By Dinesh Dayani, Dollars and Sense

Before the big unveiling, many Singaporeans, us included, expected a bumper giveaway since the nation is turning 50 this year. Appearently, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam didn’t get the memo, as the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister decided to take a more prudent view instead.

Here are 5 ways you may get more money from Budget 2015

1. GST Vouchers (or better known as undeserving free handouts)

Yes, raise your hands wildly and start cheering. Up to 1.4 million Singaporeans will receive GST Vouchers this year. Going as high as $300, these vouchers are meant to offset the GST Burden on ordinary Singaporeans like you and I. From past trends, we notice people often bank the cheques claiming that they’re going to save this money prudently, only to end up blowing it on an even more expensive purchase which they otherwise may not have made.

We guess spending it does improve our economy at the same time, so why not. Just remember to spend it in Singapore.

2. Income Tax rebate!

There’s a quote we remember quite fondly. “There are only two things in life you can be sure of. The first is that you will die. And the second is that you will have to pay taxes”.

There will be a one-off tax rebate of 50%, capped at $1000, for those who pay income tax. That means your tax bill (assuming you do pay income tax) will be lower. Logically, you’d want to put it aside for a rainy day, or even to offset next year’s income tax.

But hey, we’re only Singaporeans, we need to blow it on a holiday to Australia.

3. Road tax rebates!

Holy ****, we’re getting a little bit afraid now. So many rebates, so little time to spend it. Vehicle owners will enjoy road tax rebates. You get up to 20% off for cars, 60% for motorcycles and 100% for commercial vehicles.

However, we do not recommend buying a car just yet. Thinking short-term is a sure way to end up bankrupt. And for those of you needing more ammunition against buying a car, pump prices will go up as well since petrol duty will increase by close to 50% for some fuels.

These two new introductions look like a way to start taxing people who use our roads more often. It’s logical to think the more petrol you pump, the more you are driving. Then again, when fuel prices go up, public transport prices will have to reciprocate this rise in cost.

Will it be too far fetched to think that this could just be an excuse for next year public transport price hike?

4. Extension of the Wage Credit Scheme

For those earning under $4,000, the government is going to co-fund our wage increases until 2017. It finally looks like we’re going to get the well-deserved pay hike we’ve been complaining about never receiving. Although this figure is now at 20% (down from 40% previously), the extension definitely gives our employers more time to give us that pay raise which we deserve a long time ago.

5. More tax revenues

Just like every Singaporean worth his or her salt, we’ll never feel happy until someone is in misery. So boom, Mr Shanmugaratnam delivers.

The top 5% of income earners, or those earning at least $160,000, will have to fork out more in income taxes. Given the fact that the top 10% of income tax payers fund 80% of the tax revenues collected, we can expect this slight increase in their taxes to be worth almost exactly $400 million a year. This will go a long way to easing the other rebates Singaporeans would be getting.

Taking from the rich to give to the poor? Not a concept ordinary Singaporeans are familiar with, but it’s true.

This article was first published at DollarsandSense.sg

Subscribe
Notify of
3 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
You May Also Like

SGX grants in-principle approval to SIA for issuing proposed rights

An in-principle approval has been received by Singapore Airlines (SIA) from the…

马国为新隆高铁计划延期支付1500万新元

马来西亚政府已支付1500万新元给我国政府,作为新隆高铁计划的延期费用。 我国交通部昨日发文告,指马国政府透过外交信函,表明将把新隆高铁的延期费用汇款给我国。 新马两国是在去年9月5日,同意暂停新隆高铁计划至2020年5月31日。 而在两国联合声明中,也表明马国必须在2019年1月31日前,为计划展延支付1500万元的费用。 隨著新隆高铁计划展延,我国和吉隆坡之间的快捷直达服务(Express Service)预计將在2031年1月1日开始,而不是原定的2026年12月31日。 如果到了2020年5月31日,马国仍无意继续隆新高铁计划,他们需要承担新加坡在履行新隆高铁双边协议时承担的成本。 事实上,早在90年代两国就萌生建设新隆高铁的计划,到直到2013年2月,马国前首相纳吉在与总理李显龙会面后,才获双方正式同意。这项工程预计耗资120亿美元,在当时堪称是东南亚区域最大规模的基础建设项目之一。 2016年7月,新马两国签署新隆高铁备忘录。根据双边协议,新隆高铁在2017年公开招標,2018年动工,原本预计在2026年竣工。当时除了中国外,多个国家有意竞標隆新高铁计划,包括日本、韩国和德国等。 新隆高铁全长350公里,从新加坡裕廊东站起,沿途经过柔佛依斯甘达公主城、峇株巴辖、麻坡、马六甲爱极乐(Ayer Keroh)、芙蓉、布城,吉隆坡终点站是大马城站。  …

You are the people’s servants, please remember this

Adrian Ng I had mixed feelings as I looked at the results…

China high school mysteriously takes down press release of its students being awarded MOE scholarship

TOC reported last month (‘TaiAn No.1 Senior High: 4 of 20 MOE…