We're back with the breakfast and plus TV Africa ready for our first major conversation. Let's quickly give you a background, well, the monetary policy committee of the central bank of Nigeria. At its last meeting, raised the benchmark interest rate from 15.5% to 16.5% in order to rein in inflation and maintain the economic stability in the country. However, the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria has raised the alarm over the increasing rate of tax revenue leakages in the digital economy. They said that despite the advantages linked to the expansion of the digital economy, challenges arising from tax implications of the digital economy are perhaps the most urgent that the devil revenue authorities, policy makers, international organizations and tax professionals President and Chairman of the Council, CIT Adeshina Adedayo, revealed this during the institute's 47th ceremony where over 800 presidents were inducted as members of the institute. Now this is a fourth time the committee apologies for that mix up, well, we have to take that from the top. Again, I guess I got my script mixed up, it happens from time to time, but let me just take it from the very, very, very top. So the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria has raised the alarm over the increasing tax rate in the country and the increasing rate of tax revenue leakages in the digital economy. Now the institute said despite the advantages linked to the expansion of the digital economy, challenges arising from tax implications of the digital economy are perhaps the most urgent that the devil revenue authorities, policy makers and the international organizations as well as tax professionals. Now the President and Chairman of the Councils of the CIT Adeshina Adedayo revealed this during the institute's 47th induction ceremony where over 800 presidents were inducted as members of the institute and we want to know how important this sector is to the Nigerian economy. So as I say, we have our guests joining us this morning to do justice to this topic and he is standing by, I'd like to say a very good morning and welcome to the director of the Center for Economic Policy Analysis and Research, SEPA, our professor in the BC, Wokoma. Prof, good morning to you and thank you very much for your time. Thank you, University of Lagos. Yes indeed, University of Lagos, Akoka Lagos. Prof, this digital sector of the economy, I mean it's relatively new if you want to look at how many years we've had, for instance, fiscal management of the economy, since independence really, it's a relatively new sector. How important is this sector and the overall fiscal stability of Nigeria in your opinion? Yeah, I think the emergence of the economy that we're talking about that is clearly digital is because of the growing trend of globalization and we know that the world has become a global village, like we always say and there are four key areas that we can talk about that defines globalization. One of them is trade, increased trade among nations. The other one is ICT, internet, it's very, very high. The other one is immigration, it's a critical issue globally and the other one is financial flows. So these areas have made the world very, very small globally. So trade is a key component, increased trade and also the impact of the content manager is a key component of globalization and when we talk about that, every country wants to maximize its earnings in this process and that is why you talk about the acknowledgment of being able to recognize income that is earned from your shores because you are dealing with many countries in terms of the flow of goods and services, you know, tangible goods and intangibles and then at every point in time income is earned by the various economic agents and how can you now tax them is a challenge. Now with the protection of the economy, with the great use of the internet and the flow of services particularly, you know, via the online channel, every country has this challenge of being able to recognize income that is earned through its shores and that is why it's a challenge for FIROS or for the tax, you know, a person has to be able to recognize income and to be able to help the economy enhance the revenue in flow. So it's a challenging area and it will keep on becoming relevant because the economy or the world is becoming more and more globalized, we are becoming smaller and smaller. So trade flows are becoming more frequent and becoming more rapid and for a country like Nigeria that is just green, it's a challenge for us to now know where the income is earned, particularly among companies that have branches across the world, but personal corporations, you know, that have branches across, you know, cross-border transactions. So if income is earned in one particular institution, how do you pay tax? It's a challenge and it's something that has to be properly addressed. Even the OECD has been able to talk about how to handle transfer prices across various countries within the same group. It's a challenge and will keep on being something that for some time to come. So do we attribute this to the fact that we're not so swift in terms of, you know, technology and the 21st century, if you like to say, kind of economy? I wouldn't say we are not so swift. Nigeria actually has a deep level of internet penetration currently, even in Africa. But the last government under Jonathan, they really did a lot when it comes to this penetration issue about the internet use or technology use globally. But it's an emerging trend and the country is trying to write education by being able to make sure it tries to capture income because the key thing is income recognition. For example, we have Nestle Foods. Nestle Foods may have a parent company abroad. And there's a subsidiary here in Nigeria or there is a branch here and they do transactions, they buy raw materials from each other. And the income that is made by Nestle Nigeria should be taxed. And these things are, you have so much transaction parallelism, talking about offering of market services or selling online. People now make sales online like Jumia, there are goods that are sold online or you sell in amazing, people sell goods and the income is earned. Then the seller earns income. Then how then do you recognize that? That is the key issue. The point is now we've been able to enhance technology. So we have to recognize income earned and that's the job of the tax officers. At what point has Nestle Nigeria earned income by dealing with Nestle UK or Nestle America? And those are areas. So at what point which income belongs to the branch of Nestle in the UK or the branch of Nestle Nigeria? Those are the challenges. And so technology has to be properly enhanced. And when there's a flow of goods or services, when once let's say Dan Gote group, Dan Gote Zambia, there's Dan Gote cement in Cameroon, there's Dan Gote cement in Zambia and so on. So when they transact within the same group, how do we know the income earned by Dan Gote group of Zambia and Dan Gote group of Nigeria? And to properly recognize the income that belongs to who it is, when you recognize the income that you can talk about applying the appropriate tax by Nigeria, not by Zambia. So it's about technology on one hand, but not more about income recognition. And that is a key job for the tax officers. So Professor, I mean just before Kofi steps in, are we not saying one and the same thing? That, you know, because of inability to understand the dynamics of technology to solve the problems seem to be the issue. Well, depending on how you look at it, because the point is that there is an increasing flow of transactions because of globalization. The flow has increased. It is not easier to transact like it was before. It is more of the growing trend of globalization. So I can easily buy something from abroad now. It is easier than I could buy 10 years ago. So yes, from your own point of view, if we enhance technology for us to properly know when the income has been earned by either party, and then know how to do it, because so much is happening online, a lot is happening online. That is what government has talked about, being able to earn income through this means, because there are a lot of people sell goods now, people to hardly own shops. You can stay in your house, have an online presence, and you transact yourself, and then you earn income. And then this income is not recognized by the authorities as to how to apply tax. So it's a matter of, yes, enhancing their own capacity technology to know when income is earned. I can be here and I'm selling, and I'm selling millions of Naira without having a shop. So it is the growing trend of globalization and technology can also assist. So I agree, for example, with you that yes, we're able to enhance capacity in this area. We can also be able to know when the income is earned and want to apply their proper taxes. All right. You mentioned the OECD, very important, you know, because one of the important questions that they had to answer was how best to tax the digital economy. Let's go practical. Before we go practical, I mean, I mean, we're seeing that the cost of living in the country is going up, you know, almost every single day. Inflation is galloping, or should I say, it's flying these days, it's developed wings and it's just flying. You can't even catch up with it. Is this the time to be talking about increasing the tax burden on Nigerians? I mean, people who take advantage of digital economy are people who are trying to make daily income. Is it the man or the woman who is using his car for a ride-hailing service to make money to survive? We can see that they are complaining. A lot of them complain because I use these services myself and they complain about what they get charged as percentage by the companies, you know. The companies themselves are also being pressured by government, not just federal but even state governments to pay taxes and it's telling on the percentage that the ride-hailing driver or rider has to go on with. You know, you look at those who are selling, you know, maybe using online mediums to sell. These are people who are surviving. So the question I'll ask you to call this shot is won't this affect the business people, those who are in the MSME sector, you know, because we do not simply need, you know, more taxes maybe. Okay. Thank you very much. I think the point here is that Nigeria is not taxed as other African countries. If you look at the tax-to-GDP ratio in Nigeria, it's about 8%. So actually, Nigeria is under taxed. Compared, I'm talking about comparison, compared to other African countries, where it's about 6% of GDP. So there's room for more taxation. However, we don't tax those who are already paying their first year of tax. That is the little difference that most times we have multiple taxation in certain sectors and in some other areas, there's no tax at all. The ultra-rich, the very rich actually are not paying, in my opinion, not paying their first year of taxes. The very, very rich. Those who have these private jets who have a lot of money, both onshore and offshore, they're not paying their first year of tax. And then you have a lot of persons in the informal sector who are not even paying tax at all. So for those who are already paying tax, I think government needs to structure their tax programs such that they capture those who are not paying and not overtax those who are already paying. Like there are those who are struggling, who are trying to survive, who are saddened. If they pay tax normally, their first year of tax, that would be fair because the government needs the revenue. But my problem with government approach is like trying to tax those already paying who are not being overtaxed. So there's need for that rearrangement. But the country is not paying sufficient tax compared to the GDP. It's among the lowest in Africa. So there's need for government to make more money through taxation. However, they should shift their focus on those who are not paying. There's a lot of persons, the traders in the marketplaces, the market women, those who are in the, even the underground economy, they're not paying tax at all. Some are paying almost nothing. And there are those who are paying SMEs, many of them are paying state-fed levies, local government levies, federal levies. And there are those who are struggling to survive. Like