The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is an American government agency responsible for the collection of taxes and enforcement of all taxation laws. It was established in 1862 by President Abraham Lincoln and operates under the authority of the United States Department of the Treasury. Its primary purpose includes the collection of individual income taxes and employment taxes and is headquartered in Washington, DC. The IRS also handles corporate, excise, and estate taxes, including mutual funds and dividends.

Individuals and corporations have the option to file income returns electronically, thanks to computer technology, software programs, and secure internet connections. The number of income taxes that use electronic filing has grown steadily since the IRS began the program, and now the overwhelming majority are filed this way. Nearly 90% of tax returns are filed electronically in the US. Nearly 92 million taxpayers received their returns through direct deposit rather than a traditional paper check in 2019, and the average direct-deposited amount was $2,975.

As part of its enforcement mission, the IRS audits a select portion of income tax returns every year. For the 2019 fiscal year, the agency audited 771,095 tax returns. This number breaks down to 0.60% of individual income tax returns and 0.97% of corporate tax returns. However, the number of IRS audits have been on the decline each year since 2010. There are various reasons an audit might occur. The main reason is higher income. In 2018, the audit rate for all individual income tax returns was 0.6%, but for someone who made more than $1 million in income, it was 3.2%. Even running your own business carries a great risk. Individuals making between $200,000 and $1 million in one tax year who don’t file the self employment forms have a much bigger chance of being subject to an audit. Other reasons for an audit include failing to declare the right amount of income, claiming a higher amount of deductions, making disproportionately large charitable donations compared to income, and claiming rental real estate losses. But, no single factor determines who does or does not face an audit each year.

In recent years the agency has struggled with multiple budget cuts and reduced morale. As of 2018, it saw a 15 percent reduction in its workforce, including a decline of more than 25 percent of its enforcement staff. In spite of this, the agency processed more than 245 million returns and collected more than $3.4 trillion in gross revenue, spending a mere 34¢ for every $100 it collected.

                                                   SPYWARE

BY : NEHA SHAHAB

PEGASUS IS A SPYWARE DEVELOPED BY NSO GROUP , AN ISRAIL SURVEILLANCE FIRM THAT HELPS SPIES HACK INTO PHONES.

 IN 2019 THEN WHATSAPP SUED THE FIRM IN A US COURT , THE MATTER CAME INTO LIGHT. IN JULY 2021 , AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ALONG WITH 13 MEDIA OUTLETS ACROSS THE GLOBE RELEASED A REPORT ON HOW THE SPYWARE WAS USED TO SNOOP INDIVIDUALS , INCLUDING INDIANS.WHILE NSO CLAIMS THAT ITS SPYWARE IS SOLD ONLY TO GOVERNMENT AND NONE OF THE NATIONS HAVE COME FORWARD TO ACCEPT THE CLAIMS.

THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA ON THURSDAY MADE IT CLEAR THAT THE TRUTH HAS TO COME OUT REALLY SOON IN THE PEGASUS SNOOPING ISSUE. 

THIS SPYWARE TARGETED THE MINISTERS , PARLIAMENTARIES , ACTIVISTS , JOURNALISTS , CIVILIANS. IN INDIA , THE NAMES OF 125 POTENTIAL TARGETS OUT OF 300 ODD VERIFIED ONES FROM OVER 2000 INDIAN NUMBER FOUND ON THE LEAKED LIST HAVE BEEN MADE PUBLIC.

FRANCE PRIME MINISTER , EMMANEUL MACRON PHONE NUMBER ARE IN THE LEAKED DATABASE AND HE HAS ASKED THE ISREAL PRIME MINISTER NAFTALI BENETT FOR A PROPER INVESTIGATION.

We have defined terrorism here as “acts of
violence intentionally perpetrated on civilian non-combatants with the goal of
furthering some ideological, religious or political objective.” Our principal
focus is on non-state actors. Our task was to identify and analyse the
scientific and professional social science literature pertaining to the
psychological and/or behavioural dimensions of terrorist behaviour (not on
victimization or effects). Our objectives were to explore what questions
pertaining to terrorist groups and behaviour had been asked by social science
researchers; to identify the main findings from that research; and attempt to
di still and summarize them within a framework of operationally relevant
questions.

