Proposal : Remove VAT On Food - Slightly Increase For Other Items
Australian Warlord
As the eAustralian forums can not longer be considered a trusted place to place anything on due to Preditorian's censorship program, I'm placing this in the eAus News
Many congress members campaigned for the removal of VAT on food as this disadvantages new players. They however voted against this when first put to a vote. I'm announcing that in 2 days, I'll be putting the proposal to a vote.
The proposal is as follows
Removal of VAT on food.
Weapons VAT to 13%
I'd also like the following, wish woud require two other congress members with available proposals due to game limits.
House VAT to 13%
Gift VAT to 13%
Moving Tickets VAT to 13%
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
This would make the budgetary proposals cost neutral. If congress members vote against it then it'll prove to all eAustralians that the election promises were lies.
Comments
furrymaxx
*Gnaws on Australian Warlord, as per fashion these days*
It's you, so obviously this MUST be totally untrue!
On a more serious note, I'm pretty sure taxes are basically fine as is.
"This would make the budgetary proposals cost neutral"
Do you have numbers to back this up?
If so i will propose it on your behalf, but without any numerical analysis to accompany it, it will get voted down.
Also weapons are in very high demand at the moment (i would think more weapons sell than food) so wouldnt this end up costing the average aussie more in tax?
Currently our food is more than cheap enough, what will this achieve. Food is by far the most selling food. Gifts and Housing will be even less likely to sell as it is.
Looking from a GM's point of view, you are making it easier for the people who make the sales and harder on those that don't, except weapons.
From a customers point of view, food is as cheap as it has ever been, even unhealthily so. Removing the VAT won't change the profit margins of the GM's but also won't make a significant difference to the price that everyone can more than afford on minimum wage anyway.
From a governments point of view, food, after import tax is by far our biggest earner. We have the most workers there and make the most sales there. This would considerably harm that side of the equation.
Unless you can get figures to prove that this will make a needed difference to new workers, won't harm the industries you propose to raise the taxes on and won't harm the income of the government, then this proposal is not going to be worth it by any stretch.
I do however appreciate the way you still follow senate protocol.
At TBA, weapons are more in demand for the people that are earning enough money a day that they can afford it anyway.
Fully agree with the removal of VAT on food - VAT (or GST) should never apply to a citizens most basic needs, but as mentioned above it's a great cash cow for the government - and that's always going to be considered more important.
In terms of raising others taxes, offsetting any loss from removal of VAT on food would be better achieved by increasing Import taxes.
Increasing the import taxes on Weapons, Iron and Oil would also benefit eAus companies that trade in these products. And as mentioned above Import taxes are a bigger money earner than food - so a 2-5% increase across the 3 should more than offset the 5% reduction on food.
O crap. I said import. I meant income....
Sorry. And to be honest 5% of .8 is 4 cents, considering our inflated wages it is not the time to do this.
As our dollar has gotten stronger prices have come down. But wages have not. This is the real issue in the economy and removing this tax does not deal with it.
as said previously the food VAT is a cash cow, and the 5AUD is there to cover the early costs of food for a reason.
Anyway your proposals will fail as you are not on the forums and it is noones fault but your own.
"If congress members vote against it then it'll prove to all eAustralians that the election promises were lies."
It's broad insulting comments that got you in trouble in the first place mate, Some of us like myself have been against the removal of VAT on food since the get go.
I know you guys see it as "progrssive tax system" but to quite AW "it ain't". Until there is away to implement tax brackets which would allow different taxes for higher Q items then nothing is actually progressive. You would still be making food cheaper for those richer then for those poorer!
As for increasing import taxes..... you know if we decrease the taxes we would see more competition in the market which would reduce the COST of the product therefore ACTAULLY making the product easier to obtain for the people in the lower wage brackets.
I vote against it simply because I don't understand exactly what you guys are trying to do? Are you trying to make things cheaper? There are better methods? Are you trying to help the new citizens? Again better methods could be used.
In regards to the forums, If you write it up properly then you can ask another senator to put it in the senate for you which is the right of every eAustralian Citizen.
I would post it for you, even tho I dont like you alot.
srg91
Today the cost of Q1 food is less than wages being offered to 0 skill workers in the job market. Where is the problem?
If there is a problem then we need to support new citizens in those early days directly and not do it to all players.
I think it is more important to engage new players and keep them
One of my election promises as Senator was to get food VAT reduced as there was a spike in prices. I brought a discussion to the Senate just before the last Congress elections, but there didn't seem to be much support for it at the time.
However, as pointed out, the price for Q1 food has come down dramatically. Though I want to keep my election promise, I can't see a reason for bringing it down at the current moment
@Tim09 - a stronger eAUD would only decrease price levels in eAustralia if there were a substantial amount of imports coming in. A stronger dollar doesn't change the price of goods priced in eAUD, only the relative price of goods priced in foreign currencies.
Given that the government's protectionist policies have resulted in an import tax on almost all goods of 99%, I don't think that appreciating currency is the reason for the drop in prices. In fact, none of the companies currently selling q1 food are foreign firms.
If the government was really serious about helping eAustralian citizens, it would decrease these market distorting import tariffs through multilateral trade negotiations with countries that can produce goods at a cheaper price than eAustralia can.
I feel this argument is an awful lot like the real Aussie politicians arguing about a few cents of extra taxes on fuel.
Then you travel to Europe to discover they all pay twice as much as we do so the argument here is just BS.
