Tag: Tax exemption

The US has announced it will no longer exempt countries from sanctions that aim to impose a complete oil embargo on Iran. Officials said the Trump administration would not renew any of the sanctions waivers granted to a handful of countries, including China, India, Turkey, Japan and South Korea, when those waivers expire on 2 May. We will continue to enforce sanctions and monitor compliance. Any nation or entity interacting with Iran should do its diligence and err on the side of caution. The risks are simply not going to be worth the benefits.” Trump administration unveils full extent of US sanctions on Iran Read more Neither Pompeo nor senior state department officials would say whether sanctions would be immediately imposed on the affected countries on 3 May, if oil purchases continued. Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal with Iran, the Joint Comprehensive Programme of Action (JCPOA), in May 2018 and threatened US sanctions against any international companies that continued to do business with Iran. Trump administration officials said the waivers, originally granted to eight countries, were motivated by a desire to avoid a spike in oil prices in a tight market last year. They said the waivers were being allowed to end because there was now greater supply. “When Trump withdrew from the Iran deal, it sent the US on a course of self-isolation and dwindling options,” Suzanne DiMaggio, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said. “If they want to continue to buy Iranian oil it has ways to structure the transaction in a way it doesn’t matter if the US sanctions it.”

Janet Mills’ administration on track to pass. Now, Maine allows guardians to opt children out of school immunization requirements based on personal, religious or medical beliefs. Tipping’s bill would remove all nonmedical exemptions as a response to rising opt-out rates. During the past school year, only six states had a higher vaccine opt-out rate than Maine, and the share of kindergartners vaccinated for measles dropped in this school year for the third straight year with the share of students citing nonmedical exemptions rising from 5 percent to 5.6 percent. The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention warned those marks are risking the state’s “herd immunity,” a standard making it nearly impossible for contagious diseases to spread. “We have to make decisions in 2019 that are for the greater good, and this is one of those,” Carson said. Republicans on the education committee criticized Tipping’s bill as a violation of personal and parental rights. Democrats voted that down along party lines. Sen. Matt Pouliot, R-Augusta, said while he would support further education in places with high shares of unvaccinated children, parents have “a multitude of reasons” why they don’t vaccinate their kids. He said Tipping’s bill effectively boots a class of students out of public schools.

(CBC) A Christian teacher who objected to his union fighting a Chilliwack, B.C., school trustee over comments on transgender children has lost his bid for a religious exemption from union dues. Robert Alan Bogunovic told the B.C. Labour Relations Board his religious and political views had become irreconcilable with his membership in the B.C. But last month, the board dismissed the high school teacher's application to pay his fees to a charity instead of the union — finding his objections grounded more in politics than in faith. 's Labour Relations Code to people who object to joining trade unions or paying dues because of religious convictions or beliefs. Bogunovic has belonged to the BCTF for 20 years. "At the time he was already a member of the union," the decision reads. A lone Christian versus outraged mob The BCTF contended that while Bogunovic's convictions may be deeply held, his exemption application was prompted by the union's fight with Chilliwack School Board Trustee Neufeld. Successful applications The Labour Relations Board has granted requests for religious exemption to union membership and fees in the past. In both cases, the board found that the objections were grounded in policy as opposed to faith.