you said, they're having a high level of inflation. And then they are being taxed more. That is where government now needs to restructure to make sure that it is properly distributed across the economy. So, but what do you make of these thoughts or school of argument where some people are saying that they are overly taxed? At this point in time with the taxation, you have some people who say government is taking so much. Some people are scared of having businesses established because of several tax that will come afterwards. And on the other hand, we're still saying that Nigeria is on the tax, taxed. Yes, like I said earlier, Nigeria is on the tax, as an economy globally. Nigeria as a country is not, if you compare the tax revenue to gross domestic product, it's a money-lowered snafkrika. If you go to other countries, you pay tax for almost everything. The problem with Nigeria is the distribution of this taxation. That is the problem with Nigeria. Those who are not paying, many are, those who are paying are paid to pay more. That is an area I say that government has to look into. They are those who are not paying, or those who are paid very little compared to their level of income. They need to be identified and made to pay their fair share of tax. If you do that, the money that will come out will be so significant. And then government has to deploy technology, even able to enhance this increase in tax revenue. However, as I said before, government should not overtax those who are, and that's a very small portion of the population, but those who are in employment, they pay. And then they have to also pay through other means. There is this proposal that government should increase the VAT beyond the current rate. So there are many proposals on how to increase tax revenue. But my focus is distribution. There are many who are not paying their fair share. That is where the focus should be on. And not on those who are already paying. People like maybe you and I, who are in employment. We are already paying our fair share of tax. And then those who are not paying are not called. So the tax program should be proper to capture all that. Finally, the large informal sector, many of them are not paying tax, or the ultra-rich, they are not paying tax as they ought to pay. That should be the focus. If we are able to capture that, then the tax revenue will now be compensated with our level of GDP. I think that's so there's no need to overtax from people, people who are already paying. That is actually where the work is. I hope your authorities are listening. Because indeed, you know, the tax net is not as wide as it should be. And I hope authorities, but if care is not taken, I think it's already happening in some sectors. Multitaxation is a problem. You know, before you realize you are actually playing the same tax over and over again in different names. It's very important that that is looked at so that people do not suffer. And businesses do not suffer. Already we have a conversation about businesses going under because of an increasing interest rate. Businesses are also trying to struggle to stay afloat because of the increasing cost of fuel, which is not even easily available these days. But let's look at the issue of location. I mean, existing international tax rules assume that you need a certain level of fiscal presence in a country, maybe an office, a factory, a workshop, et cetera. In a foreign country, before you can make any significant stable revenues and therefore before you are taxed. But a lot of these companies are not resident in Nigeria. They don't have an office. They're based in the country. Twitter, for instance, doesn't have a base in Nigeria. You know, how will government work around this, you know, to tax the main people who are making the money, which are the big, you know, tech companies, for instance, Twitter, who makes money of advertising, for instance, Facebook, who makes money of advertising, for instance, LinkedIn, who makes money of advertising, for instance, Google, who's making monster money of advertising. If they don't have offices in Nigeria, can they be taxed? Is there a way to go around this? Yes, in my opinion, the markets that they are exploiting is in Nigeria. The market that's generating the income. If somebody is selling some goods to me from the U.S. and is offering a service and they are paying for it, or the market, or those who are paying and leveraging on my participation in the process to earn income, then Nigeria needs to have part of that income. I think, in my opinion, that is the work in progress for there to be an arrangement where which both the location of the company as well as the location of the market, there will be some kind of a need for a proportional arrangement in sharing of the revenue. For example, in the capital market, when they say sale, when they say transaction in the sale, there's some portion of the income, if you are selling that goes to the stock exchange, that goes to the to-sale, and there's some portion, if you are buying, they say, where you do a proportional arrangement on sharing income. So I think it's a matter of income apportionment being able to talk about who gets what if a company, Facebook is based in the U.S. and the income is generated because of the market based in Nigeria. There had to be a proportional arrangement for sharing so that not all the income, because we have been liberated to enhance the income of Twitter or Facebook or whatever, Instagram. So the digital economy actually is challenging. Then there's need to be an apportionment. So it's so much proportion of the income and we'll go to the particular country and the other proportion. So the issue is about other arrangements and the thing could be either maybe cost based or market based, being able to determine what income is earned, what is the pricing, and what is actually how do we share the income between the location of the company and the location of where the market is. I'm in Nigeria and I'm patronizing amazing or actually I'm going to be so true amazing. So how does Nigeria as a country earn income? Because any country, because I'm the one paying, I pay online and income is earned by the country based in the U.S. How does Nigeria, so it's a matter of an arrangement which has to be done globally to know who gets what portion of the income and what is the proportion that has, but everybody should get something. All right. Prof, we have to leave it at that and I would like to thank you very much for your time. Am I seeing you have a question? Just quickly before we move on, because we still have some time, we've been told that we have some time to continue. Well, I'd like to ask the primary reason that we pay taxes is that the government would use this taxes to improve public infrastructure among others. Do you think that as much as we are on the tax as a country, do you think that the taxes that the people have paid has been justified in terms of maintaining? Well, when I say on the tax, I mean if you compare to the... No, I understand. I understand. My point is compared to other countries. Yes, compared to other countries, I'm saying that with the little that has been paid, do you think that there's a justification for it? Because the essence for paying tax is that government would use this to maintain public infrastructure among other issues. So if you look at the public infrastructure across the entire... I agree. Will you agree or will you say that there's a justification that this taxes that the government collect has been justified by public infrastructure across the country? Yes. I wouldn't say it is justified because many people actually don't want to pay that because the country benefits. So that is the reason why many people are trying to evade tax, because they think that this money actually is not going to benefit me. It's like money for government officials. So government needs to do more for the little that they are collecting. Chief, Professor, sorry, we look at the cases built or the rules or the ideas considered by the OECD. They're talking about establishing new bases for determining when a digital economy is liable to tax.


And this is it the season 6 finale of my hero academia. It's been a roller coaster of a season I think I actually have enjoyed the back half more than the front half despite the absolute chaos that the front half was I don't know man. It's been just emotionally heavy. We have episode 138 today. No man is an island I'm excited to get into it. If you knew the channel, don't forget to drop a sub and let's get started. Oh We ended the last one with who I think was staying watching all night Holding my discipline back Oh my god in all might is just stone cold The old ST man, he didn't even flinch Dude, oh, that's all he can do like like one second. Oh my god's been so long since he's done that I forgot stains exact ideology, but I thought the collapse of hero society would be exactly what he wanted He's so powerless having once been the symbol of peace Wow, but on the flip side of things it's getting more towards the whole thing that anyone can be a hero Did he catch him Here oh that some people still see oh man his legacy hasn't died Not everybody's lost hope Oh my god, oh my goodness That's what I'm saying. Yeah, his legacy lives on through them.  Oh my god Fading him This is so sweet. He does need to be clean This is so wholesome man He hasn't shamed fuck ago will never but he has started this new sort of path to He keeps about the same he did this last episode he almost said deku, but then switch to izuku Oh my gosh, she's zoinked out in a stressful time You don't gotta apologize They all know now It's so bizarre they don't know now though his body was under a lot of pressure I hope we get a conversation between the two of them before the season ends. I feel like no man being an island Maybe is all might either almighty. Oh my god Dude how close are we to the end of image a it feels like it's ramping up to the end as if like Sugarwockie is the final villain. I could see it. How do you find someone more powerful? Stain's turn around is the biggest surprise I need to go back and watch the episodes with him to understand his ideology better It's been too long My heart I guess that everybody can be here with the entire thing with the whole crowd last episode the random civilians They can help I feel like it's gonna end on some like more dire note though this season Just cuz it has been a little bit more positive these last couple. It's been going up They're in hiding It's still kind of crazy the entire like underground system that they're just sitting on top of now I Just I'm smelling the jammer. I hear it.  Yeah, we're probably gonna get a tease of where Sugarwockie is. I would imagine One one okay, so the jump between this season next season will not be that long in terms of time You're all might Dude staying coming in clutch Love letter Yeah, he'll 40 euros over 40.  Oh, he was very meticulous about this going for info Kind of information could be here though. That would be that dire She's on me a cargo. Is that his real name? Well, there's not much he can do about it. He's dead Oh Like flash drives Dang how important with these these memory drives It's I'm so glad he's turned into this pivotal character a Beast on the side of a just world Damn, it's almost like this is too far. He thinks society still needs heroes at the forefront Wow, and he just searched endlessly for all my Is this like the SWAT team that rated like overhauls place? So he's just worried about Sugarwockie being too like encroached on by offer one it's all for one's will Connect with that above surface Oh Yeah, like they think the same thing a synchronized consciousness no moves They can communicate even apart so maybe offer one is even with Sugarwockie Dude this cat's eyes dilating And it could be even faster Well, this is a flashback so it could happen any day you in oh my goodness Heroes overseas I asked about anything outside of Japan.  Oh shoot a call to action star No way is this how it ends. Oh my god, dude the US is number one heroes on the way I love how she's like I heard a call from all night. I'm on the way All right, so we do end the season on a pretty pretty light note despite the other final battle drawing near No, this contrast so heavily to the back half of the season and these two goober's Everybody's together Dang dude, and that's it. Holy And that is it season 6 of MHA is a wrap a fantastic note to end off on the the discussion between all might and stay Just astounding the reveal of America's number one hero, baby So she said my master's in trouble. So he trained her. That's a good side She looks insanely powerful too not to mention the like the drones.  She has to be insanely powerful. Yeah, she dips and goes to Japan to help Wouldn't that leave America and a lot of danger especially if like they said all for one has people in every country Well overall, I think start to finish this was the best my hero academia season by far I think this season with the fight between all for one and all might is a close second But this one was the most consistent in terms of every episode not every single episode was a banger But it really didn't slow down at any point even following the war but that has been it for me and my reactions to MHA I guess until next season if you are only here for MHA. I thank you for joining joining me on this sort of journey I will of course be back for season 7 and right now I'm watching one piece mob psycho and dragon ball super other series to start following I guess mob psycho demon slayer is coming back soon Jujutsu kaisen stick around for that with that being said drop your final score for season 6 of MHA down below I'll catch you guys in the next one


