McDonald's came up with a Rendang curry beef burger this year. I waited enthusiastically for it and I tried it on the first day it came out — 23 July.
It was bland. Super bland.
BK finally released their yearly special Rendang burger a few days later. The price seemed to have increased ($8.30) and the burger was visibly smaller. But it tasted good!
Samsung has a problem with its S line of phones. The phones started to have green lines starting with S20.
My S22 developed a green line just under 3 years. I got it changed. And now, 2+ years, it developed green lines again.
It first developed a green line at the left edge in May. Then another line at the right edge a month later. It developed a bright green line late last month. This was the most infurating. It was a faint line, then I rebooted the phone. For some stupid reason, Samsung used max brightness when booting up. And it did some "UI optimization", so it was stuck there for quite some time. The green line turned from faint to bright.
It is a common feedback that green lines show up during firmware upgrade — the screen is at max brightness for the entire process. It is hard to believe, but setting brightness to max just exacerbates its formation. Samsung claimed to have lowered the brightness, but it is still rather bright.
The green lines are due to damage to the display cable. I believe the cable is routed around the battery, and when the battery bloats with age, it stresses the cable and causes this. It is a design flaw.
Another green line just formed. Looks like it is worsening.
I was hoping the phone would hold out until S27 next year. Previously, S22 was expected to get One UI 8.5 — what 8.0 was supposed to be — but because of delays, it got past the 4 years OS upgrade cycle. It was disappointing.
(S24 onwards have 7 years of software support.)
Sadly, S27 may be cost prohibitive due to high RAM and flash price — it may be more expensive than a decent notebook.
So much more beautiful in its toon colors. Too bad it is still quite heavily greebled.
The parts prone to yellowing have been changed. I expect high demand for this.
Remold of SS86 Bumblebee. I felt BB was not toon enough, but CJ is. The chibi car mode is perfect. However, the colors are off — gray crotch, black limbs and black windscreen. They are supposed to be black, gray and light blue. I'll consider buying if I can paint them.
The taxman has caught 279 high-income earners to date for using sham arrangements such as setting up private companies to receive their income to avoid paying more tax.
Out of this group, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) probed 124 cases from 2021 to 2025 and clawed back $49 million in additional tax.
All but one of these cases involved taxpayers extracting profits as tax-exempt dividends or interest-free shareholder loans.
Unlike tax evasion, which is a crime involving hiding and falsifying income, tax avoidance by channelling funds through various arrangements is not an offence, but these moves can result in additional taxes and surcharges being levied if there is no real purpose for these transactions other than paying less tax.
Cases involving such taxpayers were highlighted recently when the High Court dismissed the bid of three doctors to challenge the decision of IRAS to levy more taxes on their total incomes.
Some of these errant taxpayers thought they could avoid the higher personal tax rate – 24 per cent for those with income exceeding $1 million – by channelling the bulk of their earnings to their companies because corporate profits are taxed at just 17 per cent here.
After-tax profits can be declared as dividends and paid to shareholders, who do not have to pay personal income tax on them.
These private outfits paid even less corporate taxes in reality because companies enjoy various concessions aimed at spurring growth and entrepreneurship.
But instead of using profits to expand business and hire more employees, these high-income earners merely used the structure to channel “tax-exempt” dividends and even non-genuine “shareholders’ loans” to themselves.
To deal with these taxpayers, IRAS took action under Section 33 of the Income Tax Act, which empowers it to disregard or vary any contrived arrangement and claw back the taxes that should have been paid.
In the recent dispute, the doctors challenged IRAS’ decision to conduct further tax assessments on their dividends and shareholders’ loans they paid to themselves from 2013 to 2018 through various private companies they had set up.
But the court upheld IRAS’ move to strike down their contrived schemes, finding that the doctors’ companies were mainly used as a conduit to pay less tax.
For instance, one of the doctors claimed to earn only $5,000 and $6,000 a month from his companies, but had received dividends and shareholders’ loans totalling more than $12 million over the six years.
With its now court-sanctioned action, IRAS can proceed to view the dividends and loans as part of the doctor’s own income and tax him accordingly.
In a statement to The Straits Times, IRAS said it takes a firm view on artificial or contrived arrangements that are put in place to avoid tax.
“Self-employed professionals, like all taxpayers, are expected to ensure that their tax affairs reflect the commercial and economic reality of their arrangements,” it added.
With effect from the year of assessment 2023, those caught for using contrived schemes to avoid taxes will have to pay a 50 per cent surcharge on the amount they should have paid.
This penalty is similar to that imposed on real estate investors who use sham agreements to avoid paying the additional buyer’s stamp duty when buying more properties.
This means that if the total additional tax payable is $200,000, the errant taxpayer will have to pay a $100,000 surcharge, or $300,000 in all to IRAS.
