GST - Should it be increased?

[BayView]

All the consumer items you propose to increase GST by 2% on, how does that help the battler achieve a better standard of living?

if we assume that the lower-income/blue collar/welfare recipient/pensioner, etc brigade can only afford the staple items in life, and if there is no GST on those items, then they pay bugger-all in GST. It is effectively a 10% pay rise for them for the most part.

At the moment they pay GST on many of the things they buy - this would be removed on much of their spending.

So, in theory they should have more expendable income to purchase more things, or better things down the track.

The trick of course is to gt these folks to save the savings they will get on those staple items, and get themselves into a better financial situation.

We all know that this probably won't happen.

You can only lead the horse to the water...

But, at least they can't whinge that the rich get a better go than them, and they can't whinge that the Gubb isn't trying to improve their standard of living.

Then, they will end up like the rest of us and be taxed more on their spending as they get ahead more financially, but it is a choice; they don't need to spend just because they have a few more shekels in the pocket.

Hell; they might just pay off their house loan fasster, or their car loan faster, or wipe out the CC card debt, etc.

 

[Bargain Hunter]

I can't balance my budget, and there's a lot more that I want but there is always more month at the end of my pay check. I know I'll simply get my boss to pay me more.

I've witnessed the ******** spending first hand and can tell you there needs to be more consideration on organisations and individuals who receive favourable tax concessions, and/or benefits and other forms of funding.

I am not just talking about people who don't want to work, I'm taliking about community groups, various levels of government, and in particular religious bodies.

Although there is supposedly a separation of state and church the continued benefits and exemptions being received by religious organisations would have to be mind boggling. Now that's not to say that they do not provide necessary support in filling gaps within our social system however the majority of their activities are simply to spread their message or create profit, and it is the funding of these activities of which I take offence.

A worldwide poll conducted by Win-Gallup International (http://redcresearch.ie/wp-content/u...ress-release-Religion-and-Atheism-25-7-12.pdf) found that 48 per cent of Australians said they were not religious; 10 per cent declared themselves "convinced atheists"; and 5 per cent did not know or did not respond. Only 37 per cent were religious. What's more, the poll placed Australia in the bottom 14 for religiosity and in the top 11 for atheism. Yet the increasing influence and funding of religion in Australia persists.

So, want to save some money time to cut the cassock strings and free up the funds for a secular society.

Regards

Andrew

 

[Intrinsic_Value]

The higher the GST, the better the opportunity for the black market.

 

[Intrinsic_Value]

I rest my case in regards to many of the posters in this thread.

Be my guest, get the GST increased to whatever % you feel like.

There are opportunities out there.

 

[BayView]

I rest my case in regards to many of the posters in this thread.

Be my guest, get the GST increased to whatever % you feel like.

There are opportunities out there.

What would be an alternative to this in order to increase Gubb revenues without increasing income taxes, etc?

 

[Intrinsic_Value]

What would be an alternative to this in order to increase Gubb revenues without increasing income taxes, etc?

eliminate the $1000 tax free threshold on overseas purchases. This is one big scam from the consumer point, and for those business that can use it, a big cost saving as well (one of our businesses by stock in under $1k).

For the business the saving is much more than 10%. If under $1k its treated as a 'retail' purchase, even though I use it for business.

The cost savings:
(a) the obvious 10%
(b) all associated costs of bringing in commercial quantities of good
(b)1. warefage charges
(b)2. customs investigation charges
(b)3. Fumigation charges
(b)4. Delay charges (whereby my stuff is held up because of some sought of investigation, I get charged because its stuck on the wharf .

Some of my small $4k commercial imports can involve 30% total import costs by the time im finished with all the small charges.

My under $1k purchases, around 12% shipping costs (higher because not in large commercial quantities).

12% vs 30%, its a no-brainer for me.

We instruct the overseas purchaser to break down purchase orders into lots under $1k and send in separate packets.

Make self-funded retirees pay tax on any amount ABOVE the pension threshold.

Put a cap on negative gearing for residential property, except for purchases of new properties (leads to increased supply)

Make the international: APPLE, GOOGLE etc pay a 'deemed tax'.
The 'deemed tax' might be say 5% of sales revenue generated from the country.

They have a choice then of either paying the 5% 'deemed tax' or setting up a local branch in Australia and paying taxes like a normal Australian company. They will act in their own best interests, but they will end up paying a fair share of tax.

5% sounds cheap but its on revenue, not profit.

Stop picking on the weakest element of our society, the unemployed.
Their deal is already rough. Time has reduced their real benefits significantly over the last 20 years. This is the basic safety net that makes Australia what it is. And in the whole scheme of things its not massive expenditure.

Reduce middle class 'kick backs' and replace with middle class income tax relief. Stop robbing peter to pay paul.