Welcome to what the F is going on in Latin America and the Caribbean, a popular resistance broadcast of hot news out of the region. In partnership with Code Pink, Common Frontiers, Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Friends of Latin America, Interreligious Task Force on Central America, Massachusetts Peace Action, and Task Force on the Americas, we broadcast Thursdays at 4.30 p.m. Pacific, 7.30 p.m. Eastern right here on YouTube Live, including YouTube channels for the ConvoCouch, Popular Resistance, and Code Pink. Post-broadcast recordings can be found at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Telegram, and now at radindemedia.com and under Podcasts at PopularResistance.org. Today's episode, Columbia and Venezuela, Brother Nations Reunite, and I'm so happy to have today to introduce to all of you, those of you who are watching on the ConvoCouch met Dan earlier this week, but for the rest of you, here is my friend Dan Kovalec talking to us live from Moscow, and we're so thankful to have your time, Dan. I'm just really, really pleased and pleased to have you back on our show. Let me tell the audience a little bit about you. This is an impressive resume, everyone, so listen up. Dan is an American lawyer and human rights advocate who currently teaches international human rights at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. From 1993 until 2019, he served as in-house counsel for the United Steel Workers. While with the United Steel Workers, he worked on Alien Tort Claims Act cases against the Coca-Cola Company, Drummond, and Occidental Petroleum, with cases arising out of egregious human rights abuses in Columbia. Dan is the recipient of the David W. Mills Mentoring Fellowship from Stanford University School of Law, as well as the Project Sensor Award for his article exposing unprecedented killing of trade unionists in Columbia. He has written extensively on the issue of international human rights and US foreign policy, including several books, one of which is The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela, how the US is orchestrating a coup for oil. You can see that Dan's like the perfect person for us to have to talk with this evening. I also want to mention to all of you that Dan is a Senior Research Fellow with the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, also known as COHA, COHA is a broadcast partner of this program. Before I have Dan share with us what happened last week in Caracas, let me give all of you a little bit of background. Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro met in Venezuela's capital of Caracas on Tuesday, November 1, two months after formally re-establishing diplomatic relations, and a month after resuming trade between the two neighboring countries. This is three months after the inauguration of Gustavo Petro, which was 5 August. This was the first time that Petro and Maduro met since the mending of bilateral relations in late August. It was a historic meeting as it marked further strengthening of the diplomatic ties between Colombia and Venezuela, which got increasingly worth with the intensification of attacks against Venezuela by the United States and the support for this campaign by far right Colombian President Iván Duque. Colombia and Venezuela officially broke diplomatic relations in February of 2019. After Duque, after then President Duque, recognized the US-backed self-proclaimed president Juan Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate leader. Dan, you and I were in Venezuela shortly after all that happened in February, March of 2019. Everyone here is, I want you all to welcome Dan Cavalliq live from Moscow. Maybe Dan, we should start with why a little bit of historical context for the audience to what this relationship between Venezuela and Colombia is. Because both governments, presidents, ambassadors, and citizens refer to each other as brothers. This is a really important historical fact to understand why they refer to each other that way. Yeah. Well, because the region, the Andean region there, is they consider themselves a unified peoples that Spain divided arbitrarily and that Simón Bolivar, the great liberator wanted to reunite. He helped liberate Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador, and what are the other countries? Maybe Peru. What is now Peru? Bolivia. Yeah. Bolivia from Spanish reign. And also what is now success. Right. But well, because Panama was part of Colombia. Exactly. Well, that's a whole nother coup story there. That's a whole nother story. But what he wasn't able to do, ultimately, was his dream of unifying all those countries, right? Which we know is Colombia. Yeah. And so, you know, Colombia and Venezuela in particular, I'd say of all those countries, really looked at Bolivar as their spiritual leader. Right.  Right. And the bones of Bolivar are there. You can visit, you know, his remains there. But in Colombia, they also, you know, have a reverence for him. They have, in fact, Gustavo Petro was inaugurated in Plaza Bolivar in Bolotá.  And I was there. I was there. I know. I forgot to tell the audience so that this, yes, I was there to the inauguration on 5 August. Cause the inauguration for about 15 to 20 minutes while the sword of Bolivar was gathered from the museum and taken to the inaugural stage. Right. This was a huge political act. Right. And he was denied. Petro was denied that by the outgoing president. Well, in the military opposed it, but he did it anyway. So it was his first executive order. It really was. He says by order, order the sword of Bolivar brought here. By the way, I should mention that when he was in the M19 guerrilla group, they had stolen the sword of Bolivar out of the museum, saying that it would be restored when Colombia was truly free.  That was a little back, very interesting back. You know, that's a whole, I think that that whole Bolivar sword is a whole episode that we should do in and of itself, just the whole history of that sword. Yeah. But you understand that Bolivar is very important to those two countries. And again, his dream was to reunite this whole region as one nation, right? One country.  And again, under the constitution that he, he initiated the referendum in the constitutional assembly that gave birth to the new constitution under that constitution that the people approved in Venezuela. It was renamed the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, right? Which is the fifth republic. What's that? It's the fifth republic of Venezuela, this constitution they're working with now. Meanwhile, next door in Colombia, it was being run, well, really beginning in 2002, I guess, by Thugs, you know, by right wing Thugs, beginning with Alvaro Uribe, who were one very much connected to the United States, but also to right wing death squads in Venezuela. And at that, you know, so from 2002, up until Petro's, you know, inauguration as president, Colombia really eschewed their Bolivarian roots, right? That was not something they were striving for. They were striving to be like the 51st state of the United States. And they became a partner of NATO. They're the only partner of NATO in Latin America or the Caribbean, right? So... And that's the key word Caribbean in NATO is North Atlantic organization. Exactly. Yeah. And of course, Colombia also has a Pacific border as well. And, you know, so during this period in the 2000s, Venezuela and Colombia could not have been at morades and there were border disputes and there were border incursions, particularly by the Colombian military and paramilitary forces into Venezuela. And the Venezuelan government with, you know, evidence claim that Colombian paramilitaries engaged in assassination attempts of Nicolás Maduro in successful assassinations of some other politicians. So things have been very bad at that border between Colombia and Venezuela. And all came to a head in 2019, of course, when Trump recognized Juan Guaido and they had this kind of, you know, pretense of a humanitarian aid shipment between Colomb, a bridge between Colombia and Venezuela. And then, you know, the Colombian side set those aid trucks on fire and blame Venezuela for it. So this was, and then the borders were shut down for a time between Colombia and Venezuela. So now Petro comes to power and again, he symbolically wields the sort of olivar. He didn't take it out of the case. That would have been awesome. He left it in the case in front of him, but he did wield it in a certain way. And now, and then he opened the border with Venezuela, right? Very quickly, he recognized Venezuela, recognized Nicaragua, recognized Cuba, which his predecessor had refused to do, right? And now he's met with Maduro, and now they're talking. They exchanged ambassadors very rapidly too, like within the first week. With all those three countries, I just mentioned, right? And then he's now met with Maduro and they're now working towards at least more economic integration between the two countries, more border openness. So this is a huge, huge thing. I mean, it's very exciting. I'm very excited about it. No one thought this was possible on the Colombian side for a long time.  So that's all good, all to the good. Last week, so this was November 1st. And the timing was crucial because they clearly waited until after the election results in Brazil, which was appropriate and give Brazil its moment. And then- Which also shares a border with Venezuela. Yes, a very, a large one, a very large one as well. Very large, yeah. I think the border with Colombia and Venezuela is 2,000 miles. 