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Tag: tax

  • Upgrading To Bigger Motorbikes? Maybe Not With Latest Taxation System

    Upgrading To Bigger Motorbikes? Maybe Not With Latest Taxation System

    He was planning to replace his current five-year-old Ducati 848 with a new Ducati Panigale this year, but Mr Kevin Liew now has to consider cheaper options instead.

    The change of plans came after Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat announced a new tiered tax system for motorcycles while delivering the Budget on Monday (Feb 20) in Parliament.

    Under the new system, the 15-per-cent Additional Registration Fee (ARF) will stay for motorcycles with an open market value (OMV) of up to S$5,000. The subsequent S$5,000 of its OMV will incur an ARF of 50 per cent, and the remaining OMV above S$10,000 will come with an ARF of 100 per cent.

    The Ducati Panigale that Mr Liew was eyeing was estimated to cost around S$40,000, but with the changes, it would cost “around S$50,000 or S$60,000”, the 27-year-old marketing manager said.

    “Bikes are already overpriced in Singapore compared to other countries because of the COE (Certificate of Entitlement),” Mr Liew added. “With this new scheme, they are only going to get even more expensive.”

    Mr Heng said that a small but rising number of buyers are getting expensive motorcycles, with OMVs similar to those of small cars. To address this, the tiered ARF would be introduced for motorcycles registered with COEs obtained from the second February bidding exercise onwards.

    He added that, going by current registration trends, more than half of new motorcycle buyers would not have to pay more.

    Although the new tax scheme is meant to target luxury-bike owners, some owners of “working class” motorcycles said that they would be affected as well. And the bikers community is upset over the move, lamenting that it would cause a spike in motorcycle prices.

    Mr Justin Khaw, 25, who rides a Honda Trial Bike and was planning to switch to a Honda Africa Twin, said: “Nowadays, most bikes in the open class 2A category cost close to S$10,000 and above.”

    With the new ARF, instead of paying S$32,000 for the Honda Africa Twin, Mr Khaw, an undergraduate, will have to fork out around S$36,000 to S$40,000. He has since decided to look for something cheaper.

    Mr Khaw remarked that the move would do little to reduce vehicular traffic. “If Singapore’s goal is to curb congestion on the roads, then perhaps alternative transport such as motorcycles should be considered. So why are the taxes for motorcycles increasing? Shouldn’t it be decreasing instead?”

    Given that cars and motorcycles do not contribute to congestion equally, he said, he wondered why bikers are “taxed and subjected to the same vehicle control policies as cars”.

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com

     

  • Rich People Problems – Just Because They Stay In Private Properties Doesn’t Mean They Are Rich

    Rich People Problems – Just Because They Stay In Private Properties Doesn’t Mean They Are Rich

    Call it the power of mrbrown: The popular blogger’s tweet about a private property owner’s gripe is circulating online, provoking indignation and endless mockery.

    In a profile of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s Ang Mo Kio GRC by The Straits Times, father of three Chew B.W. was one of the constituents interviewed. His complaint: Not enough is being done for those living in private estates.

    Mr Chew noted the rising cost of living, such as the cost of a year’s tuition at The Learning Lab ($4,000) and a fencing costume for one of his children ($600). He added: “It doesn’t mean we are rich just because we live here. The Government should also help people like us – we pay the most taxes.”

    According to the Manpower Ministry’s website, the median gross monthly income in June 2014 was $3,770. The cost of a semi-detached house typically runs into seven figures.

    Mr Chew’s sentiments got short shrift from netizens on social media. The tweet has been retweeted almost 570 times. Here are some of the choicer comments on Twitter:

     
    Over on Facebook, user Callan Tham said: “Here, let me play the world’s smallest violin for them.” Kwan Tuck Soon also remarked: “The gahmen should help them upgrade to a mansion with a fencing room.”

    But it was Reddit user xavierkoh who had perhaps the most reasoned response: “Perhaps what we really need to cultivate as a community is a sense of empathy for the less privileged instead of always focusing on our own problems which might be more trivial in nature as compared to others. Without that, our society will further fragment into distinct social classes who only care about themselves.”

     

    Source: https://sg.news.yahoo.com

  • Roy Ngerng: PAP Makes Singaporeans Pay High Taxes And Earn From It

    Roy Ngerng: PAP Makes Singaporeans Pay High Taxes And Earn From It

    The PAP government in Singapore keeps masquerading to Singaporeans that tax is low in Singapore.

    Indeed, the personal income tax that Singaporeans pay on a per capita basis is low – it is one of the lowest among the highest-income countries.

    However, what the PAP does not tell you is that Singaporeans pay much higher indirect taxes and high social contribution rates.