 An
international panel of leading experts on terrorism met in Oslo to discuss root
causes of terrorism. The main purpose was to provide inputs from the research
community to a high-level conference on “Fighting Terrorism for Humanity” to be
held in New York on 22 September 2003. The findings described below are
conclusions drawn by the chairman on the basis of presentations and
discussions. -A main accomplishment of the expert panel was to invalidate
several widely held ideas about what causes terrorism. There was broad
agreement that there is only a weak and indirect relationship between poverty
and terrorism. At the individual level, terrorists are generally not drawn from
the poorest segments of their societies. Typically, they are at average or
over-average levels in terms of education and socio-economic background. Poor
people are more likely to take part in simpler forms of political violence than
terrorism, such as riots. The level of terrorism is not particularly high in
the poorest countries of the world.  State sponsorship is not a root cause
of terrorism. Used as an instrument in their foreign policies, some states have
capitalized on pre-existing terrorist groups rather than creating them.
Terrorist groups have often been the initiators of these relationships, at
times courting several potential state sponsors in order to enhance their own
independence. State sponsorship is clearly an enabling factor of terrorism,
giving terrorist groups a far greater capacity and lethality than they would
have had on their own. Definitions of terrorism are usually complex
and controversial, and, because of the inherent ferocity and violence of
terrorism, the term in its popular usage has developed an intense stigma. It
was first coined in the 1790s to refer to the terror used during the French
Revolution by the revolutionaries against their opponents. The Jacobin party of Maximilien
Robespierre carried out a Reign
of Terror involving mass
executions by the guillotine. Although terrorism in this usage implies an act
of violence by a state against its domestic enemies, since the 20th century the
term has been applied most frequently to violence aimed, either directly or
indirectly, at governments in an effort to influence policy or topple an
existing regime. Terrorism involves the use or threat of violence and seeks to
create fear, not just within the direct victims but among a wide audience.

Do you usually find yourself in your room lying down and not being productive enough? People might usually refer that behavior as laziness, but it is not laziness alone that could make you feel such a way. It might be a combination of burnout that is overlapping your productivity. Burnout is a negative state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive stress and inability to cope with it.

Here are some signs that can prove if you are feeling burnout or not.

DISCONNECTING FROM THINGS

If you are going through burn out then you might be experiencing some stuff that you aren’t really aware of, then it is called depersonalization. Depersonalization is a state in which one’s thoughts and feelings seem unreal or not to belong to oneself. It will make you feel like you are loosing your interests in things you once enjoyed or a kind of numbness that brings constant amount of sadness to your daily life.

LOST MOTIVATION

Laziness is a character trait and those character traits tend to stay over time. If you are a lazy person then you wont push yourself to do things. But if a person, who is a high achiever doesn’t feel like doing things and feels exhausted and out of space then it is true that they are facing burnout. It could be a sport, a talent or a hobby that you once loved and now might resent it just because how you overworked yourself.

MOODY AND EASILY IRRITATED

Moody and irritability is a sign of burnout that is usually overlooked. If you struggle to contain your emotions or snap out at things that never bothered you, then it is burnout. No matter if you are a very relaxed and a calm minded person, burnout will affect you and your control of emotions.

NEGLECTING SELF CARE

This is one of the most distressing sign that results in a person being emotionally and physically burnt out. There are concerning changes in your eating and sleeping patterns. You might not want to groom yourself either and just detach yourself from communication. The difference between laziness and burnt out is that you weren’t always this way.

NOTICING THESE GRADUAL CHANGES

Something we all must know bout burnout is that it develop in stages. All the points mentioned above wont happen overnight. Studies have shown that there are 5 stages that slowly but steadily engulf a person. By the time we start noticing the changes we would be in the state where the emotional and physical fatigue is more intense and even harder to treat. This could lead to depression and anxiety if not treated.

If you are one such person who is facing burnout or know someone who is going through a difficult time, reach out to people and don’t forget to raise awareness.

