WCA September 2013

64 / 116

62 Wire & Cable ASIA – September/October 2013
❖ Thirty-eight per cent would agree to hand over
information as part of a loyalty programme; 39 per cent
would do it for discount coupons or exclusive deals
❖ Thirty-six per cent said they would hand over personal
data free of charge.
Ms Silbey began her Light Reading article with an
(apparently) rhetorical question: “Would you sell your soul
for a better broadband plan?” One wonders what might
have been learned if this were an item in the Amdocs
survey.
Elsewhere in telecom . . .
❖ In partnership with the city, the wireless provider AT&T
in June placed 25 solar-powered charging stations in
outdoor spaces around New York. The pilot project was
inspired by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, when the
company supplied diesel generators and cell towers on
wheels to hard-hit neighbourhoods in the five boroughs.
Working with Goal Zero (Bluffdale, Utah), a maker of
portable solar chargers, and Brooklyn-based Pensa,
which had been experimenting with the creation of
stationary street chargers, AT&T won approval from
Parks Department officials to test them, in rotation, at
sites around the city.
Three 15-watt panels and a 168-watt-hour lithium ion
battery pack can reportedly keep a single solar station
operating through the night, or over five days without
sunshine.
The user has a say in the powering-up: fill a smartphone
in two hours, or give it a 30 per cent charge in 30
minutes. Chris Abbruzzese, vice president for marketing
at Goal Zero, told the New York Times (17th June) that
consumers know exactly how much charging is required
to power a phone or tablet for, say, the ride home from
work.
❖ Law enforcement officials in the US are demanding that
smartphone makers create a “kill switch” that would
render stolen devices inoperable.
Citing statistics showing that one in three robberies
nationwide involves the theft of a mobile phone,
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman of New York on 13th
June announced the formation of a nationwide coalition
of law enforcement agencies committed to stamping out
what he called an epidemic of such robberies.
The Secure Our Smartphones Initiative will lean on
smartphone companies and their shareholders to
help dry up the secondary market in stolen phones
by making kill switches standard on all new products
within one year. Likening their use to the ability of
credit card holders to cancel stolen cards, New York’s
top prosecutor said: “All too often these robberies turn
violent. There are assaults. There are murders.”
Police in New York City – “the Big Apple” – apply the
term apple-picking to thefts of the popular iPhone and
other mobile products. Authorities say that such thefts
figure in 40 per cent of all robberies in the city.
Canada
New US immigration law: a ‘tax time
bomb’ for Canadians who head south
for the winter?
If, as expected, an American immigration reform bill
becomes law, it could have significant tax consequences
for Canadians accustomed to spending part of the year in
Florida or other US winter havens.
The JOLT Act (Jobs Originated through Launching Travel),
introduced in the US Senate on 15th April, will mandate
changes to the current rules that seem bound to complicate
winter plans for holders of the so-called Snowbird or
Canadian retiree visa.
Toronto Star business reporter Madhavi Acharya-Tom Yew
pointed out the good news for these Canadians in the
JOLT Act. It would allow them to spend up to eight months,
or 240 days, a year in the US without a visa – almost
two months beyond the current 182-day limit. But she also
found some bad news. Canadians who spend that long in
the US may be required to pay US income and estate taxes.
(“US Law Could Be a Snowbird Tax Timebomb,” 31st May).
The aim of the Senate bill is to buoy the domestic travel
industry, which currently employs about one in eight
Americans. But Roy Berg, an international tax lawyer at
Moodys Gartner Tax Law LLP (Calgary), urged caution on
Canadians. He told the Star: “It looks like a great deal. I can
be in Palm Springs for 240 days. But they didn’t tell you that
it comes with a very high tax cost.”
Currently, a Canadian who spends more than 182 days in
the calendar year – or more than an average 120 days per
year over a three-year period – may be considered a US
resident for tax purposes.
Mr Berg noted that the US also imposes an estate tax on
the value of assets owned worldwide by some individuals.
Depending on circumstances, the estate tax could take
effect with a decedent who had lived in the US for even a
brief period.
❖ An estimated 500,000 Canadians spend the winter in
Florida every year, and Canadian Snowbird Association
executive director Michael MacKenzie expressed
confidence in their ability to adapt to the new rules.
“Regular snowbirds are very aware of the tax
consequences with respect to the current situation,” he
told Ms Acharya-Tom Yew. “So I’m quite confident they
would understand there would be an issue if they spent
longer in the United States.”
It is not clear how soon after enactment the JOLT Act
would take effect. In the meantime, Mr MacKenzie
said, his association has been in discussions with
US lawmakers in an effort to ensure that appropriate
taxation changes would follow on the proposed visa
changes.
Dorothy Fabian
Features Editor