Singapore: Instead of increase GST, what other more progressive wealth tax options (e.g. conceptuall

Discussion in 'Budget & Taxes' started by Bic_Cherry, Oct 3, 2019.

  1. Bic_Cherry

    Bic_Cherry Active Member

    Joined:
    Jun 24, 2012
    Messages:
    597
    Likes Received:
    41
    Trophy Points:
    28
    Instead of increase GST, what other more progressive wealth tax options (e.g. Replacement for Inheritance taxes) can be considered?

    E.g. More progressive property taxes so that for annual value above $20k onwards until $300,000, maybe the top tier annual value of property can be taxed at 60% of annual value?

    Please discuss.

    E.g. There are some good class bungalows in Singapore worth $230,000,000. https://www.mansionglobal.com/artic...atest-in-a-string-of-blockbuster-sales-206018

    Annual value of the property is likely to be at least, minimum $4.5 million dollars to rent p.a.

    Government ought to tax such a rich property owner up to S$2.5 million so that the ordinary, poor folks do not have to pay excessive taxes (so they won't riot/ protest as they do in France, Hong Kong, Indonesia etc). And anyway, the art pieces and decorative antiques kept inside the property are likely to be worth more than the property itself and for which the SAF and police force is on alert 24/7 to defend the property and its contents (SAF costs S$14+ billion to maintain). So $2.5 million in taxes p.a. shouldn't be too much to protect and uphold the value of a property that is probably worth $460 million in all.


    or
    [YOUTUBE]ZQ-YX-5bAs0[/YouTube]

    ==========


    GST increase in 2021:


    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Oct 3, 2019
  2. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    May 15, 2017
    Messages:
    34,608
    Likes Received:
    11,196
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Maybe some sort of Land Value tax with an individual deduction and family deduction, to somehow limit it so wealthy persons can't simply evade the tax by spreading their property ownership among their family members. There's going to be a trade-off here, and the deduction can't be made too big or it might incentivize people to use loopholes, but at the same time you don't want to tax poor homeowners too much (few of them though there are in Singapore).
    Obviously there would be a lot of details to flush out, and whether it would be a good idea would depend on all those details.
     
    Last edited: Oct 3, 2019
  3. Spim

    Spim Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    Nov 11, 2016
    Messages:
    7,664
    Likes Received:
    6,183
    Trophy Points:
    113
    If you ever go online and look at the tax notices for some of these high end properties at least around here they are extremely substantial. And ignoring those huge one's, within walking distance of me there are a crap ton that are paying 5-7 K property tax. and that's on top of all the income, sales tax they contribute.

    There is also some tremendous disparity because of the fact that there are a lot of people grandfathered in with lower rates.

    With that said it wouldn't really upset me to go after the substantial properties when you start looking at multimillion-dollar Estates,

    I don't feel their pain if they are getting pinched for a couple points.
     
  4. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    May 15, 2017
    Messages:
    34,608
    Likes Received:
    11,196
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Maybe Singapore should just put some curbs on immigration until wages start going up.

    Singapore has had some pretty liberal immigration policies, and foreigners from poorer areas keep crowding into the city.

    I don't think there's anywhere else in the world that has as high a cost of living as Singapore but such low starting level wages. In most other big wealthy cities in the world, if they were offering the wage levels found in Singapore, they wouldn't be able to find enough people willing to live there.
     
    Last edited: Apr 5, 2020
    Bic_Cherry likes this.
  5. BasicHumanUnit2

    BasicHumanUnit2 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Sep 7, 2018
    Messages:
    1,454
    Likes Received:
    1,029
    Trophy Points:
    113
    "Sing a poor"
     

Share This Page