We pay around 4 cents per day for food tax, unless you go with higher q food coz you don't do wargames (which everyone should do)
So are we really worried about 4 cents a day???
As far as new players go - company GM's have a vested interest in helping them develop and mentoring them. Part of that probably involves either gifting or food donating to keep them above wargames minimums.
Good idea and good proposal.
The GMs will actually be able to make 5% more profit because pricing is so low. I find it hard to believe that the GMs are making any money right now. Move the VAT around like proposed and help the Food industry. When food gets expensive again the people will not be able to blame the government. 🙂
John
SENATOR Icey1174
" When food gets expensive again the people will not be able to blame the government. "
Right now, Its just you.
So were not worried 😉
@ Icey
Most if not all grain and food companies are of course losing money at current prices. This is caused by oversupply and has nothing at all to do with VAT.
Its actually a very bad idea..., the fact is that both AW and Icey failed to noticed the bigger picture.
For now, that is all I am gonna say.
(got exams this week, I see if I can post something up explaining why food companies can sell at 1aud and make a profit when I get around to it.)
Hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday, if not, then I am not sure when. (really busy this week 🙁, soz guys)
AW - If you could please provide your estimation figures and what they're based on to the treasury (myself or srg) i'd be happy to go over those figures and officially publish the results of the investigations.
Son of Rambo
Queensland Senator
Deputy Treasurer
remove the VAT on weapons. that would be ideal. screw food. if anyone is buying higher than q1 they are spending to much
Not quite zeek, q2 and q3 food are cheap and for those that plan on getting an extra battle in, they'll need the extra wellness.
Remember DA's message... don't feed him too much, and only feed him good stuff.
well if they need the extra wellness but with my house i gain wellness eachday with only q1.
well it actually doesn't do much when i was new i found food to be easy to find (q1)
i then got my level for job up pretty fast and was soon able to make a good enough income to get good quality food and gifts 🙂
@ SRG
"Its actually a very bad idea..., the fact is that both AW and Icey failed to noticed the bigger picture.
For now, that is all I am gonna say.
(got exams this week, I see if I can post something up explaining why food companies can sell at 1aud and make a profit when I get around to it.)
Hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday, if not, then I am not sure when. (really busy this week 🙁, soz guys)"
Thanks for the poor dig. Please enlighten us. 🙂 You had the time to type why you were not going to tell us, but you didn't have the time to type what the big picture is? 🙂
Great work from SRG91 again! How can anyone think this guy makes any sense?!?! lol... SRG91, send that explanation in an email to your future employer and see what happens. 🙂
John
SENATOR Icey1174
OK everyone.
It looks like anyone that is buying food is buying Q1 anyway. VAT on 0.80 AUD Q1 Food is 0.04 AUD. Lets say on a really good day 500 units of Q1 Food sells. That is only 20 AUD in VAT in a day, and that's on a REALLY good day. Does it really matter if we collect such a small amount?
When Q1 Food was through the roof so many people called for the repeal of the VAT on Food. Now the Senators walk away from it. Politics at it's finest. Broken promises. AW and I stand behind our pledge.
Long term things might be different, but do the right thing and honor your commitments as a senator. It can ALWAYS be voted back up! 🙂
Like AW suggeste😛
Q1 Food = 0.80 AUD VAT = 0.04 AUD
Q1 Weapon = 7.00+ AUD VAT increase by 1% is 0.07 AUD MORE in VAT
I buy 1 unit of food a day and 4 to 5 weapons a day for war games. Increase the VAT by even 1% on weapons and you will see a 175% increase in tax revenue on one unit of weapon sold vs one unit of food sold.
KEEP in mind I buy at least 4 weapons a day during war games. So in one day I buy one unit of food at 0.04 AUD in VAT and 4 weapons at a proposes total of 0.28 AUD in VAT collection. This would be a total of a 700% increase of VAT collection. War Games are almost DAILY. 🙂
Let use our heads here people. LOOK at the BIG PICTURE. 🙂
John
SENATOR Icey1174 🙂
lol Icey that is s0 Rand0m and like...wtf
Don't Feed Trolls Guys. 🙂
We don't have to prove anything to them. We know whose right even if they're delusional saps and think otherwise. 🙂
@icey- are you actually suggesting that we should tax people more?? So congrats on AW for suggesting a possible way of paying for a decrease in food vat, and thanks to Icey for showing us all how to follow AW's pricing plan, then everyone would be paying MORE (and not a little more but over 700%- and that's just for the weapons part... gets good if you want a moving ticket or heaven forbid a HOUSE!)
Thank you for enlightening the public on why a proposal without sufficient thought is really not a proposal at all...
lol... Can you people read and do basic math at the same time??? 🙂
Pred is too busy on Troll Patrol to read anything. 🙂
READ the WHOLE comment, do the math. It's no wonder our country is so weak! The people running it cannot do basic math.
John
SENATOR Icey1174
Luxuries should be taxed, not necessities. 🙂
We all know the rich avoid taxes in our country and we depend on the uneducated poor to pay them for us. Now I understand! 🙂
John
SENATOR Icey1174
@ SOR
New idea for you.
60,000 AUD cost 300 Gold to print?
That means 1 Gold is worth 200 AUD when printed.
1G = 42 AUD (roughly)
I propose that instead of taxing people you just keep printing money!
Sell 12,600 AUD @ 42 AUD = 1G, get the 300G back and just keep doing it!
Get rid of taxes on everything! 🙂
John
SENATOR Icey1174