THE NEWS WRAP: Shorten rejects proposal of higher taxes for the wealthy

The government is unlikely to give the green light to a proposal for the wealthiest Australians to pay more tax, according to assistant treasurer Bill Shorten.

Venture capitalist Mark Carnegie has suggested that the richest 15% of Australians should pay more tax, but Shorten played down the possibility of the proposal becoming reality.

US economy ‘close to faltering’

The US economy is “close to faltering” and further action may be needed to improve conditions, US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has told Congress.

Bernanke said that the Eurozone debt crisis and rapid spending cuts had exacerbated the US’ precarious position, saying that any action taken by the country’s central bank would be “no panacea” for the situation.

ATO suffers Myer case setback

The Australian Tax Office has suffered a setback in its long-running pursuit of two companies which benefitted from the 2009 float of Myer.

A federal court judge in Melbourne said there was ”no satisfactory evidence at all” that TPG Newbridge Myer and NB Queen, based in the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg respectively, were conducting business in Australia.

The two businesses did not pay taz on the $1.5 billion they gained from the Myer float, with the tax office attempting to extract $738 million from the duo.

Overnight

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 1.44% to 10,808.71. The Australian dollar was up slightly to 95.78 US cents.