding will control municipal government expenses Big business, which until recently simply “pushed” “their” people into mayor, is now ready to take control of local budgets. Evidence of this is the cooperation agreements that OJSC SUAL-Holding signed on Wednesday with the heads of the ten largest municipalities of the Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Kirov, Irkutsk regions and the Komi Republic. On behalf of the aluminum holding, President Viktor Vekselberg signed his signature.

Far Eastern sailors have come to terms with paid quotas The protest action that took place yesterday in Vladivostok against the paid distribution of fishing quotas showed that the protest of Far Eastern fishermen is by no means uncompromising. While about 400 sailors gathered under red flags on the station square, demanding the cancellation of the auctions and the resignation of the government, their leaders were preparing to participate in the first auction, scheduled for February 17.