Hello Shane

Surely it would have been suffice to simply state that the business was
genuine and operational from that date and that the business was legitimate
and currently conducting legitimate operations?

Personally I would have like to see you explain the anomalies to do with the
registration of domains last month under a company name that knowingly has
been defunct and invalid for a number of years.

The vigorous discussion of your business plan/structure, in such detail,
could be misconstrued by some as being either an overstatement trying to
publicly justify your registrations as discussed previously in this forum,
or a blatant attempt at advertising.

Clearly your website with all the domains pointing to it, states that the
domains are all associated and "For Sale / Lease" and had a clear list of
all the domains and a graphic of a sign with the words FOR SALE on it in the
lower right-hand corner

In my opinion, that is either a deliberate misrepresentation of items for
sale and therefore misleading advertising, or a clear breach of auDA
regulations.

Which is it?

Just for the public record, I note that nowhere does it state on your
webpage "Business for sale" or similar!

I just noticed that you have promptly removed the graphic of the FOR SALE
sign but have not changed the text or the list of domains - semiotically the
message remains the same!  To me that would seem a curious course of action
for you to take if in fact you feel justified in your position?


Phil Wright




-----Original Message-----
From: Shane O'Dea [mailto:lists§odea.net]
Sent: Friday, 23 August 2002 5:05 PM
To: dns§lists.auda.org.au
Cc: ceo§auda.org.au; newsstuff§network.au.com
Subject: [DNS] For the public record....



Greetings Phil,

For the public record....

A company by the name of Tax Specialists Pty Ltd was established in April
1996 to carry on an on-line tax return preparation business.

The company has been registered by the Tax Agents Board of Australia as a
registered tax agent since 1996, and continues to hold such registration.

It is part of a firm that truly exists as a business and has "real"
employees and "real" clients.  In fact, the business is that real that we
are currently surrounded by tax returns, BAS returns, etc waiting to be
done.  You'll find the business in the Whitepages, and you can phone an
make an appointment to see an accountant if you wish.

In 1996 the company acquired licences for the domain names tax.net.au and
taxspecialists.com.au.  It also invested considerable capital in legal fees
to develop legal documents, and contracted programmers to develop software
for this purpose.

Unfortunately, the advent of the GST and the work load placed upon
accountants over the past 4 years or so has slowed further implication of
this business plan.

The company is currently in negotiations with an International organisation
to join an international network to prepare Australian tax returns for
travelling students and backpackers working in Australia.  This
international network has an established business preparing tax returns in
many European countries, and the US.

Given this background, it made sense for the company to take part in the
auctions for accounting.com.au and accountancy.com.au and to acquire
licences for related domains in .com and .net.au.

The primary director and shareholder of the company has suffered a serious
disability, and may not be able to continue with the business plan in the
median term to long term.

The domain names are NOT being offered for sale.  What is being advertised
is the BUSINESS either by way of a join venture (through the sale of shares
in the company) or some other creative structure.  Ultimately, anyone
interested in this offer would need qualifications in accountancy and would
need to hold registration as a tax agent.

There are considerable documents from 1996 onwards to substantiate the
above.  What is wrong with someone who is seriously disabled exploring
directions forward for their business including all its clients and assets?

Peace,

Shane