[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: US Government oddness/British same

[Shaun Hately]

On 13 Jan 2004 at 21:32, Martha wrote:

> This reminds me of the laws on VAT (value added tax) in Britain. For 
> those unfamiliar, this is a tax included in the price of items you 
> buy in shops and so on - it's included in the price, and I presume 
> that the business then pays the tax to the government. Anyway, 
> certain things are exempt from VAT - milk, for example. (Someone 
> correct me if I'm wrong on any of this, by the way - it's not exactly 
> my field of expertise.) One of the things exempt from VAT is books, 
> and magazines count as books (I know this from working in a bookshop 
> and having to sort things into VAT and non-VAT heaps on the floor). 
> So what this all boils down to is that VAT is charged on "feminine 
> hygiene products" like Tampax and stuff because they are considered 
> luxuries. And porno magazines are free from VAT because they count as 
> books.
> 
> What's with that, huh?

GST in Australia - raw chicken is not subject to GST. Cooked hot 
chicken is subject to GST. Cooked hot chicken that has been allowed 
to cool so it is cold chicken is not subject to GST.

Writing tax laws is very hard because of the exceptional cases - 
the easiest way would be to apply any type of sales tax, VAT, GST, 
whatever you want to call it to *all* goods - but lobby groups 
always want exceptions - some reasonable, some not - and eventually 
you have to draw a line. That's "what's with that." Wherever you 
are going to draw the line, you're going to end up with some 
ridiculous anomalies.

Australia only introduced a GST in 2001, so the horse trading and 
dealing that lead to our anomalies is still fresh in everybody's 
memories.

Condoms are GST free - feminine sanitary products are not (and the 
only practical way they could have exempted them would have been to 
classify menstruation as a disease - that one was a real political 
minefield). When suggestions were made that a special exemption 
should be made, other lobby groups started calling for razor blades 
to be exempted on the same basis - that's why you end up with 
anomalies - because as soon as you give an inch, some people will 
take a mile, and at some point, they have to say 'Enough'.

It's not just US government oddities - it's government oddities in 
general.


Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
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