Friday 25 September 2009
Saturday 5 September 2009
Tax Free or Debt Free?
I don't think Ridley's notion of a one quarter of one percent levy on domestic property, with exclusions and safeguards for those of modest means, should be cast aside so quickly.
Notice I select the word levy not tax to avoid an immediate outbreak of hysteria from the more excitable and vociferous parts of the population with their fingers hovering over the speed dial for the radio talk shows.
Let's adopt even less threatening language, let's call it a Super-Strata fee, a payment towards the general infrastructure, environmental protections and government interventions that enhance the value of property.
After all is it fair that hard working Caymanians of modest means should be continuously underwriting the capital gains of (often) well heeled and (sometimes) absentee overseas owners? Since the benefits of good infrastructure are continuous is it too much to ask for a continuing small contribution instead of the present one-off stamp duty?
The current proposals to sell government assets to the private sector and the lease/rent/buy back via instalments amounts to government taking out a mortgage that your children will pay for, whatever their financial means.
Mac won't be getting a finders fees this way either.
Hard to collect? Not really. People who try and wriggle out of it don't get the documentation to sell their property until they pay up.
I can hear the headless chicken tendency grumbling over their dominoes now, "Call it what you will it's still TAX". Maybe but so is fuel duty, import duty etc, vehicle coupon fee.
And look at what it isn't. It isn't a Sales Tax. It isn't an Income Tax. It isn't Capital Gains tax. It isn't Corporation Tax. It isn't a Land Tax. It isn't Inheritance Tax. It's the lack of those sort of taxes that keeps Cayman a popular offshore centre.
All the above aside an axe need taking to government spending too and a tiny fraction of those savings will pay for the administration of this if it's done right.
Notice I select the word levy not tax to avoid an immediate outbreak of hysteria from the more excitable and vociferous parts of the population with their fingers hovering over the speed dial for the radio talk shows.
Let's adopt even less threatening language, let's call it a Super-Strata fee, a payment towards the general infrastructure, environmental protections and government interventions that enhance the value of property.
After all is it fair that hard working Caymanians of modest means should be continuously underwriting the capital gains of (often) well heeled and (sometimes) absentee overseas owners? Since the benefits of good infrastructure are continuous is it too much to ask for a continuing small contribution instead of the present one-off stamp duty?
The current proposals to sell government assets to the private sector and the lease/rent/buy back via instalments amounts to government taking out a mortgage that your children will pay for, whatever their financial means.
Mac won't be getting a finders fees this way either.
Hard to collect? Not really. People who try and wriggle out of it don't get the documentation to sell their property until they pay up.
I can hear the headless chicken tendency grumbling over their dominoes now, "Call it what you will it's still TAX". Maybe but so is fuel duty, import duty etc, vehicle coupon fee.
And look at what it isn't. It isn't a Sales Tax. It isn't an Income Tax. It isn't Capital Gains tax. It isn't Corporation Tax. It isn't a Land Tax. It isn't Inheritance Tax. It's the lack of those sort of taxes that keeps Cayman a popular offshore centre.
All the above aside an axe need taking to government spending too and a tiny fraction of those savings will pay for the administration of this if it's done right.
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