Goods and services tax (GST)

The Goods & Services Tax is a bad tax in the following ways:

- it is a regressive tax and hits the people at lower income most
- it is a wasteful tax as it incurs a heavy administrative cost to the tax collector and the payer

A better solution is to abolish GST and have higher income tax. If a country needs to lower income tax to attract higher income earners (a strategy for which I personally disagree) and needs to find an alternative source of revenue,  here is a better approach to GST:

- levy a flat rate tax of 4% on payroll and investment income (which produce the same revenue than 7% GST)
- the payroll tax is a cost to the employer but can be recovered from employees earning above a threshold salary

There is a mistaken concept that GST is fair as it is imposed on consumption and encourages savings. A better way to encourage savings it to pay a higher rate of interest (which can be achieved through monetary policy) or to exempt interest from tax. Many retirees earns a low rate of interest on their savings and yet have to pay higher prices through GST.

GST has become so complicated, costly and open to abuse that it is time to abolish it and replace it with a more efficient tax.

Tan Kin Lian

Cost of a home

Every family needs a home to live in. A high property price translates into the high cost of a home and a high cost of living. When a family buys a costly property, they have to work hard for many years to pay off the mortgage to the home. They cannot afford to be unemployed or to have reduced earnings, as they cannot afford to pay the mortgage.

There was a mistaken belief that high property prices benefit the people at large, as the value of their asset has increased. In reality, they are paying a higher cost of living and have to work harder to survive. They are not able to unlock the value of their asset, as they still need a place to live in (unless they move to a smaller size property).

A small number of people benefit from the escalating property prices - people who own land and properties that they can sell to those who need a home. The families that need a home suffer from the higher cost.

Tan Kin Lian

Work-life balance and the economics of workplace flexibility

Here is a report prepared by the Presidential Council of Economic Advisers in the USA.