Speaker 1: Fierce is what the Flux.
Speaker 2: I'm Brett and justin app Monday, the tewond of December,
Speaker 2: j boy.
Speaker 1: The number of young Australians taking out private health insurance
Speaker 1: has reached a record high in the September quarter. According
Speaker 1: to APRI, more than fifteen million Aussies now have some
Speaker 1: form of private health insurance and the main driver ossies
Speaker 1: in their twenties taking out hospital cover used for mental
Speaker 1: health treatment.
Speaker 2: You seeing that flex a well somemer may mean music festivals,
Speaker 2: Christmas parties and maybe a future many babies. It can
Speaker 2: also mean antent gent to our bank account. And as
Speaker 2: we've reached the silly season, this month's Academy is the
Speaker 2: perfect way to navigate the ins and outs and what
Speaker 2: to do this silly season. To make sure to download
Speaker 2: the Flux app and check out the brand new.
Speaker 1: Academy three Ominous Stories today, Jesi boy, Let's do it
Speaker 1: for our first, the Australian government has green lit new
Speaker 1: legislation that will force multinational companies like Netflix, Apple and
Speaker 1: Microsoft to pay a minimum of fifteen percent tax better.
Speaker 2: Than what they're paying out man, So tell me a
Speaker 2: little bit.
Speaker 1: More, well, Juzi boy, we know that the big dogs
Speaker 1: of tech have been on ossie shaws for a very
Speaker 1: long time.
Speaker 2: Now. Yeah, Apples, yea, Amazon's in, Netflix, your, Microsoft's. The
Speaker 2: list goes on.
Speaker 1: And while we may love their products, the Australian tax
Speaker 1: officer doesn't have the warmest feelings towards them.
Speaker 2: That's because many of the major tech companies haven't been
Speaker 2: paying taxes proportional to the profit that they're pocketing in Australia.
Speaker 1: In fact, Jasi Boy, in the twenty twenty three financial year,
Speaker 1: many large tech companies did not pay tax in Australia at.
Speaker 2: All, companies like Netflix, Canva and even Sony.
Speaker 1: So late last week, the Australian government joined more than
Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty five other countries to apply a
Speaker 1: global minimum tax of fifteen percent. And what does this
Speaker 1: actually mean, I'm glad you asked, Jusi Boy. It means
Speaker 1: that a company with more than one point two billion
Speaker 1: dollars in global revenue they need to pay at least
Speaker 1: fifteen percent tax across their global operation.
Speaker 2: And that means it can't start profit shifting money from
Speaker 2: Australia to Ireland, to the Cayman Islands and beyond.
Speaker 1: And the goal in Australia is that multinational companies pay
Speaker 1: a fair amount of tax for the revenue earned in
Speaker 1: our country.
Speaker 2: So what is the key learning here.
Speaker 1: It's time for the world's biggest companies to pay tax
Speaker 1: in the countries where they make money.
Speaker 2: You see, Beman, major tech companies have been using very
Speaker 2: sophisticated accounting to minimize their tax in Australia.
Speaker 1: Because Australia's thirty percent corporate tax rate is one of
Speaker 1: the highest in the world.
Speaker 2: And how do these tech companies do.
Speaker 1: This, Jollie Boyd's pretty simple. They keep a physical presence
Speaker 1: in tax effective countries like becam An Islands, or like
Speaker 1: Ireland and be Man.
Speaker 2: You can see, for example, in the twenty twenty three
Speaker 2: financial year, Apple made more than twelve billion dollars in
Speaker 2: income in Australia.
Speaker 1: But if I look over here, it only paid one
Speaker 1: hundred and forty two million dollars in tax, which is
Speaker 1: just over one percent of earnings.
Speaker 2: So be man in. This new legislation, which passed in
Speaker 2: Australia and more than one hundred other countries, means that
Speaker 2: major tech companies will need to.
Speaker 1: Cough it up if they want to operate in these countries.
Speaker 2: And the man at once. In effect, this could have
Speaker 2: a huge impact on the profits of these massive companies.
Speaker 1: Which could spell some bad news for Wall Street.
Speaker 2: For our second story, Vergin Australia is one step closer
Speaker 2: to finalizing its partnership with Qatar Airways after the A
Speaker 2: Triple C gave it the all clear to start selling
Speaker 2: flights together.
Speaker 1: Definitely not what Quani wants to hear, Juzzy boy, tell
Speaker 1: me more.
