Reins tugged on tax refund cowboys RICHARD MEADOWS The Commerce Commission is attempting to rein in the cowboys of the tax refund industry, who can gobble up as much as 30 per cent of rebates in fees. But experts say the problem may go away if consumers simply cut out the middleman and do it themselves. Tax refund agencies are a common sight at this time of year in shopping malls and on websites, where they charge commissions for processing income tax refunds for salary and wage earners. Now the Commerce Commission has put the whole industry on notice, urging it to take a good look at its marketing practices after finding hidden fees and misleading claims that may breach the Fair Trading Act. But ... Continue reading →

Facebook is not only on course to go bust, but will take the rest of the ad-supported Web with it. Given its vast cash reserves and the glacial pace of business reckonings, that will sound hyperbolic. But that doesn't mean it isn't true. At the heart of the Internet business is one of the great business fallacies of our time: that the Web, with all its targeting abilities, can be a more efficient, and hence more profitable, advertising medium than traditional media. Facebook, with its 900 million users, valuation of around $100 billion, and the bulk of its business in traditional display advertising, is now at the heart of the heart of the fallacy. The daily and stubborn reality for everybody building businesses on the ... Continue reading →

BY JESSICA E. VASCELLARO IN SAN FRANCISCO AND EVAN RAMSTAD IN SEOUL Chief executives of Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. will meet in San Francisco Monday in a court-directed session aimed at settling their smartphone patent war. But a deal seems unlikely, people familiar with the matter and others tracking the battle say. Apple has said CEO Tim Cook and General Counsel Bruce Sewell will lead its team at the meeting. Samsung CEO Choi Gee-sung and Chief Legal Officer Kim Hyun-chong, a former South Korean trade minister and U.N. ambassador, will head its delegation. Both companies declined interview requests for this article. Apple, determined to stop Samsung and other companies it ...BY JESSICA E. VASCELLARO IN SAN FRANCISCO AND EVAN RAMSTAD IN SEOUL Chief ... Continue reading →

Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng, whose stay at the US embassy sparked a diplomatic crisis, says he is at Beijing airport expecting to go to the US. Europe's debt crisis is to top the agenda at the G8 summit in the US, amid fears that trouble in the eurozone could have global consequences. The US firm SpaceX aborts the lift-off of its Falcon rocket and Dragon ship to the International Space Station. Continue reading →