Why are the poor rich and the rich richer in Singapore?

In 2022, Singapore's GDP exceeded US$ 460 billion, with a per capita GDP exceeding US$ 80,000, a record high. Although the year-on-year growth rate dropped to 3.6%, it clearly outperformed most countries and continued to be the richest man in Asia compared with 202 1 70,000 US dollars per capita.

Economic development is accompanied by inflation, which has been high in Singapore for three years. The reason is also very simple. As a country that is almost completely dependent on imports, due to geopolitics, rising energy and food prices, the US dollar has raised interest rates many times, so the price increase is inevitable. What's more, starting from 65438+ 10/month 1 in 2023, Singapore itself raised the consumption tax by 1 point, from the original 7% to 8% for all goods, and further increased it to 9% in 2024.

In 2022, prices will rise by at most 7 points, but in 2023, the Singapore government will have to levy an additional consumption tax of 1 point. It is foreseeable that inflation in Singapore will continue in 2023. The government also admitted that inflation in Singapore will remain at 5.5-6.5 in 2023.

You know, the internationally recognized inflation level is within 3%. The US inflation rate of 6.4 5438+ 10 in June has made the Fed unable to sit still, and will continue to raise interest rates, vowing to control cpi within 3. Singapore clearly knows the crux of its currency. It is necessary to raise national income and ensure the stability of commodity prices by taxing commodities, so giving money may temporarily alleviate the contradictions among the masses.

Therefore, Singapore decided to send money. However, giving money is definitely not the "poor people give money and the rich tax" mentioned in the title. This title has a sense of rhythm and artificially divides classes into opposites. In fact, what Singapore does is to "tax everyone and give some residents money."

1, tax increase, especially consumption tax, is a tax increase on all goods. Don't look at people Whether it's chicken, duck, fish, poor or rich, you have to pay 8% consumption tax. This is printed on the shopping receipt. You can clearly see the price, consumption tax and total amount of goods. In 2023, Singapore will add 1 point, from 7 to 8, and will continue to increase from 8 to 9 next year.

Is there a consumption tax in China? Yes, but not all goods, only some goods. The scope of consumption tax is mainly cigarettes, alcohol, automobiles, cosmetics, gasoline and other non-essential items. The tax rate ranges from 3% to 56% of cigarettes, but pork, chicken, vegetables and fruits, rice and other necessities are not only exempt from consumption tax, but also some of them are exempt from value-added tax (17% value-added tax is required in Singapore).

Why should I compare China here? Nowadays, many articles like to beautify countries such as Europe and America, and Singapore was once considered as the most suitable country for immigrants. But in fact, from the perspective of tax burden, China has given a lot of support to ensure that more than one billion people have enough to eat, which is not as simple as giving money to a small country.

2. send money. Singapore overcharged 1% of the total consumption tax. Let's see how much money it has given the people.

February 14 is the day when Singapore's 2023 budget was made public, which is also the first fully liberalized budget after the epidemic. The total value of this budget is nearly S $654.38+S $24 million.

The first subsidy is the consumption tax subsidy.

In order to offset the impact of the increase in consumption tax on families and individuals, the government decided to raise the maximum subsidy from S $500 to S $700 in 2023.

The standard for receiving this subsidy is: according to the value of the house where Singaporeans live.

If the annual housing value does not exceed 65,438 yuan+03,000 yuan, the cash subsidy for consumption tax vouchers will be increased to 700 yuan from this year;

If the annual house value is between 13000 and 2 1000, the cash subsidy is S $350.

What is the annual value of the house? Simply put, it is the net rental income after deducting other expenses such as property management fees. If your rental income is less than SGD 1.3 million (SGD 1 =5 yuan RMB, 65,000 RMB), you can get 700 yuan subsidy every year; If it is higher than SGD 13000, SGD 350 can be obtained; If it is higher than S $265,438+00,000, you can't get the money.

The core point here is that those who have no housing can't get subsidies, and those who have high rental returns can't get subsidies.

Second, consumer voucher subsidies. (This is easy to understand, and many cities in China are sending it. )

Each family will receive a neighborhood shopping voucher totaling S $300 next year.

Third, issue a living allowance of S $400.

If the income does not exceed S $22,000 (the annual income is below RMB 1 1 1,000 yuan), you can get S $400;

If the estimated income exceeds S $22,000 but does not exceed S $34,000 (the annual income is between110000-17000 yuan), 300 new subsidies can be obtained;

Those whose estimated income exceeds S $34,000 but does not exceed S $654.38+10,000 (annual income is between S $0/7000-500,000) can get S $200.

(At least 2 1 year old, and only one house at most)

The above three are the main sources of funds for Singapore this time. We use the minimum standard to describe the definition of this poor person and how much money we can get in the end.

Poor Singaporeans: There is only one house, with an annual rental income of 65,000 RMB and an annual income of only 1 1000 RMB.

Total subsidy: SGD 700+ SGD 300+ SGD 400 = SGD 65438+ SGD 0400 (RMB 7000).

If the median per capita income of Singaporeans is S $4,400, or about RMB 264,000, then the target of this subsidy is indeed far below the median, that is, it is considered to be the poor in Singapore. But judging from the subsidy of 7,000 yuan, the average monthly subsidy is 583 yuan. From this point of view, this measure fully compensates for the troubles caused by the increase in consumption tax to the poor, and the effect is obvious.

Generally speaking, it is effective for Singapore to tax the whole people and subsidize the poor. Singapore began to implement the consumption tax system in April 1994, when the tax rate was 3%. Today, the 23-year-old consumption tax has accounted for nearly a quarter of the total tax revenue of the Singapore government. With the increase of consumption tax, most of the taxes paid are high-income and high-consumption groups. Order a lobster, a pot of abalone and two bottles of Maotai in the restaurant, and then go to the coffee shop to buy chicken rice. You can tell at a glance who pays high taxes. Therefore, the greater the ability, the greater the responsibility. The greater the ability, the more taxes you pay and the less subsidies you get; The smaller the capacity, the less tax revenue and the more subsidies.

For low-income people, on the one hand, the government provides various subsidies that can offset the consumption tax, on the other hand, the consumption tax on some basic services is borne by the government, especially the education and medical care subsidized by the government. Only in this way can we effectively transfer wealth, so that the money of the rich can be supplemented to those who need it more.

As China said earlier, we take the form of partial consumption tax. Many cities also have subsidies for low-income people and unemployed people. This is not bad for China to protect low income.

However, in the channel of taxing the rich, we have given the rich many opportunities in order to promote industrial development. Our current preferential tax policy is given to the industrial side, which leads some rich people to adopt various so-called reasonable tax avoidance measures in order to avoid taxes. For example, in order to avoid the high corporate income tax of 17%, they set up a state-supported pig farm sideline that is exempt from value-added tax, and then let the pig farm bear some high expenses, but the consumption tax is not satisfactory. For example, property tax, strictly speaking, is a kind of consumption tax, which has been delayed, and has been successfully realized by the rich in China.