Tax

又是一年一度要呈報所得稅的时侯了，Steve 很不高兴因为这里的付稅率很高，還好今年起可以加入妻子為依屬者。其實在这里生活，無时無刻都須付稅如果你买了一項有收据的東西。每家商店内的貨品或餐馆所標示的价錢不是淨价，你付款时會視你所購買的標价再加銷售稅，不同的貨品有不同的銷售稅率。

如果没有錯的话，马來西亞的所有貨品銷售稅是 10%，而其制度是批發商家向工廠購買貨品的發票上都须付銷售稅 10%或付銷售稅给海關如商家自己进口貨品。在马來西亞，你到商店購買物品（除了酒店房及一些餐馆），你只須付所示的標价。其實这樣的制度…是不是可能會让不少的商家用一些管道討稅？听起來马來西亞的消費者似乎比較划算，但我想，羊毛出在羊身上…而且往往一些貨品的漲价率，真的是天差地别，假设及比如估計﹕麵粉廠家说通貨膨脹要给工人起薪，就起价一公斤麵粉约 5% 吧﹔麵條商家说汽油食油都漲价，就起价一公斤麵條约 8% 吧﹔小販说什么東西都漲价，就起价一碗福建蝦麵（若從 RM2.50 起价至RM2.80）约 12% 吧… 嗯！如果你是打工仔，你的老板又没起或只加少過 10% 的薪水的话，吃着福建麵的你，只能花錢又不能起＇米田共＇的价！

每一個做生意的人都不會想業績下降，而是精打細算每年要賺钱，那到底誰會吃虧呢？是不是就是所謂…有錢人越賺越多钱，貧窮的消費者就更加窮了？

It is time to submit annual income tax again. Steve always hates to do this because the tax rate is high. However, from this time onwards he can add his wife as a dependent. In fact, living here you also always pay tax if you buy a thing with a receipt. The price tag of products in every shop is just a gross price; you have to pay sales tax on it. And different kinds of product will have different tax rates.

If I am not wrong, the sales tax in Malaysia is 10% for all products, and the system is that the distributor needs to pay 10% sales tax mentioned in invoice of the product they bought from a manufacturer, or pay sales tax to Customs if they import it themselves. So in Malaysia, when you go to a shop to buy something (except hotels and some restaurants), you only pay the price that shown on the tag. In fact, this system…did it create some distributors trying to use a ‘dirty’ method to avoid paying tax? It sounds like consumers in Malaysia are better off and not much paying tax, but I don’t think so… Some products’ prices increase by a much different percentage. For an example and estimation: A flour manufacturer says they need to increase employees’ salary due to currency inflation, so they increase the price about 5% per kilo of flour. The noodles supplier said transport’s gas and cooking oil both increased too, so they increase the price about 8% per kilo of noodles. The hawker says all things increased too, so they increase the price about 12% (if the price is from RM2.50 to RM2.80) on a bowl of ‘Hokkien Mee’ (prawn noodles)… Hmm! If you are an employee and your employer didn’t increase your salary or just increased your salary less than 10%, then when you eat a bowl of ‘Hokkien Mee’, you have to pay the increased price, but you can’t increase your poop’s price!

Every business owner doesn’t want their business results going down, but they calculate very carefully their earnings every year. Thus, who will become the loser? Does it mean that…the rich become richer, and the poor consumers become poorer?