Australian Congress
Damian Gaby
Hi one and all,
As I'm sure you are aware by now, some of you have been voted into the Australian Government. In the spirit of getting things started, I have send invites to all congress members who are currently not on my friend list so that we can get the congress message thread going. As soon as you guys accept my requests I can get the ball rolling. (If anyone else wants to do it quicker than me, by all means, be my guest).
Also, as we are a happy little democracy now, I reckon a few things need to be brought up:
1. Our esteemed president has said that he has quit the game. If this is true, than should we impeach him?
2. A few MPP's are coming at an end. I believe Canada has already expired and in about 4 hours the one with Russia will follow. Do we try to renew?
3. A couple of days ago, import taxes for weapons decreased from 15% to 10%. So far, there has been a sizable increase in income over the last two days compared with the previous ones. This is probably due to the increased consumption over the special event week. Currently income has jumped from about the 3500cc/day mark to over 5500cc/day.
Another measure we can propose is introducing a minimum wage. There are lots of players who pay 1CC wage and the rest through a donation. My opinion is that a minimum salary rise to 5CC/day will cause more money to be made from taxing income without creating too much of a dent in the income of the average player. The sums of money are not enormous, but every little bit helps, as we all know.
So far, these are my ideas and topics that I would like to put forward for this months congress, if you have any other ideas or opinions, by all means, lets start a constructive discussion.
Cheers!
Comments
Actually the import tax dropped from 15% to 10 %.
You are right, my bad, edited.
Also Damian as it dropped the cost of Q7s etc went up on the global market. Unsure if during this trial, who ever is running it is keeping a daily/twice daily record of world Q7 prices and what is happening eg. events, epics etc.
One would certainly hope so, otherwise how are you going to tell if the measure was successful or not? Anyway, the increased consumption during the event week is what probably drove prices up, they should come back down once the week is over - so maybe this week isn't exactly best to measure the benefits of the legislation change.
they already dropped roughly 2k from the high point yesterday, after the Q7 prices matched what our market had them on offer. But a better thing to do, is when they lowered the import tax, they should of lowered the local tax as well so the locals can offer better prices. I can make more money selling my tanks in Cz rather then here 🙁 because of lower taxes.
Thanks for taking this initiative, Damian. A couple of things:
1. I am here when I can be. I supported the last 2 impeachment attempts, and I'd support a third. However at this point, by the time you can pass a proposal, the term is nearly over. Entirely up to congress; I can't propose my own impeachment (I checked).
2. After one of eAus' heavy hitters was ss'd fighting against eSerbia, eCanada did not even respond to my enquiry about renewing the MPP. Canada is not happy with us. More work for the next administration...
MPP with eRussia was not considered to fit the budget, early in the term; late in the term, there is still the question of whether some rumoured MTO may require the extra funds now. I believe we have a good stack now, as well as good funding for the early term renewals.
3. It will indeed be interesting to see the long term effects of the tax change. And by all means, bring the minimum wage discussion to the congressional table...
I would encourage everyone with an opinion or question or proposal to bring it to the public via the media, as well as raise the issues in the congress thread. It's a pleasure to see our Senators taking their work seriously. 🙂
Good answer big boss, great to see that you are still around. You are right about the impeachment coming a little too late, I just thought you were gone forever.
As for the MPP's, not sure what's up with Canada, maybe we'll find out. The rest of the stack ... Depends on budget and next CP as well I suppose, I might bring the question up as it's one that should be asked in every Congress term.
I'm interested in having that minimum wage discussion, although even if there are 100 workers at a minimum wage of $5, it would only net $15 in income tax.
There has also been some talk recently of looking at increasing the work tax by a percent or two which is a discussion we probably should have as well.
Both of these could be some way to recouping some of the tax revenue lost to communes and the black market, and to balance an increased work tax we could decrease the VAT on some items to compensate producers already selling on the open market.
I do agree, we won't become rich out of the change, but as I've said, any extra cc would help. Rusty has already said he is not selling on the AU market due to the taxes and I'm sure he's not the only one, so we may be losing some incone, therefore getting anything back may be good.
