Why not include GST in the price?

[Deltaberry]

An in-principle trade agreement was decided upon years ago.

Ok, so in short, there is no free trade agreement.

PS: I'm surprised nothing in your house comes from China. You must very selectively choose everything in your house from basins to lightbulbs.

And yes, as people have said, free market does not mean no health standards. Not sure how you get the two mixed up.

 

[tobe]

But they already are. It's just that there are others too made overseas. Always check the label and make your decision accordingly. I don't have any issues with any other country but the food practices in China are a joke and it just disgusts me. Would rather not eat the food.

do you ask the checkout chick for their cash price? Or is that reserved for small businesses?

 

[Melbournian]

One fifth of our imported goods comes from China. One fifth when taking into account ALL the countries that import is a huge chunk. Korea imported only about 10,000 products into Australia in 2013. So, yes, it is reasonable to assume that one is talking about China when one says 'Asia' in this context. And I do think that most of the stuff that comes out of China is crap. I am not blaming the Chinese people for this; it probably has more to do with the regulators. So please don't take it personally.

.

if you have a smart phone - majority of the items that assemble into the iphone, samsung phone etc are made in china.
so is clothing, nike shoes etc (well maybe cambodia or vietnam makes nike as well). The thing is the bigger companies have quality control processes whereby maybe only 60% pass through the tick on the QA test, and yes most don't go through the tests etc that are required so yes you are right in that aspect.

 

[Melbournian]

I'm going to have a little grumble at Australian business here ... and they wonder why we end up going overseas!

Went to a benchtop place a week ago to get an idea on price for a composite stone benchtop ... was advised $330/m2

Wow - great price ... but then found out that didn't include install.

Okay - got the guy out to give a quote ... was advised price would be around $650/m2 and he would send the quote thru.

Fine - then the quote came thru over $2,000 more than we'd calculated on the figures he'd given us as a per m2 price.

Turns out - it was $650/m2 installed - plus cutouts, plus template, plus joints, plus joint polishing, plus mitre - PLUS GST.

Bugger that - when someone says "includes install" I expect it to include the install - not install plus all the other install.

Add on that we measured 8m2, and they claimed 11m2 ... don't think I'll bother going back.

And why the heck to companies quote prices ex-GST on obviously consumer (not commercial) purchases - and then add the GST almost as an afterthought.

I have done quite a few stone benchtops. Not sure what you mean by composite benchtops. Is it quartz engineered stone? like caesarstone, essa stone, quantum quartz. these are the top brands. Then you can get stone ambassador and ydl stone(they have branches aus wide) which are essentially the same but much cheaper.

With caesarstone it is the most exp of all the brands so if you compare it with ydl or ambassador stone, it would be priced differently (maybe in the thousands). There are also the builders range and the higher one (most expensive in caesarstone - is the calcatta nuvo nearly more than 2K per slab (material alone) compared to plain white $500. If you going acrylic benchtops like corian and staron, they work out even more expensive that stone. Marble is slight more but not that much diff to quartz engineered stone.

it also depends how many cutouts, is it mitre or just benchtop, does it include waterfalls.

when you get a quote from stonemason (it is all from the stone,measure, get the substraight, template etc). Ones who try to say i don't do this and that are the ones to be wary about.

for say standard island bench for e.g. 2100 X 800 40mm should cost around $800-$900 standard stone. if you go caesarstone calcatta nuvo, it would be $3000.

 

[Scott No Mates]

Carbendazim shouldn't be used anywhere here. It is banned in Australia. It causes severe abnormalities--eg, two-headed fish, fish with no eyes, and fish with two tails.

What do you call a deer whose parents had feasted on Carbendazim?

No idea (eye dear)

Ditto but without legs?

Still no idea

 

[Aaron_C]

do you ask the checkout chick for their cash price? Or is that reserved for small businesses?

Well I get discount for cash at the Good Guys. Or perhaps I am tax dodging there too?

 

[pinkboy]

Well I get discount for cash at the Good Guys. Or perhaps I am tax dodging there too?

The 'cash discount' from the Good Guys et al is when you pay with an immediate on the spot payment (ie cash, EFTPOS), and not an interest free loan or store card etc.

They are rewarding you for immediate cash settlement with the discount.


pinkboy

 

[Aaron_C]

They are rewarding you for immediate cash settlement with the discount.

Yet according to some people I'm a tax cheat. Love the hypocrisy.

 

[pinkboy]

Yet according to some people I'm a tax cheat. Love the hypocrisy.

You are a tax cheat if you encourage a tradie to take cash.

The above at Good Guys et al is still recorded and you are issued with a Tax Invoice, the GST is 1/11th the price no matter what price you pay there.

Are you trying to be a goose or is it just natural?


pinkboy

 

[D.T.]

