WITH regards to the debate on Taxation, if I may add my 5 cents worth less VAT.
I feel people need to read up on the subject before they comment.
Calling an alternative tax system ludicrous is just naïve. Any alternative tax system is worth looking at.
The idea to replace income tax with VAT, GST or a type of consumption tax is not new and has been around for quite a number of years.
Those interested please read: Can a National Sales Tax Replace Income Taxes in the US? Updated June 29 2017.
I have read this and I have to admit it makes for a compelling argument.
Back in 2003, a group known as Americans for Fair Taxation proposed replacing the United States income tax system with a national sales tax.
The poor and pensioners are taken care of.
The tax rate would be set at around 23 per cent. The New York Times ran another article on this subject in January 2013.
Donald Trump has recently put forward the idea of replacing corporate tax with VAT.
Scotland has put forward the idea of replacing their council tax (type of property rates) with VAT. Imagine no rates’ account, no rates’ department but what a boom to the building sector and property sales.
The two reasons that countries are looking for alternatives is firstly the escalating cost of the present taxation systems.
If we are paying R2 to collect R1 in tax then we have a problem. More important for me anyway is the massive carbon footprint as with the current system.
If we take America alone with around a 140 million taxpayers, the paper/plastic trail is immense and all this probably ends up in a dump somewhere.
Even with online tax there are still boxes of printed data that need to be kept.
Some of the advantages that have been put forward for a consumption or a VAT based tax system is: it’s simple, no tax forms to fill in, the tax net is potentially bigger, reduction in collection costs by the state and individuals and a much smaller carbon footprint.
For these reasons governments around the world are still looking at the merits of this system.
I am sure we have one of the best tax systems in the world and I am sure Donald Trump is banging on our door every day to get the recipe.
The tax system that will work for me must be simple, cost effective and does not dump millions of tons of plastic into our oceans.
Environment before Tax
Forest Hills
