Graham,
No offence taken. I think the others have answered your query very well and there is
little I want to add to that
other than to say that I had not heard anyone in govt. say the GST would be revenue
neutral. Even if they had, it
would not have been true.
In Canada, the GST was supposed to be revenue neutral also but it was a big joke. The
'unexpected' surplus they
took was supposed to pay of govt debt but, of course, it didn't. The inflation rate
ended up being more than
double the predicted rate. The black economy doubled within the first 3 years. And
Canadians are far more
law-abiding than Aussies.
In France right now, the black economy is threatening to overtake the legitimate
economy and is crippling the
country. I don't think that Australians are any less resourceful than the French. ;-)
The sole purpose of this tax is to take the 'tax burden' off business and place it on
consumers (all of us). But
just so the rich don't get too upset at having to pay more for their consumption, the
compensation that should go
to the poor is being diverted to them except for a few crumbs.
TVs, computers, cars, etc. will be cheaper but the 'necessities of life' will be much
more expensive. Education
costs will skyrocket because books are not exempt. Libraries will carry fewer books
and magazines. Those who would
self educate by reading will have a much harder time - especially Aboriginal people
who already have the lowest
school retention rate.
In Canada, the compliance costs for small business was an average of $50K per year for
the first 3 years. This
seems almost unbelievable, I know, but it must be remembered that this was 1990 and
technology was not as far
advanced as it is today even though Canadian businesses were already far more
computerised than here, the hardware
and software were far more expensive and less flexible. 'Small business' in Canada
probably includes bigger
companies than defined as such here but in any case, it should be a warning to small
business here.
In any case, everything turned out to be far more expensive than the govt models had
predicted and the Canadian
economy has yet to recover.
As far as Australia is concerned, the price of food has gone up by 26% over the last
few months without a
corresponding increase in pensions and welfare. Now add compliance costs to the cost
of food (even that without a
GST) and the GST on top of that. Now multiply that for remote communities. If anyone
thinks that the compensation
for the poor will be near enough, please think again.
The GST is an iniquitous tax that should never see the light of day. The WST can be
changed and fine-tuned - the
GST is a sledgehammer. IMHO.
Trudy
Graham Young wrote:
> Trudy,
>
> I am not a democrat voter, and I am writing this in a spirit of inquiry, so please
>do not take offence. But I
> am not quite sure why so many people on this list have a problem with the GST. As
>it is revenue neutral it
> really only involves the replacement of one indirect tax - the Wholesale Sales Tax -
>with another.
>
> Am I to infer that those who are against the GST are in favour of the WST, or is
>there a wider debate over
> what constitutes a proper and fair tax system that we are side-stepping.
>
> I am also wondering what effect a GST has on Indigenous welfare versus the WST.
>
> Graham Y
>
> Trudy and Rod Bray wrote:
>
> > A point of clarification:
> >
> > The message below was not so much politics as anti-GST. I realise that there are
>quite a few members with
> > Democrat sympathies and that is fine - everyone votes their own way.
> > The message was meant for people who were considering writing to the Democrats
>because they are also
> > anti-GST and in no way a suggestion that people should write.
> >
> > Trudy
> >
>
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