    In fact, Singaporeans pay more than 4 times higher indirect tax than personal income tax. Where other high-income countries pay about the same amount of indirect tax as personal income tax, Singaporeans actually pay more than 4 times more.

    Not only that, Singaporeans also pay more than 3 times higher social security into the Central Provident Fund (CPF) than personal income tax. Again, where other high-income countries pay much lesser into social security or on average, about the same as personal income tax, Singaporeans are made to pay more than 3 times more.

    In total, Singaporeans thus actually have to pay nearly 8 times more into indirect tax and social security than personal income tax. This is when other high-income countries only pay an average of about twice as much or at most four times as much than personal income tax.

    So, you see, it is not true that Singaporeans pay low taxes. The income tax rate is low but what Singaporeans have to pay into indirect tax and social security is nearly 8 times more, which is a lot.

    The PAP keeps saying that personal income tax is low and thus Singaporeans should be grateful. But this is how the PAP is trying to trick you. Personal income tax is low but it is not for you. Only a very small and select group of people benefit from the low personal income tax – the rich.

    Indeed, Singapore’s top personal income tax rate is the lowest among the developed countries – 20%.

    But do you know even the highest income earners in Singapore do not have to pay the top rate of 20%? In fact, for someone who earns US$300,000 a year in Singapore, he or she only need to pay 14.1% – which is much lower than what a similar income earner in the other developed countries have to pay, and is also the lowest among the developed countries.

    Not only that, when compared to the top tax rate of 20%, a US$300,000 earner in Singapore only needs to pay 70.5% of the top tax rate. This is the lowest proportion among the highest-income countries, where a similar income earner would have to pay an income tax of about 90% of the top tax rate. In other words, high-income earners get to get away with it, more than the other developed countries.

    In comparison, for the majority of Singaporeans, we have to pay 37% of our wages into CPF. As compared to the rich who only have to pay 14.1% of their salaries into tax, the majority of Singaporeans are sacrificing more than twice as much into CPF.

    There is the rhetoric that the CPF is not tax but as I will show you soon, the CPF is a tax and the majority of low- and middle-income Singaporeans are paying more than the high-income earners, the PAP among them, into tax.

    So, you see, personal income tax rate is low, sure. But it is not for you. It is only for the very rich. Not only is personal income tax low for them, it is the lowest among the developed countries.

    ‪#‎SayNotoPAP‬

     

    Source: Roy Ngerng

  • An Encounter With A Young And Arrogant IRAS Tax Officer

    An Encounter With A Young And Arrogant IRAS Tax Officer

    Such claims and actions by the PAP Town Council such as lawyers letters, etc are certainly typical.

    A visit to the Income Tax office informing the officer of my reasons for not being employed for a certain period of time plus proof of non payment such as mortgage, PUB, etc, and thus not able to pay my outstanding income tax on previous years was rejected by the young BITCH officer. Her demeanour during the interview came across rather pompous and arrogant. She asked me to wait for her foe about 30 minutes while she reviewed my case with a SENIOR officer.

    She got back to me after 50 minutes and told me that she did NOT believe my reasons for non payment thus she has to impose a penalty fee.

    These young and stupid bookworm Tax officers, WHAT do they know about hard life? They come from comfortable generation and up bringing and is now being put in the TAX Government office as a intern/under study and behave like Demi Gods in deciding the faith of pheasants.

    Not accepting the outcome, I decided to ask to speak with the senior officer whom she claimed to have a discussion regarding my case. This b*t*h told me that the officer in charge is engage in a staff meeting. I then told her to assign me to another officer. She told me they are all engaged. Thus, I told her that I will wait for the senior officer to finish the meeting and to get back to me while I wait at the desk where I was interviewed.

    The b*t*h officer tried to wayang with me and told me she would try her best to get the officer to attend to me. Five minutes later, the senior officer attended to me. It took me within 5 minutes to explain my predicament, showed paper proof and mentioned of the wasted time which the young b*t*h officer had put me through including the statement she made to me earlier regarding her disbelieve. The senior officer returned within 5 minutes and gave me an acceptable solution. The young b*t*h who was with her appeared slightly upset and her demeanour seems deflated. My point is some of the officers working in PAP Government offices or under the umbrella of the PAP acts like a big fcuk thinking that we owe them even after we show proof of our predicament.

    Please note that the income tax office of Sinkapore uses high end PLANTRONICS earphones and some high end Herman Miller office chairs. Tax payers are paying for expensive chairs in the Tax Dept to accommodate to these tender backsides working there. Is it necessary??

    GOH PANG SAI

     

    Source: www.therealsingapore.com