Why would a government be so stupid to remove the Estate Duties (or any duties and tax)?

 

There are no good reasons to want to remove the Estate Duties and unnecessarily lost a portion of the government's income. Unless, of course, the Tax Department is too lazy to do the tedious work of going through hundreds and thousands of pages of supporting documents and evidences to scrutinise and verify the Declarations made on behalf of the Deceased?

The official reason that was given for doing away the Estate Duties is that the amount collected from Estate Duties is too small and therefore the government can absorb the loss of this stream of revenue. This is absurdity!

But, but, but, think deeper.

This may not be absurd if the top people in government have something to benefit from it, isn't it?

Or, probably something they wish to hide from public scrutiny?

The removal of the Estate Duties does not only benefits the Millionaire Ministers, Top Millionaire Civil Servants and other filthy rich people in Singapore monetarily. Its removal also, at the same time, in one swift single stroke, did away with the Compulsory Declaration of ALL Assets held in the name of the Deceased and those being held by other people on his behalf, e.g. public or private company's and whatever foundation's assets and profits from which the Deceased could be a beneficiary.

All declarations are to include assets held in foreign land and locally.

By doing away with the Estate Duties, all those millionaires, billionaires and filthy rich people can hide their real worth, past false declarations, discrepancies, self-incriminating evidences, or illegal activities from the Inland Revenues Public Records. In other words, the public will never be able to scrutinise their past illegal actions and sins, if any.

What a masterstroke!


SSO.