Yet according to some people I'm a tax cheat. Love the hypocrisy.

Is that MFAA's opinion?

 

[Aaron_C]

You are a tax cheat if you encourage a tradie to take cash.

Yep because cash isn't a valid method of payment for services rendered...we aren't in the 23rd century yet.

 

[Scott No Mates]

You are a tax cheat if you encourage a tradie to take cash.

pinkboy

Paying cash is also cheating yourself out of the tax deduction. Small time thinking if you are concerned about the $200 that you saved in not paying gst but neglect to consider that you have lost the right to claim $800 accelerated depreciation.



If I'm going to go down for something it might as well be a few $m not a pittance.

 

[Perp]

It's pretty straightforward. If the discount is because of the convenience of the payment method, and nothing to do with tax avoidance, then the tradie will still give you a tax invoice and everything's completely above board.

 

[pinkboy]

Yep because cash isn't a valid method of payment for services rendered...we aren't in the 23rd century yet.

I understand cash is a valid form of payment, but if you get a tradie to take cash as a 'cashie' payment, without him issuing a tax invoice/settling the GST, then you are enabling fraud.

pinkboy

 

[property_girl]

I'm surprised nothing in your house comes from China. You must very selectively choose everything in your house from basins to lightbulbs.

And yes, as people have said, free market does not mean no health standards. Not sure how you get the two mixed up.

The two are related. As I said, Australian producers work to high standards in terms of OH&S, paying super and minimum wages, environment and health; some other countries do not. Allow an open slather environment, and it's a fight to get to the bottom. If China is subsiding their farmers to the tune of nearly $2 billion and they are poorly regulated in terms of health, safety etc, their products would flood our markets as our Aussie farmers just cannot compete, and we would be none the wiser as to how that food was grown.

Health and safety becomes part of the equation when we allow the produce from countries who do not have our standards. We can have all the checks and balances that we like, but we do not know how the food was grown, in which conditions it was grown, and what chemicals were used on it.

We do currently have checks and balances in place to check all foods imported into Australia, but if only a small sample of each load is tested, you can't possibly be sure of the results, and that's why we get seafood with cholera coming into Australia. We can have as many safety regulations as we like, once we allow open markets we really don't know how that food has been produced.

Australian farmers do not use night soil as a fertiliser for their produce, but farmers in some other countries do. (That is why I buy only Australian produce) How do we identify that when it gets to our borders? We don't.

There are consequences to an open slather, deregulated, free trade environment, and one of those is safety and health.

 

[Deltaberry]

I understand cash is a valid form of payment, but if you get a tradie to take cash as a 'cashie' payment, without him issuing a tax invoice/settling the GST, then you are enabling fraud.

pinkboy

If a tradie takes cash, issues you an invoice, then whether he pays tax is none of my concern.

 

[pinkboy]

If a tradie takes cash, issues you an invoice, then whether he pays tax is none of my concern.

I agree.

The definition of a 'cashie' is where the goods or service 'never took place ' in exchange for cash that 'never was exchanged '!

pinkboy

 

[redwing]

I agree.

The definition of a 'cashie' is where the goods or service 'never took place ' in exchange for cash that 'never was exchanged '!

pinkboy

Now how about if you have their ABN, business details etc, they forgot to give you a invoice (or never intended to) and you make a diary entry on the cost of the job and claim it on tax

 

[lizzie]

I have done quite a few stone benchtops. Not sure what you mean by composite benchtops. Is it quartz engineered stone? like caesarstone, essa stone, quantum quartz. these are the top brands. Then you can get stone ambassador and ydl stone(they have branches aus wide) which are essentially the same but much cheaper.

Wow - there are three different conversations going on in this one short thread already.

However - yes - composite stone - and this is exactly the information we were after. My phoning around starts tomorrow.

We like the Silestone Mount Blanc - and know that Caesarstone is way overprice because of the branding.

Our original quote was from a kitchen place, the most expensive way to buy benchtops - and we knew that - my beef was over the misrepresentation of base price.

Super thanks Melbournian - I'll be checking out Stone Ambassador and YDL

 

[pinkboy]

I agree.

The definition of a 'cashie' is where the goods or service 'never took place ' in exchange for cash that 'never was exchanged '!

pinkboy

Now how about if you have their ABN, business details etc, they forgot to give you a invoice (or never intended to) and you make a diary entry on the cost of the job and claim it on tax

Then you obviously haven't got the concept?! The above is the true definition of 'cashie' understood by both trade and customer. Nothing written down, nothing recorded, just a handshake required. If you wrote those things down then there was obviously a communication breakdown between you and the tradie, wether intentional or not. If you ask for a tax invoice after reneging your choice for cash - expect the tradie to issue you with a partial payment on an invoice (probably charge you more), then add GST. What comeback have you got then?


pinkboy