Article by: Haniah Mirza

                                                      ECONOMY BOOST UP

BY : NEHA SHAHAB

INDIA ECONOMY HAS SHOWN SIGNS OF RECOVERY IN JULY AS FACTORY ACTIVITY REBOUNDED  ON THE RISING DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL DEMAND. A FALL IN ACTIVE CASE OF COVID 19 CASES LED TO A ALLOWING BUSINESSESS TO RAMP UP MANUFACTURING ACTIVITY. 

THE REOPENING OF THE ECONOMY HAS LED TO HIGHER DEMAND AND SUPPLY. EXPORTS HAS ALSO WITNESSED A HEALTHY RISE AS ORDERS GREW AT THE FASTEST RATE SINCE APRIL.

EMPLOYMENT HAS ALSO INCREASED FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE MARCH 20 , BREAKING 9 TO 15 MONTH CHAIN OF JOB SHEDDING. HOWEVER , THE PACE OF HIRING REMAINS MILD AND THE COUNTRY JOB CRISIS IS FAR FROM OVER. RISING INFLATION IS ANOTHER MAJOR HURDLE IN THE PATH OF ECONOMY RECOVERY. 

A RECENT POLL CONDUCTED BY NEWS AGENCY REUTERS SIGNALS A FURTHER RISE IN INFLATION DUE TO HIGHER FUEL PRICES. AS THE CASES NOW FALLING THERE IS REASON TO HOPE THAT THE ECONOMY WILL GET BACK TO IMPROVED ACTIVITY IN THE NEXT QUARTER.

                                                     DATA USAGE INCREASED 

BY : NEHA SHAHAB

 DUE TO THIS PANDEMIC HAS FORCED ECONOMIES ALL OVER THE WORLD TO GO INTO LOCKDOWN. OFFICIAL DATA SHOWS THAT THE DATA USAGE HAS BEEN INCREASED 400% IN RURAL AREAS. IT INDICATING THE LARGE APPETITE FOR INTERNET CONNECTIVITY.

INDIA CURRENTLY HAS 504 MILLION INTERNET USERS MAKING IT IS SECOND LARGEST INTERNET MARKET IN THE WORLD , SECOND ONLY TO CHINA WHICH HAS 850 MILLION. RURAL CONSUMPTION NOW ACCOUNT FOR ROUGHLY 45% OF OVERALL MOBILE DATA USAGE AND URBAN USAGE MARKET UP 55%.

THE MONTH OF JUNE SAW THE RURAL DATA USAGE INCREASED BY 30-35% WHEREAS THAT IN URBAN GREW BY 15-29%. COMPANIES LIKE RELIANCE JIO AND BHARTI AIRTEL ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE EXPANSION OF RURAL MOBILE USER BASE.

ACCORDING TO THE LATEST DATA OF A TELECOM REGULATOR JIO AND AIRTEL ADDED 2.76 MILLION AND 1.46 MILLION RURAL MOBILE USERS BETWEEN JUNE AND AUGUST. MOBILE DATA TRAFFIC IS GROWING AS MORE INDIANS SPENT TIME STREAMING LIVE VIDEOS WHICH IS EXPECTED TO ACCOUNT FOR 75% OF OVERALL MOBILE TRAFFIC BY 2024. A STUDY SUGGEST THAT BY 2025 RURAL INDIA WILL LIKELY HAVE MORE INTERNET USERS THAN URBAN INDIA. 

A LATEST REPORT BY THE INTERNET AND MOBILE ASSOCIATION OF INDIA ( IAMAI ). THE REPORT HIGHLIGHTED A GREATER INCREASE A FEMALE INTERNET USERS BY 27% AS COMPARED TO MAKE INTERNET USERS BY 9%. 

THE GROWTH IN INDIA INTERNET USERS ESPECIALLY IN THE RURAL AREAS HAS WITNESSED A BOOST MAJORITY BECAUSE OF CHEAP DATA PLANS AND ACCESSIBILITY TO AFFORDABLE SERVICES FOR ACCESSING THE INTERNET WAS MOBILE IN BOTH RURAL AND URBAN AREAS.