Mr. Tan,
I was at a gala dinner last night where the guest of honor was a minister. At my table were a few foreigners. One of them, who has lived a few years in Singapore said, "Singapore is a wonderful place. Most of the locals don't understand why." He said it in a mocking way. What does he mean?
REPLY
I suspect that he must be very rich and probably make most of his income overseas. When he live in Singapore, he does not have to pay any tax on his overseas income. They also save on the big income tax that they have to pay in their home country. That is why Singapore is a wonderful place for people like him.
The locals earn their salaries in Singapore and have to pay tax and the high cost of living. The males even have to serve National Service and reservist training at regular intervals.
It is quite unfair for the Singapore government to give so favorable living conditions to rich foreigners and do not require them to pay any tax on their income.
It is quite bad for him to mock the locals who are already suffering under an unfair system .This will lead to unrest one day.
I was at a gala dinner last night where the guest of honor was a minister. At my table were a few foreigners. One of them, who has lived a few years in Singapore said, "Singapore is a wonderful place. Most of the locals don't understand why." He said it in a mocking way. What does he mean?
REPLY
I suspect that he must be very rich and probably make most of his income overseas. When he live in Singapore, he does not have to pay any tax on his overseas income. They also save on the big income tax that they have to pay in their home country. That is why Singapore is a wonderful place for people like him.
The locals earn their salaries in Singapore and have to pay tax and the high cost of living. The males even have to serve National Service and reservist training at regular intervals.
It is quite unfair for the Singapore government to give so favorable living conditions to rich foreigners and do not require them to pay any tax on their income.
It is quite bad for him to mock the locals who are already suffering under an unfair system .This will lead to unrest one day.
PM Lee said he wants to get 10 more billionaires to live in Singapore. In what way would these rich and mighty foreign residents benefit us.
ReplyDeleteThe high end property developers, the expensive eateries, the branded automobile sellers, IRAS property Dept, the foreign Banks' private bankers, Seletar Airport private plane parking hangers, and maybe the auntie house cleaners would benefit.
Other than above, they really pay no taxes, and bring no benefits to Singaporeans. Oh, they do help to boost up our foreign Reserves by depositing their cash wealth in our Banks, and help IRAS collect Corporate taxes from the private Banking Institutions serving these billionaires.
PM may be right they do bring us economic benefits, but only to rich businessmen and of course our Govt IRAS.
That is also how many Malaysians are looking at Singaporeans living in Iskandar Johor. But.... we don't see such talks against Singaporeans in our media right? Singapore's own minority races have `suffered' this same `discrimination' all the while, whether it is true or perceived.
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