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joint assessment then the assessment unit should be the combined
income for the husband and wife and the wife's income should not be
seen as part of the husband's income. If we have separate taxation,
or if they choose to have separate taxation then there should be
independent individual assessment similar to single people and the
childr allowance, as to who should get it should be agreed amongst
themselves and I feel that the $15,000 allowance is not enough and
should be increased slightly.
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As far as personal allowance is concerned, there is only an increase
of $2,000 from $34,000 to $36,000. The Financial Secretary has said
that this adjustment is based on inflation. However, the allowance
of $2,000 is added to the additional personal allowance and that is
subject to the 10 per cent claw-back. Therefore, the increase in personal allowance is less than the 6 per cent inflation and certainly
very much less than the 12 per cent increase in personal income.
Therefore, many lower income people fall into the tax net and the
Financial Secretary has, thus, not really met his promises. I request
that the personal allowance be adjusted on the basis of rate of wage
increase and we should abolish the claw-back system of additional
personal allowance and it should be combined with personal allowance
to form a new personal allowance figure.
N 24 Con
On the matter of indirect and direct taxation, I believe in the principle
of fairness. Taxpayers of better means should be paying more tax at
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a higher rate. This is a basic and vital principle in taxation.
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this basis progressive direct taxation should give rise to a redistribu- tion of wealth. Therefore, the initial improvements to progressive
tax bands by the Financial Secretary is welcome, but we cannot accept
a lowering of profits tax on direct taxation. Fairness is also the
key word. The Financial Secretary doeshot seem to have taken fairness
into account when planning for a broadened tax net. As for sales tax, many have doubts and so do I. Ostensibly, it is to stabilise
tax revenue, but actually it increases the burden of the lower income
group and widens the gap between the wealthy and the poor.
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