Mario Monti targets tax evasion
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti has banned cash payments in Italy over 1,000 euros ($1,340). Many Italians pay cash for major expenditures like monthly rent, and small companies often pay salaries in euro notes, making tax evasion easier. Monti hopes the move will recoup some of the 100 billion euros the government loses each year in unpaid taxes.
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Ticketmaster settles lawsuit over fees
Ticketmaster has settled an eight-year-old lawsuit alleging that its processing fees are excessive. The company will credit $1.50 per order, to be used toward future transactions, to anyone who bought tickets on its website from Oct. 21, 1999, to Oct. 19, 2011. People who paid for expedited UPS ticket delivery will be credited $5.
The New York Times
Putting a price on “The 12 Days of Christmas”
Assembling the gifts of “The 12 Days of Christmas”—including 12 drummers drumming and 11 pipers piping—will cost your true love a record $24,263 this holiday season. When the gifts from all the repeated verses are added up (not just one partridge, but 12), the 364 gifts total a hefty $101,119.84.
The Atlantic
China takes a bite out of iPad
Apple’s claim to the iPad trademark in China has been rejected by a Chinese court, which could disrupt the company’s sales of the popular tablet in the country. A court in Shenzhen ruled that when Apple purchased the name “IPAD” from a Taiwan-based technology company in 2006, the deal did not apply to the company’s China-based unit.
Financial Times