Speaker 2: Okay, So, Virgin Australia is the ouzsie airline that launched
Speaker 2: back in two thousand as at Virgin Blue, then rebranded
Speaker 2: to Virgin Australia in twenty eleven, but went bust during
Speaker 2: COVID and just when Quantus thought it had the airline
Speaker 2: market all to itself, Virgin Australia ruse like a phoenix
Speaker 2: out of the ashes. Now, Josie boy, you may remember
Speaker 2: when we spoke about Qatar Airways plans to buy a
Speaker 2: twenty five percent stake in Virgin Australia. I do, and
Speaker 2: it was subject to the A Tribra C and verbs approval. Yep.
Speaker 1: But now Virgin Australia and Qatar have taken one step
Speaker 1: closer to formalizing this marriage.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the a Triple c's given Virgin Australia the green
Speaker 2: light to start selling tickets on Qatar Airways operated flights
Speaker 2: from Australia.
Speaker 1: This means that Qatar Airways will effectively double its flights
Speaker 1: in and out of Australia from June twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: Meaning more competition on international routes.
Speaker 1: But hold your horses right there, Jouzzy boy, not one
Speaker 1: step further, because this is just an interim authorization by
Speaker 1: the Atriple C YEP, the.
Speaker 2: Atriable See and Foreign Investment Review Board won't make a
Speaker 2: final decision until March or April next year.
Speaker 1: And no surprises here, Quantus is digging in its heels
Speaker 1: to try and stop this deal from taking place.
Speaker 2: So what is the key learning here?
Speaker 1: More airline capacity typically means more competition and therefore lower airfares.
Speaker 2: It all comes down to the basics of supply and demand.
Speaker 1: Now, this new Qatar Virgin deal will mean there is
Speaker 1: more than fourteen hundred new seats available each day from
Speaker 1: Australia to somewhere overseas.
Speaker 2: And according to Virgin, Australian airfares to Europe have jumped
Speaker 2: more than forty percent, since COVID and I can confirm, so.
Speaker 1: Jazzy Boy having more capacity means that airlines need to
Speaker 1: be more competitive on prices.
Speaker 2: But here's the thing, be Man. Qatar can reduce its
Speaker 2: airfares a lot more than Quantus can. Why is that
Speaker 2: largely because qatar airways labor costs are estimated to be
Speaker 2: about a third of quantuses.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's because of different industrial relation agreements.
Speaker 2: So while Katar always may introduce new flights and lower
Speaker 2: the airfares, what kind of as a price for And.
Speaker 1: That is why they so fiercely are against this new partnership.
Speaker 2: For our third and final story, Uber is under investigation
Speaker 2: in the US for making it subscription service Uber one
Speaker 2: too hard to cancel.
Speaker 1: The typical story, too easy to sign up, too hard
Speaker 1: to cancel? What is going on here?
Speaker 2: So we want to know Uber the heavily funded now
Speaker 2: nasdek listed a ride sharing app.
Speaker 1: Founded in two thousand and nine and has grown to
Speaker 1: over seventy five million active users around the world. But juzzboy.
Speaker 1: Now Uber is in hot water once again, this time
Speaker 1: with the US Federal Trade Commission, which is kind of
Speaker 1: like the ariple c here in Australia.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the FTC is investigating Uber's subscription one service, Uber one. Yep.
Speaker 1: They try and understand a little bit more about the
Speaker 1: enrollment and cancelation processes of Uber one.
Speaker 2: Because the thinking is that Uber makes it very easy
Speaker 2: to sign up to Uber one, but not so easy
Speaker 2: to cancel. Ah, the old negative option marketing, So what
Speaker 2: is the key learning here? Negative option marketing is a
Speaker 2: strategy where a customer's inaction is considered consent to be
Speaker 2: charged for goods or services, and as a result, consumers
Speaker 2: are automatically enrolled in the service and need to opt
Speaker 2: out if they want to stop.
Speaker 1: But doziboy. Here's the issue. Some companies create intentionally difficult
Speaker 1: cancelation flows.
Speaker 2: The idea is that it traps people into paying for
Speaker 2: something just because they didn't know how to cancel and
Speaker 2: does a boy.
Speaker 1: Uber isn't the first company to do this, Nope.
Speaker 2: The FDCs recently sued Amazon and Adobe for allegedly making
Speaker 2: it too difficult to cancel subscriptions as well. And given
Speaker 2: the revenue from Uber One's membership fees are in excess
Speaker 2: of one billion dollar run rate, this could be very
Speaker 2: costly for Uber. Fusam as the silly season comes up
Speaker 2: in summer with music festivals, Christmas parties, and a whole
Speaker 2: lot of social activity. In the Academy this month, we
Speaker 2: share all the best ways to still be responsible with
Speaker 2: your money and have fun to make sure to download
Speaker 2: the Flux app and check out the Academy this month.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and we'll see you on Wednesday.