2,000 plus miles, is that about right? And even longer with Brazil. So last week, a few of the things that Petro and Maduro talked about were stabilizing the opening of the border, continuing to expand trade and also working on the immigration issue between the two countries. And they also talked about with the urging of Gustavo Petro about climate change. And since then, COP 27 has started in Egypt, I think November 6th, the 6th or the 18th of November. And I noticed in yesterday's news that Nicholas Maduro spoke about the Amazon, which was extraordinarily encouraging and Gustavo Petro made a great talk also at COP 27, how climate change is not gonna be solved by the capitalist system, it's the capitalist system that created, has at least exacerbated climate change. So that was really wonderful to see the two of them really more or less speak in a united front for the Amazon and for the Andes. And I would say for Latin America and the global South as a whole. And so with this reuniting of these two brother nations, this reopening of diplomatic relations and more, how does this play out for the rest of the Americas in your opinion? Well, look, I just think this is part of an overall trend. You mentioned a little of being elected in Brazil, re-elected after many years. And elections in Bolivia, Peru, Chile, to a lesser extent, Nicaragua. I mean, all of Latin America is shifting to the left and to independence from the United States and challenging the Monroe doctrine. And I think that, yeah, Colombia is a big piece in that puzzle and Colombia and Venezuela, working together to do that is a huge piece in that puzzle. And again, it will be bolstered and it will be buoyed by the election of Lula in Brazil. So I think you will see Latin America more and more go its independent path. Ambo in Mexico as well. Remember, he refused to send himself for any high ranking officials to the summit of the Americas because Biden banned Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela from that. So do you see more and more independent acts in the region? Ambo was such a huge voice this time, well, September of last year when he reconvened the Salah Summit after a four year pause and really articulating from here in Mexico city or I'm talking to all of you from regional integration. And that for the audience, that entire five hour Salah Summit can be viewed on YouTube and it's really worth watching because I don't know, 32 of the 35 Salah members, Salah is all of Latin America and the Caribbean with the exception of US and Canada. They were never invited to join. This was a project vision of Hugo Chavez as well. But that whole integration of the Americas was the prevalent predominant theme of last year's Salah Summit and it did include agreement with even some of the right wing governments like Ecuador that the regional integration working as a region, a united region, it certainly at least economically is the dream. And it isn't necessarily exclusive of the America, of the United States, as Amla was so good. And I do think Petro is key to this as well, is making sure the United States, both of them are very clear about making sure the United States knows there is room for its participation. But the United States participation is gonna depend on the United States evolution in recognizing national sovereignty and in recognizing sovereign nations as equals. Right. Yeah. And I don't know that that evolution is possible in this moment at the States among young people, I think it clearly is among the current government of the States, I'm not sure that it is, but that's gonna be key. It isn't necessarily, let's move forward without the US, there are these overtures from both Amla and also from Gustavo Petro who include the US assuming the US is capable of evolving. Well, yeah, yeah, no, of course, that's always been the case. I mean, people have to understand that when you look at some of these Caribbean countries in particular, like Venezuela, like Cuba, like Nicaragua, they have more in common with the US than they do with, say, Russia or China. They like baseball more than they like soccer. They like the colonial sport.  They feel a certain simpatico with the United States and the American people. But as you say, only if the US is willing to be one of many nations amongst equals and deal with them with respect. And that's what they've made very clear. You know, you wanna come to us with respect and we're equals, then we'll deal with you. Otherwise, you know, not. We're moving on without you. And they clearly are. The evolution is in place. It has been born and it is growing rapidly. I agree with you. It's really, really exciting to see what's unfolding. You mentioned the Caribbean and Cuba. Let's talk about Cuba and Colombia's relationship that's particularly regarding the peace accords and how Petro has reached out to the Cubans to reestablish those negotiations. What's happening with that? Well, if you're talking about the peace accords between the Colombian government and the guerrillas, Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela played a key role in sponsoring those talks that led to a peace deal between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas, the biggest and oldest guerrilla movement, not just in Colombia, but I think maybe in the world. But there still are the ELN guerrillas out there. So Petro wants to make a deal with them. And again, the Cubans are there ready to help with that. And Petro has requested and he has accepted for President Maduro to negotiate on behalf of the ELN, to represent the ELN at the negotiating table. Is that correct? That is correct as well. Yeah. And so Venezuela and Cuba will both play key roles in the negotiations. Which is necessary. I mean, all parties need to be at that table for it to be effective and a lasting peace, I would think. Yeah, and especially because the ELN does sometimes take refuge within Venezuela, right? So to be totally truthful. So it's important that the Venezuelan government be a part of all that. Let's talk about, I just wanna, since we're talking about the Colombian peace accords in Cuba and thing for our audience, there's one thing happening now. Well, it actually happened last year, but on the heels of the UN vote to condemn the US blockade on Cuba, which was last week, Thursday the 3rd, I believe, 182 nations voted to condemn the US blockade on Cuba. Two voted against it, US and Israel. And two abstained. One being Brazil and I forget the other that abstained, Ukraine. But last year Cuba, and this is a little bit of a digression for the audience, but this is also why it's so important that Colombia is reestablishing the peace accords and the negotiations. Last year or during the Trump administration, excuse me, Cuba was put on the state sponsor terrorism list because after the first, was it 2016 Dan, the first Colombian peace accords that Havana sponsored, several of the guerrillas remained in Cuba. And because they are still there, that was how the US State Department finagled the state sponsor of terror designation on Cuba, which is devastating for Cuba because that means aside from a terrible sanctions regime, now as a state sponsor of terror, they can participate in any way shape or form in the international finance or marketplace. No, and it becomes very difficult for Americans to support Cuba because you're supporting a terrorist, a designated terrorist organization, which is illegal. It's criminally illegal. So yeah. So this is, do you have any idea how the Colombian government, the new government is what its position is on that? Or how to work around those people, those Colombians still being in Havana? It's very complicated. I mean, it's a catch 22 really for the Cubans. Yeah, I think so. I mean, I don't know the details. What I do know is Petro is a very careful person, a very pragmatic person, and I'm sure he will work to do workarounds, but in a way that does not provoke the US. It's very clear that he's acting in a way so as not to provoke the United States, because if the US turned on him in a big way, they could destroy him. I mean, they have, the US is very embedded with the Colombian military and paramilitaries, and Petro knows this. So he's in a very precarious position. So whatever he does is gonna tread lightly doing. Well, and for the audience, there are seven, now eight, and eighth under construction US military bases in Columbia.  So yeah, it's somewhat precarious for him. And you can say, oh, well, he should just kick the US out, but how do you do that? They're a weaker. Seven, one base would be one thing, but seven is one another. Yeah, I think it's tough. It's tough for him. And I give him a lot of leeway to do that, because I think he's in a tough position. Can you just share before I let you go, because I know it's very, very late in Moscow, and I am so thankful you made time to talk with us today. Can you share with the audience some of your work in Columbia because you have such an impressive and fascinating resume in your human rights and labor rights work in Columbia for so many years is significant. And is there hope now with the new government that a lot of the things that you've been working on, the human rights abuses, the labor rights abuses to the point, I mean, you've worked with people who have been under the threat of assassination. Is there hope now that this is gonna change, or what do you say to all that unfolding? So I've been working in Columbia since 1999, and I've been working with, yes, labor organizations, also Afro-Columbian organizations. And these are some of the most oppressed peoples in Columbia, in addition to indigenous peoples, I've also worked with. And I think that, yes, there is hope for all those folks and there is hope for the violence against them to decline. At the same time, people have to understand, Columbia has a military with a mind of its own. I like the thing as well of military, that works for the people. Exactly, like after the coup against Chavez in 2002, he thoroughly vetted and purged that military, right? And now they're all loyal. So that's true in Nicaragua, that's true in Cuba. It is not true in Columbia. In fact, I've compared or contrasted Petro with Salvador Yende, you know, Salvador Yende, he was overthrown in a coup in 1973 by, you know, a general, General Pinochet with the U.S. backing. He at least had a couple loyal generals, like Letzlier, right? He was killed in Washington in 1976. Exactly, yeah. I don't know if Gustavo Petro has one loyal general.   They hold a lot of cards in Columbia. And so he's gonna need all the solidarity he can get to do that. And that means for Americans, in terms of our solidarity pressuring our own government to stop supporting, you know, the paramilitary organizations in Columbia, really to stop funding the military, right? Which is the reactionary force in Columbia. And instead to do, you know, development funding and funding of other peaceful projects. So, but I do have some optimism. I do that the change can come. Well, I think that's like, it's such a hope for all of South America, well, Latin America as a whole, but this is so, Columbia specifically being such that historically being such the US base, literally and then politically, economically and militarily the US base in South America and the Caribbean that to see what is possible now is really, really exciting. Is really, really exciting. And the reparation that we're pairing the relations with Venezuela is one part of that. But super, but so huge, symbolically, economically, politically and hopefully for integration in peace for the region. It's just huge. And it's very, very exciting. Very, very exciting. So what else should we share with the audience before I let you go? I promised you 30 minutes and we're like on 42 minutes now. So, well, I would just say people need to keep paying attention to Latin America, which is the point of your whole show. And I do think Latin America is the hope for the world. I've thought that for a long, long time. I still think it in, and of course now that hope and faith has been just reaffirmed by recent events. And I think in the case of Columbia, people need to be patient with Petro. He really has a lot to confront. He's not always going to, he may disappoint people at times because he's gonna have to make compromises. But I do think his heart's in the right place. You know, I know Petro, I've known him for a long time. I know that's how you got invited to the inauguration. Yeah, so I have faith in Petro and I think other people should too. So, but I do think there's a lot of hope in Latin America and we need to keep hope alive. This is Jesse Jackson used to say. We need to keep supporting that. Yeah. Absolutely. That's our job. Okay, everyone, I just want, I want you all to just give Dan a huge thank you for joining us from Moscow. It's like midnight there I came for you.  And you know, just on a personal note, you're like one of the first people that got me so focused on, on the Bolivarian Revolution. Wow. Thank you, Terry. You were plugged into that, you know, in the very early, early days of Chavismo and you were a great, you know, inspiration for me to, to get involved and explore all of that too. And it's been, it's been a, yeah, it's been quite a ride while the last 20 years, watching all of this unfold and now really leading to something very, very constructive for the Americans. Absolutely. Yeah, so. Okay, everyone, thank you for joining us. Thank you, Dan. I just want to remind all of you, you've been watching what the F is going on in Latin America and the Caribbean. We are a weekly broadcast of popular resistance. You can watch us on YouTube live every Thursday, 7 30 p.m. Eastern, 4 30 p.m. Pacific on the Convo Couch YouTube channel, a popular resistance YouTube channel and Code Pink YouTube live as well. So we'll see you all next week. Thank you so much, everyone.