Rusty will only tell you part of the story. He already sells some stock on the eAustralian market, but he also sells a lot on the black market. I'm yet to hear a guarantee from him that much would change if we dropped the VAT. I need numbers, not off the cuff remarks. As I have said repeatedly, I'm willing to consider a VAT drop if producers will come to the table with numbers, but none have so far. Dropping the VAT could mean less tax income if there isn't more supply.
The main barrier to our weapons market is the lack of a resource bonus. A previous administration decided that we would be less of a target if we had unattractive regional bonuses. There are no announced plans from admins for a new resource war to give us a chance to correct this.
The problem is that by dropping the import tax local products become less cost effective compared to imports. Now, if this was done to bring prices down on the market and thus benefit the Aussie player, great, I can understand that. The effects won't be felt for a while as sales and prices this week are all over the place due to the event taking place, we will see what happens after.
However, as a general idea dropping the VAT will make more of a dent in the state budget. We already can't afford the current MPP stack which is sometimes maintained through private donations, so I would say that the idea should be to bring the income up rather than down. I do understand that local producers might benefit from a tax drop, however I doubt that this drop would bring extra benefits that would somehow make the Australian budget grow.
I don't really see the advantages of the reduced import tax, but I'm willing to give it a go after the event and see how our state coffers look after a couple of weeks.
I'll put up an article about the work tax and minimum salary later tonight to get some opinions and a discussion started on that as well.
Gudz, I sell on the black market??? Please show me what I have sold on the black market, prove to me these accusations. I do not sell any goods on the black market. And I am sickened by these accusations.
I did promise you stock to be sold on Australian markets, I did put stock on until I was wrongfully banned and I had to stop producing. As I stated in the roundtable discussions, until my industry gears back up, I would not sell anything. And then you went ahead lowered the taxes for overseas companies but did not lower anything for locals. So as pointed out, why would I want to help the DoF when they are screwing locals out of sales.
Saying I have only given off the cuff replies is a lie, which you know. Just like your black market lie. But I know you have been towing someone else's line about me being evil.
If you were actually in the game during the resource wars, you would of seen the landscape was completely different. Choices were made by congress (we were not a dictatorship) and those choices were made due to rental deals happening and also due to the fact eAustralia could and was being wiped every second day. Please get your facts correct before you continue your slander.
Pack Sales is not a black market thing, other wise Plato would ban it. Pack sales has nothing to do with the countries economics and taxes.
I employ people for 1cc, I employ people for 100cc, I employ people for amounts in between. And what has a wage got to do with black market? They get paid for the work they do. Some two clickers are happy to get 1cc as they dont need the money, so people want to get paid 100cc because they want to save up for houses and training centres.
Do the workers who get paid less then offer get a weapons, food for free in return for lower wages, no they dont. So please show me where I am involved in the black market and adverse effect Australia's taxes?
Have I in the past, months ago sold stuff direct to a buyer, yes. Have I done it since you came to DoF, No.
Have I given weapons to Australians, yes. DO I set a price for them, No. As they are drops, be it for the MU or for the political party. My business model is separate to the political model and separate to the MU model.
Do you bother to actually ask questions before assuming stuff, NO.
Do you or do you not employ people for $1, and sell packs which include weapons outside the official market?
see above, I clicked the wrong reply button.
DEFINITION of 'Black Market'
Economic activity that takes place outside government-sanctioned channels. Black market transactions usually occur “under the table” to let participants avoid government price controls or taxes.
Read more: Black Market Definition | Investopedia http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/blackmarket.asp#ixzz3yVOfQhYb
still waiting to see where this black market is?
pack sales via plato? so are you saying the government does not sanction pack sales or pack purchases?
Australian min wage is set for 1 cc, so any wage from 1cc- 1000cc or more is government approved. So please present me with this hard evidence of my black market activities that adversely effects Australia's tax income.
As you have said you no longer sell on the black market I will withdraw that part of my comments.
Thank you for that. As far as I am concerned the matter is now behind me.