Saturday, March 26, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Friday, March 4, 2011
Tax
Haven't blogged in a while and thought I'd weigh in on Tharman's reply to Low Thia Khiang's suggestion to lower GST rates to 5%. The article can be found here.
Rebutting the first suggestion, Mr Tharman said the bulk of GST is collected from higher-income groups and foreigners, so cutting the rate would benefit them more.
He said that based on 2010 collections, the bottom 20 per cent of Singaporean income earners contribute only about 4 per cent of all GST paid, while the bottom 60 per cent contribute roughly 16 per cent.
It seems natural that those from a higher-income bracket would contribute a larger percentage of GST. After all, it is them who have the largest disposable income to spend. However, the crux of it shouldn't be which income bracket pays the most, but which income bracket pays the most as a percentage of their income.
GST hits the hardest on the lower income bracket. The rich are well able to afford the 7% GST that is levied. But are the poor able to sustain with that 7%? That is something to think about.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)