Welcome to part two of these option tutorials. This is gonna be part two of three. You can go back to look at part one and you will also see later part three on strategies, but we're gonna cover months. Months for options is also very important. Depending on which month you select, you're gonna get different behavior characteristics of your trade. If you have a bullish idea, it might take one or two years to get a full value out of that trade. If you're looking to put on income strategies, you may not want all that time. You may want only 30 days or a week or 45 days. It really depends on the type of trade you are trying to set up and also the environment. If you have high volatility, the premium might be higher than normal. You might wanna do more income trading. If there's low volatility, you might take advantage of the low premium and look for bigger moves if that's the strategy you're looking to do. So I'm gonna jump over to the options and we're still gonna use our Snapchat example, but I wanna show you how all the different months look on the same strike. So let's say we're just gonna do the at the money 11. The current price is near 11. So 11 is the at the money option. Remember, in the money is when the strike is below the current price, out of the money is a junkier option further away out of the money. So at the money is the nearest to the current price. I'm gonna click on the 11 and it's gonna show all the different 11 strikes. And if you notice, we're looking at the calls on the left side from the closest to today to the furthest out in time, they're gonna go up in value. It's almost like a rental property. You're gonna pay a lot of premium for a lot of time and you're gonna pay the least amount as the time runs out. It's like paying for one month of rent versus 12 months of rent. And traders like to pay the least amount as possible because it reduces their risk. And then investors who are providing liquidity who are selling those calls, they wanna get the most for their safety. So if you're looking to put on a bullish trade, there's a decay feature. These are like trading ice cubes. You gotta remember a big ice cube will start to melt slowly. And then as it shrinks, it speeds up because there's more area exposed relative to the size of the ice cube. Another way to explain it is when the options are running out of time, a big move will make that small option really worthwhile. So the decay might be a little high and then melt and then pop open again as the price moves. That's not a little wordy, but what I'm trying to explain is they melt slow and then they melt really quickly. But there will be some residual value in the last week, let's say. So just because the option is decaying quicker and quicker doesn't mean it's safe to sell. That's the point I'm trying to make. You don't wanna sell a really small option because if there's a big move, it might hurt you. So as an investor, how do we use this? If we have a big idea, a stock that's gonna move big, we might be better off buying more time and letting the trade work versus buying a lot of these short-term options. So we covered strike before, we're covering time now. They're gonna behave differently. If I'm a buyer, I want the most time, which means less decay. If I'm a seller, I want my option to shrink quickly. So I want compounding to help me. So I might be looking at the two month, 45 days to 60 day options to sell and if I'm bullish in the direction, I'm gonna want more time. I might be buying a year out at least six months. Six months to a year seems to be a nice place for those big bull moves. And then to help pay for those trades, I might sell 45 days, 60 days, 30 days, something that decays quickly but won't move around too much to hurt me. They'll call that gamma risk or the spiciness of the option. Let me say that again. If I'm looking for a big bullish move, I want the most time and the least decay because decay or the melting is a cost or an expense to me. So I wanna pay the least rent for this exposure, this bullish exposure. So I'm gonna pay for a year call, maybe even a two year call, okay? Not too far out out of the money. That's how I'll get the most bang for my buck.  And then if I'm selling premium, I'm gonna try to sell between 45 and 60 days. That's when the decay curve really starts to crush. That's how we wanna think of options. If you bought a one year option and now there's only 30 days left, you're gonna be kind of worried, you're gonna wanna roll that premium out, which means you're gonna buy it back and redeploy at a different time because you wanna manage the decay rates. Those are the different months. I hope this was useful. Obviously this doesn't cover everything, doesn't cover all the strategies, but this gives you a little bit of a sample of how the different months behave and how you combine different months to create a nice little trade, depending on your scenario. I hope this was helpful and in part three, I'm gonna cover strategies. So follow and then jump over the next one.


Hey everybody, Lance here. Today we're gonna have a discussion on structuring your training, okay? So this is still related to rowing. There is this meme in the fitness industry that you need to balance your pushing and your pulling. You want to, for every set of bench press, for example, you wanna do a set of rowing with it. Now, at face value, I think there's definitely something to that, right? You notice people, like if you notice anybody who's like first getting into bodybuilding, they want a big chest. And so they do a lot of chest exercises. And what happens is they put on a lot of chest muscle, but they don't get a big chest because they don't have the breadth that they need. They don't have the width that they're looking for because their chest muscles get so shortened, so concentrically oriented, that they just kind of develop shoulder pathology instead of just muscle, and then they walk around like this. Kind of like a monkey or a gorilla walking on the ground. So yes, there is something to that. If those people did a couple more rows, they would probably notice a lot of improvements, especially if they're feeling those rows in the right areas, right? So not just in your lat down the side of your body, but also in the upper back muscles. So the trapezius, the rhomboids, we want those to be turning on during our rows because that's going to keep our chest open. That's going to give us that broad look that is so intimidating from big people that you see. So take that into consideration.  You're probably only going to feel the lat muscles. And what you're going to notice is the lat actually turns the shoulder in as well, just like the pressing. So if you're doing your rows this way, where you're not getting the upper back muscles, then you're not going to get that balance. The one to one ratio is really just a two to zero ratio. You're not going to achieve the symmetry that you want, both for function and for aesthetics. So keep that in mind, absolutely. Now, outside of that, I don't give rowing to a lot of people right off the bat. If you are totally untrained and you don't, you're not too biased into any one particular position or pattern or posture, then yeah, I'll probably give you some rowing and I'll give you maybe in a one to one ratio, but it's probably going to be more like a one to one to one ratio and now you're wondering what is this other number? Push pull what? So pushing to me could mean a lot of things. I consider a push up and a bench press pretty much polar opposites, right? So in a bench press, if I want to use as much weight as possible, I'm going to pin my shoulder blades back and I'm just going to straighten my arms out if I can, but I'm not going to get that whole reach where my shoulder blades come apart and my arms look a little bit longer. But on a push up, I'm absolutely going to do that and I'm probably going to make you do that on nearly every set that you do. And then on the other side, we have our rows. So this push to reach to pull ratio is I think a little bit less set in stone for me. I haven't thought about a blanket ratio that I want to give people, but ultimately if you're coming to me and you're showing me some upper body dysfunction, I need to make sure you can do these reaching movements, these push ups before I let you do heavy bench presses where you're not moving your shoulder blade or before I let you do rows where I know you're just going to arch your back to do your row, instead of actually moving your shoulder blade backward and getting those scapulo spinal muscles, that upper back musculature. So keep that in mind, one to one pulling ratio, it's got some good parts to it and it's nice because it's simple, but sometimes this detail really does matter. Sometimes it's very important that you're getting the reaching motion. So I would encourage you to look at the hundred videos or so that I made on push ups and on different handstand preparation things. Those are meant to warm your shoulders up, they're meant to give you this reaching functionality that will then allow you to really maximize the effectiveness of your rows.


