I must keep repeating this if I have to. We claim to have
the lowest personal income tax in the world or among the rich countries. We
practise progressive taxations and tax the rich more than the poor. Really?
Please don’t forget that with GST, everyone is taxed, rich
or poor, alive or dead, and the worst are the sick and the jobless, retirees. If you talk about progressive taxations, the
GST taxes the most at the poor and jobless level as all the items they
consumed, including services, are taxed. And I say again, those that are yet to
be borne or those who have left, dead, would still need to pay GST for their
last journey.
As for the sick, what kind of people would levy taxes on
people already sick, suffering, and being robbed in the hospitals by unprecedented
hospital bills? Did the Sultan of Brunei’s relative pay GST as well? For those
multi million dollar bills, at 7%, it is quite a handsome sum. But they are
really nothing to the super rich. It is the 7% levied on the low incomes, in
basic necessities, essentials and medical, that is really inhuman. I sounded
like a softie socialist on a Sunday morning. : )
PS. The special children with disorder syndromes also pay heavily for GST.
Ya but they Cherry pick on data and will select countries that have a higher gst for comparison. They then conveniently left out to tell you that in some of the countries almost everything are free
ReplyDeleteHow can we argue with the blind, deaf and devoid of conscience when they tell you GST is to help the poor?
ReplyDeleteSo many years later and I still cannot understand this argument from the mouths of our higher mortals.
ReplyDeleteThe deceased family also pay GST fir the casket and funeral services
Chenghu cheng chek ark. Nan si huah boh lau. Ngeh ngeh ai choo tiok.
ReplyDeleteEverybody has the privilege of paying tax.
ReplyDeleteConsumption taxes are the way to go, as now more and more people are deriving revenue from sources outside the state's territory.
The principle is this: The BROADER the tax base, the LOWER the taxes.
Hong Kongers, bless their capitalist souls, have resisted the introduction of a GST. IMO, it is only a matter of time before HK gets a GST.
Yes, it does suck being poor. And it does suck even more to be paying taxes when you are poor.
Who ever said life was fair or supposed to be fair, is clearly WRONG.
Better to accept the fact that life is unfair and adapt yourself to "reality".
Still got "living in dreamland and hoping for salvation"?
Taxes are no bloody good...more so if the tax revenues are used to buy silly toys n generate government surpluses..for sure..Singaporeans are over taxed as evidenced by all the budget surpluses of past years..the govt's just been paying lip service to helping society's unfortunate. We should mandate a % of budget surpluses for the unfortunates...instead of handing it over to our swf s to punt n fritter away..
ReplyDelete'We collect taxes on behalf of the government, who use the money to benefit the New Zealand community. If people don't pay their fair share, everyone misses out.
ReplyDeleteThis means that important public services such as education, hospitals and healthcare, roads and welfare could be underfunded.
(www.ird.govt.nz)'
I am not sure why gov in sg collects so much direct and indirect taxes cos public servies are in a huge mess but one thing i am sure is that they used it to pay the mps ultra high wages and to fund their silly invesntments.
Silly or stupid investments they are. If another financial crisis hits those mega investments will sink. Yes, what goes down must go up too, but would it be better to buy low then and make a bigger pile? Long term may not be the wiser choice depending on how we look at it.
ReplyDeleteAnd silly me still thinks the Americans are actually smart, using everybody's money to fund their spending without a thought. Maybe they know that there is really no way back for them, so spending like no tommorrow on borrowed money, to be paid back in banana notes is no big problem in time to come or when the crash comes. Meanwhile the Singapore Government keeps squeezing it's own citizens when in the end all those mega reserves becomes banana notes, it is not a good idea. I may be wrong.
Not only will they have cool items to add to Myspace, they will learn something about our country in the
ReplyDeleteprocess. For example, we often do some driving trains to encourage the students to speak a few numbers in turn.
The videos relax, they make people smile and as they say,
laughter is the best medicine.
My blog :: gamerturk.net
It is crucial to Singapore survival, as not to overpaid the ministers too much?
ReplyDeleteHow to reduce the ministers' pay around the New Zealand, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland & Norway ministers' pay is a challenge, their pay too high is a burden to the people, which cause wide income gaps, overcrowding, too many foreigners, indirect taxes, low birth rates and lower standard of living? I think they don't mind, as a leader need to lead by example, lowering their pay to ease the income gaps, as many of the lower end pay are below poverty line for years?
They should this, as Singapore has no resources as only manpower, which their morale and societies, can be improve much through lowering the income gaps?
Actually a gov is like a service provider. Who in their sound mind would want a service provider that charges ultra high price, provide ultra lousy services and often insult your intelligence?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, europe is going to introduce some weathy individual resdience visas so many rich guys/gals may not want to turn up in sg.
March 17, 2013 10:49 pm - they are morally bankrupt and suffering from God complex.
ReplyDelete'Better to accept the fact that life is unfair and adapt yourself to "reality".' -
ReplyDeleteJust because some girls did not put up makeup will not make that girl seems ugly.
'There is something fundamentally unfair about a government that takes away so much of people's money, power, and personal control while telling them that life will be better as a result. Steve Forbes '
Who says the rich pay more tax ? The ultra rich, who own many properties, are exempted from paying estate duty ! The poor who only earn enough to survive pay 100% GST because all they earned is spent. Such irony !
ReplyDeleteRelax lah. I'd sooner pay very low Singapore taxes than be over taxed in a western cuntree.
ReplyDeleteI wish I have to pay millions in taxes each year.....
ReplyDelete'Better to accept the fact that life is unfair and adapt yourself to "reality".'
ReplyDeleteFairness is not a good measurement for life. Truth, kindness and beauty are the right measurement of life. Life is unfair is an incorrect statement. The thing that is unfair is the system. The system created by a bunch of elites who are greedy, self serving and dishonest. The system that incorrectly tax the rich too little and the poor too much. Why Matilah only needs to pay 10% net of expenses from his passive rental income while a poor construction worker has to pay more than 50% of his income in the form of levy, gst, etc?
@328
ReplyDeleteWhen you finally accept and appreciate Human Nature -- with all its quirks -- you will realise that anyone can invent any standard they can pull out their ass to judge life or how life should be, or what moral standards should be.
However I don't live too much in a world of should be's. I like objective reality. I like human nature -- which is biological, because we are biological entities.
If you think that the "right measurement of life" should be kindness blah blah blah "truth" (whatever the heck that means) blah blah blah...then good for you. I hope you become a Bodhisattva or Messiah. You can form your own church/ cult (no difference) and your followers will throw money at you. :-)
I assure you I pay more than 10% in taxes :-) You have the right to feel happy that I too have been summarily screwed by the tax man, who is unrelenting in the manner he gets our money.
Systems are almost always UNfair. Like I said, get out or get on the "right side" of the trade.
Anyway to clarify life as unfair: if life were "fair", in we'd all be "the same" in nature, with no one having "more".
Clearly this is not the case. Some people are better looking than others. Some are smarter. Some are gifted natural athletes.
Some are great social entrepreneurs -- masters of quan xi (without this, your ability to survive and thrive in Asian culture will be severely curtailed. You will die alone and poor).
Some have natural musical ability or are gifted at language and writing, or math, or science...we all have "more than others" in certain special areas. The corollary is also true: in those areas where our ability is lacking, we need others to "supply" what we need, but cannot produce ourselves.
Life is unfair. Get used to it. Exploit it. ;-)