In many of these cases, those caught claimed their accountants or lawyers had advised them on the schemes.
On such excuses, IRAS said that taxpayers remain responsible for their tax affairs and should exercise caution when engaging tax agents and relying on advice they receive. “Tax agents are expected to provide advice that is consistent with Singapore’s tax laws. For errant tax agents, IRAS may refer matters of professional misconduct to the relevant professional bodies empowered to take disciplinary action,” it added.
Corporate income tax is 17%. Personal income tax goes up to 24%. As soon as you hear this, you can imagine there will be schemes to avoid paying more than 17%.
(Tax rate changes from 15% to 18% at $160k, then 19% at $200k.)
Because of incentives for startups and entrepreneurship, the first $100k or $200k are taxed very low. This reduces the threshold where this scheme becomes favourable. I guess it is above $80k — tax rate changes from 7% to 11.5%. This is quite a low bar.
I'm sure the tax-free dividend loophole was used once it became law in 2003. And before that, interest-free shareholder loans had always been available.
I want to trim my MP transformers collection, but looking at the lists below, it is still a big number.
Worse, I have multiple of the same character for some.
First, I need to reduce the figures I want. Next is to cut down on multiple representations of the same character.
|Group|#fig|Want?|Notes| |---|---|---|+--| |Autobots| |Optimus Prime|–|Y|| |Skyfire|–|N|| |Carbots|11|Y|| |Minibots|6|Y|BB, CJ, Brawn, Gears, Huffer, WC| |Dinobots|5|N|Except MP-8| | | |Decepticons| |Megatron|–|Y|| |Soundwave|–|Y|| |Shockwave|–|Y|| |Reflector|–|Y|| |Seekers|3|Y|SS, TC, SW (no)| |Tapes|4|Y|Laserbeak, Ravage, Frenzy, Rumble (no)| |Insecticons|3|N|Shrapnel, Bombshell, Kickback| |Constructicons|6|Y||
Carbots: Jazz, Prowl, Bluestreak (no), Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Ironhide, Ratchet, Hound, Mirage, Trailbreaker, Wheeljack.
Wanted: 34 out of 44.
|Group|#fig|Want?|Notes| |---|---|---|+--| |Autobots| |Blaster|–|Y|| |Perceptor|–|Y|| |Carbots|8|Y|| |Minibots|5|Y|BC, Cosmos, PG, Seaspray, WP| |Tapes|4|N|Eject, Rewind, Ramhorn, Steeljaw| |Aerialbots|5|Y|| |Protectobots|5|N|| |Titans|1|Y|Omega Supreme| | | |Decepticons| |Seekers|3|N|Coneheads| |Triple Changers|2|Y|Astrotrain and Blitzwing| |Tapes|1|N|Buzzsaw| |Stunticons|5|Y|| |Combaticons|5|Y||
Carbots: Grapple, Hoist, Inferno, Red Alert (no), Skids, Smokescreen, Tracks, Hauler (no).
Wanted: 31 out of 46.
|Group|#fig|Want?|Notes| |---|---|---|+--| |Autobots| |Movie|9|Y|| |Triple Changers|2|Y|Sandstorm and Broadside| |Minibots|5|N|| |Throttlebots|6|N|| |Technobots|5|Y|| |Titans|2|N|Metroplex and Sky Lynx| | | |Decepticons| |Movie|3|Y|Galvatron (no), Cyclonus, Scourge| |Quintessons|1|N|Sharkticon| |Battlechargers|2|N|Runabout and Runamuck| |Triple Changers|1|Y|Octane| |Tapes|3|N|Ratbat, Slugfest, Overkill| |Predacons|5|N|| |Terrorcons|5|N|| |Titans|2|N|Trypticon, Unicron (yes)|
Movie: Hot Rod, Rodimus Prime (no), Ultra Magnus, Arcee, Blurr, Kup, Springer, Wheelie (no), Wreckgar (no).
Wanted: 17 out of 51.
|Group|#fig|Want?|Notes| |---|---|---|+--| |Autobots| |Punch|–|N|| |Titans|1|N|Fortress Maximus| |Headmasters|4|Y|Brainstorm, Chromedome, Hardhead, Highbrow| |Targetmasters|3|N|Crosshairs, Pointblank, Sureshot| |Trainbots|6|N|| | | |Decepticons| |Sixshot|–|N|| |Titans|1|N|Scorponok| |Headmasters|3|N|Mindswipe, Skullcruncher (yes), Weirdwolf| |Targetmasters|3|Y|Misfire, Slugslinger, Triggerhappy| |Triple Changers|2|N|Apeface, Snapdragon (yes)| |Misc|1|N|Banzai-Tron (yes)|
Wanted: 10 out of 26.