This is, this is actually 20 minutes fast. This is a, um, I've just baked these. Hey you. I don't know. So I've been thinking about intuition and instinct and trauma responses and PTSD.  For instance, after a car accident, it would stand to reason that someone would be afraid to get back into a vehicle. There are so many unique situations that have similar results. Define instinct. An innate typically fixed pattern of behavior in animals in response to certain stimuli. Do you want to hear the remaining one? Yes. Instinct is a formal term. As an adjective, it means equality, especially a desirable one. Instinct is the inherent inclination of a living organism towards a particular complex behavior containing both innate and learned elements. What is the meaning of instinct? An act or course of action in response to a stimulus that is automatic rather than learned? It's a cat's instinct to hunt. A way of knowing something without learning or thinking about it. Hard to wait. A natural ability he has. An instinct for making money. Is it intuition or is it a trauma response? Intuition is inherent. It's built in. It is not learned. Trauma responses. Those are learned. Those are coping mechanisms. Developed. Instinct. My intuition. I don't know that I can even hear them right now. Because I've got so much fear and anxiety to work through first and to be honest, that is comforting. It makes things a little less confusing. If I can just accept that all the things I'm feeling towards these uncomfortable situations, if it's just fear and anxiety, well then I'm still gonna do it. I'm not not doing something just because I'm afraid. In some cases, in many cases, later on down the line, we have to. I have to. I'll just keep it about me. I have to challenge old coping mechanisms and I have to face fears and I have to get uncomfortable because avoiding situations that have hurt me in the past so as to not let them hurt me again, it makes sense in certain situations. Definitely learn from my mistakes and won't put myself in certain situations again, but when it comes to love, when it comes to trying again, working towards my dreams, taking risks in my career, I absolutely have to.  It's messing with my head. It's messing with my sleep. I don't know that intuition to hear just yet. I think that it's it's still recovering and I think that what I'm hearing, the only thing I'm hearing is fear, but you need to stop. Rain and I have been struggling lately, hence the before sunrise. I've been presented with situations and opportunities that make me excited and fill me with lots of good feelings, all the dopamine, but also so much fear and so much discomfort and anxiety and I know why. The thing is, when we are in this state, we're tired, we don't think straight, we ruminate, I ruminate and logic goes way out the window and all I can think is that this this tightness in my chest and this weight at the pit of my stomach and this fog in my mind, this has to be intuition. This is a sign. This is a I need to run. I need to hide from job opportunities, from a crush, even from myself. When I look in the mirror, I don't feel like she's me. I haven't adjusted to her yet and that scares me too, but none of these things are bad. I get why they're scary. I understand why they're scary, but to figure out tools and ways to remind myself that this isn't intuition, this is fear, and then to look at that and talk to myself and reason with my unreasonable brain and work towards a little reprogramming so I can let go of those tools that I


Hello everyone and welcome to the RTA's webinar on the new web services bulk on launchment. That's a little bit more. So my name is Lynne Smith. I'm with the communication and education team. I've been with the RTA for over 16 years in two main areas of our education area and also in our dispute resolution area. Today I'm also joined by Caster 7 who has been heavily involved with the project web services and the bulk on launchments. So thanks Kath for helping out today as our subject expert and for our audience today what's your role and how long have you been with the RTA? Thanks Lynne and good morning everyone. Happy to be here with you all. I've been at the RTA now for 12 years. I've worked in majority of the areas across the RTA and most recently just been focusing on the web services project so I've been working on that and now currently back in my bond management team leader role. Great and we also have Lynne from our outreach team helping us today and providing us with some support in the background just in case of any technical issues and also helping out for our questions as well. So before I do start I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners on the land on which we are holding today's webinar and where you are also joining us from and pay my respects to elders past present and emerging. So with today's presentation we're going to cover off on bond legislation requirements, the RTA's web services and how the bulk on launchments will work. So we're going to be playing you a short demonstration video during the session and we'll be also looking at the benefits for you as a managing agent and also where you can find some more resources to help you. I'll also talk about an update with the Office of Fair Trading and the RTA investigations so if you are a licensed agent or property manager this will actually have an impact on you and at the end we'll address your questions and please note we cannot provide you with legal advice and as always you're encouraged to seek your own independent advice to make informed decisions. Today we also want to hear from you so our webinar will start with a poll very shortly just to see where you're joining us from today and also to see how often you do use the RTA's web services. So we will have a question session before the webinar is finished and we'd love to receive your questions so please use that little chat function or that little speech bubble on your Zoom toolbar rather than the Q&A box. So if you look at the screen you'll see that little image of that speech bubble. We also want to hear from you on how today went and importantly what future topics you'd like to know more about and also any feedback on the RTA's web services so please look out for the survey at the end of the webinar it takes about one one-and-a-half minutes at the most to complete. So we'll get started and I'll just launch our poll. So this one is a two-part poll. So what we're looking for is webouts you're joining us today and also how often you actually use our web services. So if I could get you to just complete that poll for me that would be great. So your web services that's what's covering you know all the processes about lodgements, refunds, you change your contributors, you dispute resolution process and also updating your details and that web services you can use 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And also too I know that we do have a lot of property managers joining us today but we also have some student providers and other managing organizations as well so welcome today. So that poll open for just a moment longer. So it looks like we have about three percent of us are in southeast Queensland followed by Brisbane and but a big hello to our central Queensland and western Queensland people as well. And in relation to our web services it looks like about half of you are actually using it several times a week which is really really great and for the people who don't use web services hopefully we can actually give you more information today on where you can find some resources to be able to jump on board. I'll just end that poll thanks everybody. Okay so let's kick on. Our first topic is about the legislation requirements and for a lot of you this isn't new. So this hasn't been changed it's been in place since the residential tenancies act of 94 days. So the legislation will outline the maximum amount of bond that can be charged but it also says that the bond needs to be lodged for the RTA. So section 116 is very clear that it needs to be lodged with the RTA within 10 days and that is calendar days not business days. So for real estate agencies and managers please check your practices on when you lodge your bonds. We have been saying this for some time now so if you are doing mid and end of month disbursements only then that may not be meeting that 10 day requirement. Best practice would be to choose one day each week disperse weekly to the RTA to make sure that you do make that legislation timeframe and we do know the trust account systems out there do allow for more regular disbursements. You may already be aware of the RTA's web services for all the bond related transactions and updating your details and your dispute resolution but what we are going to go through today is what has also been added to this and that is the ability to lodge many bonds or your bond increases in one transaction. So remember you do have to accept the terms and additions and you will need to log in with your unique QGov identity. So this new process is really aimed for those managing parties such as your real estate agents, your property managers, on-site managers and also your student accommodation providers or your park managers. And two any joint landlords who may own or manage a lot of properties and a lodging bond. So these are the people who are regularly lodging numerous bonds in one go. So for this process you're going to need your RTA ID number and for those who do lodge bulk bonds you do we do know that you will have one. And as I said before this process is lodging new rental bonds or doing the bond increases. So there is a maximum of 50 transactions that you can do and the maximum total of that transaction cannot exceed $50,000. So if you look at the right hand side of your slide you will actually be able to see the process. It gives you step by step along the way and at the end you'll be able to print or save a summary of each of the individual lodgements and also your summary page that you have submitted. So just to give you an example an individual summary is on your left hand side of the screen and your bulk summary is on the right hand side. So we are going to be playing a short demonstration video shortly and we'll show you how it works. And if you're already familiar with our single bond lodgements you'll find that this is very similar process. So Kath I'm just going to come back over to you. Just share some information with the audience just before we play that video. So over to you. Excellent. So with the bulk bond lodgment web service you will be able to have the ability to stop and start. So you will be able to say start your web service bulk lodgment on a Monday and then add five say on that day and then you can come back on Wednesday and add another three before you actually lodge. So you can actually build it up over the over the period of the week. Once you actually submit the bulk bond lodgment to the RTA you will then be taken to a payment page where you'll be able to have access to a B-pay code and you'll be able to pay the whole lodgment in one transaction with that code. However what you need to know is if you start that batch and you don't submit it within 10 days of adding that first either an increase or new bond to the batch the batch will be automatically deleted after that 10 days. So again best business practice would be to ensure that you're lodging every week to avoid any issues. During the process there is reminders repeatedly through when is the due date of the bulk bond lodgment. We also send a seven day reminder to make sure that you are submitting within that day 10 day time frame. As you go through the service the any problems you will get error boxes. So it's very intuitive and it's designed to talk you through the whole process. An example of this would be that you must complete or remove the incomplete new lodgment before you can continue. You will have the ability to resume an incomplete lodgment or remove it. The system allows you to go back into a lodgment and do edits before you actually submit. So you'll be able to have time to actually review what you've entered. If there's anything you need to correct you can go back and edit before you submit. So again another example of a information box that will pop up. You can go back as I said and edit any lodgment that you've added and you need to make a correction. It is important to note that you will need to click continue and move through the screens again if you've gone back to edit just to make sure you don't lose your changes. Again information boxes that will help you out throughout the whole process. This is the BPay reference page so once you actually submit the bulk