Reduce the kick backs, and continue to reduce tax rates for the middle class.
Let the middle class determine where they want to spend their money.

Middle class welfare by the nature of demographics (they are the largest group), will massively effect overall budget numbers.

To balance this out increase the top marginal tax rate by a couple of % to catch the high income earners. (this will not add much revenue since not many in this tax bracket, but it will make things fairer).

Only if everyone suffers in kind can it be done. You cant push it onto only single groups.

 

[BayView]

Very well put, IV.

 

[random]

I reckon we already pay far to much tax in this country and so do economists . Aren't we just about the most expensive across the board country in the world.
But , they just keep raising raising , adding adding , dreaming up new ways to rip us of some more because they can't run the damn country properly .
We should be able to manufacture , businesses survive, thrive and grow but that's getting worse by the day. People shouldn't live overseas because Australia is so over priced .
This stuff tells us something is seriously wrong and they can not run this place, just make life here even dearer than it is now.

Economists say this country needs lower everything across the board but especially taxes , the 100s of hidden taxes ,costs.
To make it viable, businesses able to grow, employ , brings back competition and affordable cost of living again.
No brainer l would've thought .

 

[BayView]

I reckon we already pay far to much tax in this country and so do economists . Aren't we just about the most expensive across the board country in the world.
But , they just keep raising raising , adding adding , dreaming up new ways to rip us of some more because they can't run the damn country properly .
We should be able to manufacture , businesses survive, thrive and grow but that's getting worse by the day. People shouldn't live overseas because Australia is so over priced .
This stuff tells us something is seriously wrong and they can not run this place, just make life here even dearer than it is now.

Economists say this country needs lower everything across the board but especially taxes , the 100s of hidden taxes ,costs.
To make it viable, businesses able to grow, employ , brings back competition and affordable cost of living again.
No brainer l would've thought .

It's the price we have to pay to enjoy the lifestyle we enjoy...

We have a smaller population than most European countries (thank christ), and the Country we live in is bigger than many Countries on earth.

You can't have great roads, great rail systems, electricity, phone, internet, hospitals, schools, sewerage, water and so forth spread all around the massive Country without massive cost.

Add to that the absolutely enormous and over-catered for Government/public service which costs waaaay too much, our welfare bill, we all want free education and free healthcare and so on....

We could whack in a swag of millions of more folks, but what would they do for work, and we'd end up with another disgusting and over-crowded pile of cities like everywhere else in the world.

Don't kid yerselves that any new influx of folks will wander out and set up camp out in the country-side areas...absolutely not....farming on the decline, no serious opportunities for careers out there - can't get docs or teachers to go there, retail declining out there and so forth...everyone is moving to the cities. USA all over again.

They'll simply move into cities and all you folks here on SS who are citified dwellers; it'll just get uglier and uglier.

And the taxes still won't drop much despite all that extra humanity, I'd wager.

We should be able to manufacture , businesses survive, thrive and grow but that's getting worse by the day.

Indeed.

But we Aussies don't want to pay for anything.

We can't even sell our own bloody fruit and vegetables to our own population because they might cost a dollar more per kilo than the imported version.

There is absolutely no reason why we cannot provide our whole Country only home-grown produce, and export any over-run (or chuck it out to the pigs to eat), but our population cry about the cost...meanwhile we all want more public holidays, more paid sick leave, more penalty rates, less tax.

If we didn't cry about the cost, we wouldn't need to source retail from overseas online stores, or overseas farms for produce where folks get paid less to grow and pick it. etc.

Have I missed anything?

 

[random]

Yeah it is crazy how things like our produce can't sell here
but that' s sorta my point , it's dearer than everything else but it should be cheaper. That alone shows how out of whack things are.
And are there any other countries told to buy their stuff or they sink , that's out of whack .
And if the place wasn't so dear on every front , people would be happy to support it anyway , that's out of whack .
And could have more kids and start younger , that's out of whack , we can't even breed our own anymore because of costs and a home.

Yet l reckon to it's madness bringing in people to . Look at the stress the last decade of that has put the country on and it hasn't even been that many really and 1/2 of them don't even seem to work anyway.

But then with everyone being able to see real prices and costs of living and property and how anyone else lives from anywhere in the world ,it's also blatantly clear we've all been getting ripped of blind to the point of criminal for decades l think this place needs it , it needs some competition.

So l dunno , l still say the place is so out of whack it's a joke.

 

[Harro]

Labour costs here in Australia are high in comparison to our market competitors making it very hard to compete on an even playing field.

 

[geoffw]

Labour costs are high- but so are many other inputs. The high cost of real estate feeds into so many other costs. At this stage, we can't compete on costs for manufacturing, and in many cases, agricultural prices.