GST is a costly exercise

I attended a 3 hour briefing on GST. My worse fears were confirmed. GST is complicated and costly. For every transaction, the GST taxpayer has to go through a complicated table of rules to decide on the classification, timing, and many other issues. It is so easy to make a mistake and be subject to an offence with penalty.

I hope that GST be scrapped soon. We should go back to higher income tax to collect the revenue needed to run the country (and avoid two layers of taxation, with the complicated rules and compliance cost). In fact, GST is more complicated than income tax.

A businessman should focus his attention on running the business, rather than on collecting GST for the government. He should not be required to spend money to recruit accountants, who are costly, to keep the records to comply with GST.

The accountants love GST as it means work, business and profit for them. The civil servants love GST as it means more job and opportunities. But these means additional cost and hassle to businesses and consumers. What a waste, to spend so much resources on unproductive activities.

Tan Kin Lian