bond lodgment whether it's a mixture of all new bonds or a mix of increase in you you'll receive a notification of BPay and this will be through smart services. So let's run through the demonstration video and I'll be back shortly to go through some of the resources and then Lynn will go through the Office of Fair Trading and what's happening in that space. Here you'll see the terms and conditions for using RCA web services. Click on the checkbox to agree. Next you'll need to authenticate your identity using QGov. Answer your QGov username and password. Once logged in you can begin using the bulk bond lodgment web service. You'll first need to answer some basic questions about the properties you manage and there are helpful hints to guide you along the way if you're unsure of any of the answers. Make sure you check your details and enter a contact phone number. Next enter your RTA ID and the main email address that your organization or joint LESA partnership uses to interact with the RTA. Next it's important that you read these instructions as it tells you how to navigate this web service. You'll then start at the bond increase page where you can input any bond increases you want to add to your bulk bond lodgment. At the bottom of this page you'll see a section which calculates the number of bond increases and bond lodgments that have been added to the web service. As you continue this section will calculate the total amount owed for the bulk bond lodgment. To add a bond increase click on the add bond increase button on this page. Enter the bond number for the bond you want to top up. Check the details of the bond and the bond contributors to ensure they're correct. Then enter the new rent and bond amounts. You can choose to split the bond increase equally between the contributors or you can allocate different amounts to each contributor. If the tenancy end date has changed you can also update it here. If the RTA doesn't have an email address on record for any of the bond contributors you'll be asked to enter it here. Each bond contributor must have a unique email address to be able to use this web service. Enter the email addresses accurately to ensure they receive the required notifications. When you've entered all the necessary details for a bond increase you'll reach a summary page which has all the details you've just entered. Check that these are correct and use the edit functionality if you need to make any changes. You can print a copy of the bond increase or save it as a PDF on this page. Once that's done add your bond increase to the bulk bond lodgment. As you go through the web service messages will occasionally pop up reminding you that the bulk lodgment will be deleted if it's not submitted within 10 days of adding the first bond to the batch. This is in line with legislative requirements which state that a bond must be lodged by the managing party within 10 days of receiving payment from the bond contributors. Once you've added all bond increases to the bulk lodgment click on the continue button. This is the new lodgements page. Click on the add new lodgment button to add a bond to the bulk lodgment. You'll then need to add the property details. In this case we're going to submit a lodgment for a rooming accommodation rental. The process for lodging a bond is exactly the same as when it's lodged through the RTA single bond lodgment web service. Once you've completed the lodgment it will be added to the bond lodgment summary page. To make things easier for caravan and rooming accommodation providers you can click on the add button to lodge a bond for another room or dwelling at the same address. Once you've added all your bond lodgements and bond increases click on the continue button to go to the bulk bond lodge summary page. Check all your bonds and bond increases to make sure the information is correct. Remember that you can use the edit button if you need to go back and change anything. Once you've checked all the details are correct click the submit button to finalize and submit your bulk bond lodgment. After you've submitted your bulk bond lodgment to the RTA you'll be taken to this page where you can choose to print or save a summary of the bulk bond lodgment using the print my summary button. You can then proceed to payment. A BPAY code will be generated and you can use this to pay for the bulk bond lodgment. Once payment has been received and processed by the RTA you'll receive an acknowledgement of rental bond for the bulk bond lodgment. Hopefully that video helps to show that it's quite an easy process to use and we know that agents have been asking for this and the opportunity to lodge multiple bonds in the one transaction. The benefits of this bulk lodgment include everything that you can see on your screen but mostly it's more convenient and it will save you time as you're not relying on the post to get all those bonds and a check to the RTA. It also allows the RTA to process your requests really quickly so it will be a matter of days before you just have those bond numbers and acknowledgements because once we get the payment it's all done very quickly so you'll get them earlier than if you had posted them to us. Of course like all our other forms if you don't use web services and you still wish to do bond lodgments via paper form that's still available to you but I will suggest that if you're using the paper form please make sure that all fields are completed and it's important that the writing is eligible and also that the checks will add up to the total of the bonds that you're lodging. Now the RTA is producing multiple resources available to you to try to make this service as easy as possible for you.  Over to you then. Right thanks Kerr. So just in summary the steps that you're going to see on your screen now is how this process works so you need to enter your details remember this is your organisation and your RTA ID. You can add bond increases or you can just do new bonds so your bond top ups so if you're increasing the rent and the bond is going up as well so these are your bond top ups or a brand new tendency and you're doing new bonds. If it's new bonds you just go straight to lodging the new bonds. You can also review the lodgment details before you submit which is what Kath was going through and there's also as I said anytime you can do those sort of edits before you submit that final lodgment and then you pay by B pay but if you are only just lodging a single bond then you can use that normal single bond lodgment process. So again this process is showing you how to do that multiple bonds in one go. Now I'm just going to launch another poll so just bear with me. We're just wanting to have a bit of an understanding would you feel comfortable using the RTA web services bulk bond lodgment process? Having seen a little bit of what might actually happen as Kath said it's quite in you'll see boxes come up if it's got errors or that you need to do something so I'll just quickly get you to do that poll if you wouldn't mind just seeing how comfortable you may feel in using this process. I just leave that open. So we're having sort of like about 90, 92 percent of you say that you do feel comfortable using the process and we do have probably about just under 10 saying not quite sure so thank you so much I'll just end that thank you very much all right. So I'm just going to go now into talking about the Office of Fair Trading. So the RTA has been working with the Office of Fair Trading in relation to amendments to the Agents Financial Administration Regulation 2014. So this is going to support the real estate agents and the letting agents to use the online payment platforms so that's your BPAY so it will also ensure you as a licensed managing agent can meet your record keeping requirements for your trust account. So again you're going to be able to use that BPAY to do your bulk bond lodgements. So the RTA and Office of Fair Trading have also joined forces and signed a memorandum of understanding so we will be working much more closely with OFT. So this is in relation to investigations and will have an impact for licensed agents, letting agents and your property managers. So Office of Fair Trading can only investigate offences committed by a licensed real estate agent. They can't investigate in relation to tenants or private landlords. So there are two areas during a tenancy where an incident can occur that's an offence against legislation that both the RTA and the Office of Fair Trading enforce and these are when a rental bond is not paid to the RTA within 10 days and when rent payment is used for another purpose. So this could be that using rent towards a water bill or for cleaning. So customers can contact the RTA wishing to make an investigation request against a licensed agent but they may be redirected to Office of Fair Trading on these two offences. So the RTA will retain the investigations on any other alleged breaches of the residential tenses and room accommodation act 2008. And also if the RTA we will also retain it if it's as an example failure to lodge the bond with the RTA by an agent but it's also got another investigation or alleged or for alleged offences. So as an example if it's a failure to lodge the bond plus not providing the appropriate documentation at the start of tenancy or having unlawful terms or unlawfully entering the property then the RTA will retain that investigation. So what does that mean? So just click over just so that you can actually have a look at what the penalty provisions are for both the residential tenses and room accommodation act and the agents financial administration act and the Property Occupation Act. So the RTA Act penalty units is 40 units under section 116 also sections 117 and 119 also have 40 penalty units as well each and that relates to your bond installments and your roomy accommodation. But under AFA Act section 16 this talks about dealing with an amount on a receipt and also pay it into an agent's trust account or your section 22 is about permitted drawings from a trust account. Under section 206 of the Property Occupation Act this section talks about wrongful conversion on false accounts meaning they receive an amount belonging to someone else or falsely accounts for that money. For the rent used for another purpose and again as I said before this could be used that you're using rent towards a water bill or that there's maybe overpaid rent that's been put towards cleaning or damages. So with this section you'll see that the RTRA Act has a maximum of 40 penalty units under section 96. However under the Agents Financial Administration Act section 21-2 when payments may be made from the trust accounts an amount may be paid from a trust account only in a way that's committed under the Act. So I think it's quite clear and as you can see Office of Fair Trading have some significant penalties under their legislation. So one penalty unit as of 1 July 2021 this year was worth $137.85 but if you're a corporation then that's times five that. So when you start looking at the penalty units themselves this can certainly be significant. So the penalty unit amount is not set by the RTA or the Office of Fair Trading it's set by the Queensland Penalties and Sentence Regulation and it's enforced by SPIR which is the State Penalties Enforcement Registry. So if you need information on the Property Occupation Act or the Agents Financial Administration Act or your real estate licensing requirements then we'd say please go the Office of Fair Trading's website you can find that qld.gov.au forward slash law forward slash fair trading and on the main page you'll see a box regarding the regulated industries including that property industry side. So the RTA website also has a section on our investigations so to request an investigation customers will need to go through what we call a decision making process first and answer some questions. This is to ensure that the complaint that we're receiving relates to penalty provisions of the Act and not a breach of a tenancy or rooming agreement. So if you have a disagreement over how bond is getting paid out or you have a breach of a tenancy or rooming agreement then this is a process that's dealt with by our dispute resolution team. So we have done previous webinars on resolving disputes they're all available on our website. If there's been a breach of the penalty provisions of the Act then this is what the RTA's investigations team can deal with. So time frames do apply for making a complaint with our investigations team and more information is available on our website rta.qld.gov.au and also forward slash investigations. So make sure you have signed up for our e-news so that we can keep you