Posts by Rich of Observationz
-
No, what would probably happen is that the farmer would claim GST on taxable inputs (fuel, fertiliser and the like) and not charge GST because the carrots are zero rated. Countdown would neither charge or reclaim GST, and hence the end-user price should drop by 15%.
The alternative is that carrots are "exempt" and input tax cannot be reclaimed. In that case, the farmer would need to factor GST on inputs into the sale price and the end-user price would drop by less than 15%. (Although interest charges and labour aren't taxed, and they're a major portion of a typical farmers costs).
The whole point of GST, whether with single or multiple rates, is that it doesn't differentiate by class of purchaser (unlike neolithic US sales taxes).
-
I think that once those people realise that wealthy property developers are getting a free pass to throw buildings up while ignoring codes, while their sewage isn't being fixed, they might wish they had some democratic influence over the process.
-
poor programmers
Less poor as all the changeover work sends rates up. (rubs hands, gleefully).
For smaller business, the accounting isn't hard, I've done it (as do all UK firms). All you do is when posting an invoice, you enter the GST amount charged by the supplier. That works for everything including complicated split rates (e.g mobile roaming).
Stores will typically assign each PLU to a department and the till does the rest.
It's only the large scale firms with bespoke backends that'll need to spend money and really, they've asked for it by nickel and diming all this time. Maybe this'll make them consider a more strategic approach.
Another option which might be better than a GST change would be to have a standard list of foods for which a nationally agreed price was set, and supplies at that price subsidised. That would also be relatively easy to implement in software.
-
do you really expect to see many businesses becoming exempt from GST?
Depends on the rules and if they make vegies zero rated or exempt, and whether the turnover limit is applied on total or taxable turnover.
The GST exemption limit is $60k. While that's a couple of hours business for a big Countdown, you could certainly see a market trader or greengrocer not selling that much in exempt items. It should also be possible to set a higher limit for businesses primarily selling fresh fruit and veg without much tax being lost. (They'd still be paying GST on their chocolate bars and milk, just not on the margin).
-
Ben, bollox. You could replace all the relevant IT systems in the NZ grocery industry for a few tens of millions, which is a fraction of the saving to the public. If the systems had been built to support change in the first place, which granted they probably haven't been, the cost would be negligible.
Depending on the exact GST rules, small greengrocers and farmers would have their compliance costs substantially reduced as they'd no longer need to account for GST at all. -
In the Basque country and Northern Spain the largest supermarket chain, Eroski, is a worker/consumer cooperative. It works well and has done for years.
There are plenty of alternatives to capitalism, they're just scary to the Labour party and their acolytes.
-
NZF won all five Maori seats in 1996 and lost them on 1999 after fallouts and waka jumping.
I think various National MPs owe their seats to the Maori roll, which limits the working class vote in much of the rural North Island.
-
Every EU state except Denmark has a reduced rate, and most have zero rates, as well as exempt items. There are also inter-state claimbacks and various other niggles, which business has no major problems with.
-
Look, these things might have been hard to do in 1960 when the ledgers were done longhand with quill pens. We've got computers today and can process any rules the government want to implement.
Sure, most NZ firms have underdeveloped, inflexible systems, but that's their own stupid fault. The great positive for me on changing GST is that it'll bolster contract rates for a year or two.
-
Someone did start a South Island Party. They did run electorate campaigns, but they didn't get or cause an overhang.
I thought maybe I should have added the words "if successful" but thought that would be obvious.