Someone nudged me to say that I have been really quiet in this blog of late.
Here is what I have been up to (other than settling Bean at Playschool or paying zakat and personal income tax or washing the curtains at The Flat):
The Government has not directly educated me as an end consumer much as to the looming GST.
When I exit the cashier at supermarkets, I do not see where I can pick up leaflets to summarise my taxable, exempted or zero-rated sundry.
When I went for a hair trim at KLCC, the transaction was not even recorded! It was a cash transaction sans receipt! Never mind about asking for a GST info pamphlet there. PETRONAS is much better because the receipt is already GST format-compliant, bravo!
Consequently, I got anxious. Then I got proactive.
Over the last one week, I took matters into my own device quite literally to go online on the Royal Malaysian Customs Department site and check the categories of goods and services that will hit me directly first come 1 April 2015. It is structured, concise and quite informative if you have the time to "study".
*bleary eye momster mode on*
Thanks to that, I can now plan my purchases and avoid panick stock-pile. Simply because I know which items can wait (zero-rated), which "luxury" big ticket item currently not taxed will cost 6% more, and hope to see services that are currently charged 10% service charge add 5% government tax be reduced to merely an all encompassing GST of 6% (although disappointingly, most will continue with the 10% service charge add 6% GST). Those items on the exempted list, I hope will grow to a longer list and stay exempted for much longer.
*back to mengaji Customs*
Toodles, my lovelies!
Hi, I'm your silent reader.
ReplyDeleteJust to clarify on the GST thingy that you've reading. This is because, too many misleading info can be found, and some issues are not being pointed out clearly by the customs or governments.
Actually, zero rated is better than exempted list. This is because, with zero rated, company can claim back their input tax while on exempted, they cannot.
For example, for beras, it's under zero rated, meaning no gst been charge on consumer. However, to process the beras, they need to use plastic (for packing) or machine (to process), in which both of these items are taxable. Since it is zero rated, meaning the factory can claim back the tax that been charge to them for this items, no extra cost on them. No extra cost on them means no extra cost on us.
While on exempted list, the manufacturer or the seller cannot claim back the input tax from the custom. For example, house developer, they buy cement to build the houses, in which cement is a taxable items. However, since house is under exempted list, no GST is being charge to consumer. This seems good on surface, but, we need to remember that for the developers, it's already an extra cost for them to buy cements, woods, and other materials (which are taxable items). Thus, GST is consider cost on them, so, they will definitely pass this cost back to us, the consumers. Worst thing, no controls on it, thus, there are chances for the house price to strike up again.
And, it is sad to see that most of the exempted lists are the basic necessity such as houses, private healthcare and private universities.
Just sharing my knowledge and opinion from all the GST Training I attended.
Cheers.
Dear Anonymous,
DeleteI quite like zero-rated but dislike the fact that items under zero-rated may be moved to exempted or even taxable in future. Change is inevitable:(
Tax credit cashflow if I were a goods and services provider is something new to me, it being 45 days. I am coming to grasp it in terms of credit recognition in the books/ledger.
I am not a numbers person but have no choice, just have to learn new skills as I progress along :)
So far, all the GST related courses I have attended are from service provider perspective...which is why I wrote about my perspective as an end consumer here.
Thank you for your insight and sharing! Please come back and share more!
Thank you for being a silent reader too (and finding time to comment!).
Take good care!