informed on any key topics or changes. If you have a colleague or you know someone else in the rental sector that would benefit from being regularly informed please get them to sign up as well. So we do produce various educational resources, our webinars on tenancy legislation and key topics as well as our tenancy podcast series. So accessing both of these through our website or for your podcast through your preferred app. So Kath I'm going to get you to come back and I think we will go back over to the questions so just bear with me while we just pull that over here. Thanks Liana I know that you've been answering quite a few questions there and acknowledging people so thank you very much. I just go way back up here so bear with me. Okay so I think what about bond tops ups from Irene I think that was actually you've actually answered that with our bulk bond lodgements you can do top ups as well as new bonds. Rebecca's asking is the ten days starting from the receding it into the trust account or receding it as a bond against the tenant well that is actually as soon as you do take as soon as you recede it in your trust account you have actually accepted it would that be a fair answer Kath? Really so yes then. Yeah from Martin will a BPAY code change each time? So the reference BPAY reference will be unique to that lodgement so yes the reference number changes every different lodgement that you submit. And Rebecca's just asking so the tenants don't need to sign anything but don't do they when they use any of the websites? No they don't but they're part of the processes that we will send them an email to make sure that they agree to what's been lodged as part of the the bulk bond lodgement for an example we had one yesterday where we sent an email to the tenant to verify the details and the agent had actually got had entered 51 Bond Street rather than 33 so the tenant came back to us and said no that's actually incorrect so we were able to then confirm with all the parties and change it and make sure that it was all the correct information before that went through the process. And by using the QGARV identification process that's that kind of becomes your identity that kind of becomes your signature isn't it? But that is definitely the signature and we and the good thing about that is we know that they are who they are they say they are and that that is a very strong authenticated digital signature. So if you are using web services for people who've actually made the inquiries about do you have to have the tents sign anything? The only way you'd need them to sign if you're going to lodge it by paper form or they don't have a unique email address so keep that in mind that if they don't have an email address and they can't do the QGARV login and identify themselves and go through the process then you probably will need to do the paper form. Hang on Kath we're just going through a bit more. So is it Maria? Using property me which I know Maria happens to be one of the real estate agencies trust account program. Has the functionality for pay BPAY? So can we be issued with a bill of code and BPAY reference number to be able to lodge as bulk payment that way? So I think we actually once they do submit it we actually then send the agent the bill of reference code and the BPAY code don't we Kath? Yes so you would have to go through the process you would need to add all the bulk of the lodgements to the bulk the submit and then you would be given that BPAY code and the reference number that you could then pay that through. Okay and as I said for a licensed agent now the Agents Financial Administration Act has now changed to a regulation has changed to allow that BPAY to come from your trust account. Elaine's just asking as well can we lodge with a mobile number no email address? At this point in time we do require an email address again it's part of the process that we email the tenants to make sure that we get their confirmation and their signature basically on on the digital form. So at this point in time yes we do require an email address the tenants also require a unique email address to access the QGov platform. Martyn's back again is what if tenants share the same email address? I know this has happened to you too hasn't it Cat? Yeah it has so I am one of those people that share an email address with their partner and when he went on to my gov and used our joint email account when come my time to actually get on to Medicare I couldn't actually use that email account that email address because he'd already used it. So my solution to that was I went on and I created a email account for myself and I used that email address purely to access government websites because you all it's just standard practice that you need a unique email address. So if that's an option for your tenants perhaps that moving forward is a good way for them to actually have availability to these online services. And again too like obviously they don't have if it's a co-tenancy and a co-contributor and one doesn't have an email address then potentially you're looking at lodging that by pay-per-form aren't you Cat? Correct. So Tracy's just asking here if a tenant pays their rent and bond in one transaction and it's accidentally picked up as rent and goes straight to the owner is there a penalty to the agent for this? Well in a roundabout sort of way because the rent and like you're obviously using the part of the receding in and the payment for another purpose you could potentially say yes but obviously you're going to act very swiftly and rectify that straight away. So and then obviously provide some evidence if someone did actually do a complaint. Shirley's just asking which I think we actually answered this too will be pay reference change each lodgement I think you said yes wasn't that right Cat? Yes it will the reference will change each lodgement. So we've got quite a few people asking that likewise again with the email and yes look a lot of older couples do only have one email so again if they're not as Cat said in her example she had to sign up with a Gmail or a hotmail account for herself if that's not the case then again you're probably going back to that paper form. So I think I've actually just mentioned quite a few of that. Dean's just asking in relation to the QGAP account Cat in relation to international students. So I know that this year we did add a couple extra items for identification. We added the international visas this is a work in progress we're aware that it's you know it's hard for a lot of international students if they haven't got their Medicare card issued straight away or they don't have a license to meet that 100 point so the RTA is continually trying with working with QGALF to broaden the documents and make the process available to a wider range of our customers. Yeah and Chris is just saying like sure the driver's license is suitable enough ID and that's probably Chris just saying now QGALF is a separate process it's just purely an identification process that the RTA uses from the government it's not the RTA process so we it's there are two processes when you use the any of our RTA web services so QGALF is one process to get you through identification through them first and then we have our process as well. Martin's just asking how long does a tenant have to pay for their top up so the rent's been increased and the bond has been increased as well okay so oh I can use that for you sorry that's one month they've got one month to pay that for you and what happens if the tenant does not pay the bond top up within the 10 days we need to finalize the bulk transaction so that's not I think what you're saying before Kath that you can go in and edit can't you you can potentially remove I would go in and remove that increase from your bulk and then proceed to go ahead and lodge the bulk and then when you actually do get the money from the tenant add that to your next bulk to your next back chair so what's the session timeout so like when you use web services is there like a timeout that people have that and obviously property managers and agents out there busy during the day so they probably do a multiple tasks definitely so if you get interrupted a lot which I'm sure you do if you start a session on the web service and you're you're called away to do a million things it will time out after two hours and you will need to log back into it so that's just a security thing that if you stepped away from your computer it's a fairly standard practice but if they if there's no activity within two hours it will actually automatically lock you out and Kath I think it's also two very clear instructions on our website and one of our statements we have is that any person knowingly submitting false or misleading details in web services is committing an offense under Queensland law so can you give today like our audience today an example of this so I guess we've mentioned before that it it is sometimes difficult because of that the emails that it's a mandatory field and if your tenants share an email if one you enter one and then you just make up the other like no one that that's not helpful and again it could fall into that false and misleading information because it's very evident that that is not their real email address yeah and we you know as the RTA we do lots of checks and balances as well and also to our systems can pull data reports on people who are using those constant false email addresses and again as you've said previously then the paper process is always there in those situations yeah so these are also good news that you know we launched this on Tuesday and with like within a very short time I think you said it was like within 20 minutes we received our first bulk on Lodge and spy web services say since Tuesday how many have we actually received who have actually gone down this path so from this morning when I checked we'd already received 56 bulk lodgements and that totaled over 300 individual lodgements a mixture of bond increases and and new bonds so we have spoken to a couple of the agents that have launched using this service and they were glowing reports on it they just couldn't believe how simple it was and they're loving the one the pay transaction for for all the lodgements that they're doing okay I'm just a bit conscious of the time we're coming to an end but thanks Bernard for your comment in relation to student accommodation as well um Alice I think it's Alison maybe um asking the 30-day bond top up does that three days from the notification of the rent increase or three days from when the commencement of the renewal um obviously I'm thinking here that like when the rent has actually increased and you're asking for the more you know to for the bond we topped up that's when they've actually got the time to pay Kath a couple questions for you please if you launch by post can you still pay by b-pay rather than a check um there is a possibility that we could create b-pays for you but that's not our preferred option and it's not our standard practice okay so if you are posting in it's usually with the check otherwise that's why we've created this new web services um can we lodge paper lodgements by email no can we no so thanks a lot department of housing sorry what was that Kath only if it's a department of housing involvement can we accept them okay so we will accept only department of housing lodgements by email that would be it um and I do agree Chris too checks are a little bit backwards um but again this is why we have created this new web services because as Kath said before a lot of research a lot of consultations been done over the years where the agents have been wanting to look at doing bulk lodgements online using the b-pay as well um I think we would just end it there Kath because I think we have actually got to our time as such so look um our website has a lot of information all our forms and educational resources available at rta.qld.gov.au and as a final reminder please make sure that you do always use the latest rta forms um our friendly contact center is available on Monday to Friday a 3 to 5 1300 3 double six three double one and keep in mind too if you are got some issues with web services our staff in our call center have been trained and they can actually assist you um going through any challenges as well so remember too our survey is going to come up shortly about um the webinar and also we'd love your feedback what topics you'd like to know more about and also your feedback on web services as well so thanks Kath and Lauren for helping out today no problem thanks everyone thanks for coming along and yeah and thanks everyone for joining us and we'll see you next time the webinar will now end