No Zero VAT for Books

MidnightWizard

MidnightWizard

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Now I have really had it with these morons

See if you can work out the "logic" .......... :confused:

Read the rest of the article linked below


Treasury against no VAT on books

March 24 2011 at 10:04am

Treasury does not support a proposal for a zero-rating of value added tax (VAT) on books, its chief director for tax policy, Cecil Morden, said on Wednesday.

He said this was because suppliers and the middle and upper income groups would benefit instead of the poor.

Source: Business Report


WHO is this Cecil Morden guy ??????

Anyone got a pic or some detail on this typical bean counter imbecile

Just to show you how industrious and enterprising SA "Journalists" are -- look at this news item in every one of these newspapers ........

Times Live

Citizen Online

Fin 24 Economy

Seems they are also just a cut & paste excuse for "Truth-in-Journalism"

Media HQ SA just sends out the report and everyone copies it -- so much for "Press Freedom"

Anyway here is the Treasury website

SA Treasury

-- see if you can find a bio for Cecil Morden the invisible functionary. :(
 
Yay, MW! I was able to follow that excellent post all the way through, and it made sense, and I agree with you! :)
 
He said this was because suppliers and the middle and upper income groups would benefit instead of the poor.
Click to expand...

Dear Mr Cecil Morden, the reason why there are middle and upper income groups is because they can read comprehensively, you sir, are a shortsighted fool.
 
wrathex said:
Dear Mr Cecil Morden, the reason why there are middle and upper income groups is because they can read comprehensively, you sir, are a shortsighted fool.
Click to expand...

It makes no sense...what a complete retard!
 
wrathex said:
Dear Mr Cecil Morden, the reason why there are middle and upper income groups is because they can read comprehensively, you sir, are a shortsighted fool.
Click to expand...

Well, the middle upper income groups can aford to pay vat. So it would really help the lower income groups if zero vat applied. Books are expensive regardless of vat.
Read debate on Google and books on the internet. BBC also had a programme about online books vs libraries.

I suppose the zero vat on bread means that man must live on bread alone and ignore the fact that the printing press can improve his lot.
 
He said this was because suppliers and the middle and upper income groups would benefit instead of the poor.
Click to expand...
No, my dear Cecil, if you made books zero-rated poor people might also have been able to afford books. With this wonderful inaction books remain a luxury to low and middle-income citizens.
 
dj_jyno said:
No, my dear Cecil, if you made books zero-rated poor people might also have been able to afford books. With this wonderful inaction books remain a luxury to low and middle-income citizens.
Click to expand...

14% off the price of new books and now the poor could afford to spend what money they have on them? Not at all in SA. I actually agree with him in a way, the fuller version of the argument is that the poor will only get books and read through libraries and schools. The VAT on books makes up part of the funding for new libraries and school books for the poor.

You take away VAT on new books and absolutely no poor people start buying brand new books, yet you lose some funding for libraries and schools where they will actually read. The only people who benefit are new book buyers who could usually afford this VAT in any case.
 
Yet, the middle and upper classes are going over to the electronic reading systems: Kindle and Ipad, I foresee that the majority of habitual readers will be reading electronically within a decade.

The truth is there is a lack of reading culture in South Africa, and the high price of books is not encouraging. The very least that could have been done, was to exempt Kindergarden and Youth books for VAT.
 
He said this was because suppliers and the middle and upper income groups would benefit instead of the poor.
Click to expand...

Huh??!! WTF! Where does it say 0 VAT would only apply to the middle and upper income groups. If a poor person buys a book they will also benefit you beeping moron!
 
Treasury does not support a proposal for a zero-rating of value added tax (VAT) on books, its chief director for tax policy, Cecil Morden, said on Wednesday.

He said this was because suppliers and the middle and upper income groups would benefit instead of the poor.
Click to expand...

I agree.

did the food price come down because of zero VAT?
 
thats why middle and upper income groups buy ebooks from overseas
 
Complex

DreamKing said:
I agree.
did the food price come down because of zero VAT?
Click to expand...

NO

Because the Oligopoly bread cartel resorted to PRICE FIXING

For which they got fined

WHAT happened to the fine monies they were meant to pay to Gov

WHO benefited ??????
 
Complex

wrathex said:
Yet, the middle and upper classes are going over to the electronic reading systems: Kindle and Ipad, I foresee that the majority of habitual readers will be reading electronically within a decade.

The truth is there is a lack of reading culture in South Africa, and the high price of books is not encouraging.
The very least that could have been done, was to exempt Kindergarden and Youth books for VAT.
Click to expand...

What about LIBRARIES -- who are ALWAYS struggling for FUNDING !

It has become clear to me that this moron knows nothing about books / publishers / authors or the book trade.

YES

SOME people ARE rich -- like INTERSOFT which has a de facto monopoly on ITC books

WHEN did you ever see a computer book on a used or bargain sale table ( or under about R400.00 )

Unsold books have their covers torn off and are sent back to the US publishers for a FULL refund.

The "book" is then pulped never to appear in public -- BY ARANGEMENT !

The whole thing is SICK :sick::sick::sick::sick:
 
Having worked in book retail for many years and being some who loves books, Treasury is absolutely right. 0 percent vat will only benefit the wealthy. Reducing the price of books by 14% will not send poor people to book stores. When food and clothing are a problem owning the latest John Grisham or Jamie Oliver is not a priority. Correct me off I'm wrong but educational books receive no customs duties already (if imported by an educational distributor). In reality most poor and middle class people will get their books from libraries anyway. Libraries are meant to encourage a culture of reading and literacy programmes, 0 rated vat on books will do nothing to encourage people who don't read to do so (and you can purchase recent bestsellers for a third of the price at places like Bargain Books anyway). That said libraries are grossly underfunded and the tax from the small number of people who do buy books really won't make a big difference.
 
porchrat said:
0% VAT on all books? Maybe not. 0% VAT on textbooks? WHY NOT?!?!?
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In principle great, in practice difficult to apply - textbooks for languages include general fiction how do you fairly and practically apply that? Also a large percentage of people who purchase academic books are quite wealthy. Poorer students will buy second hand usually. And must academic books purchased are not prescribed books but used in research (and they're already quite expensive). Reality is it's difficult to apply. As for public schools the government should offer a rebate system to school libraries and parents since schools have to raise additional funds for books they want - 0 rated vat wouldn't work here either still impractical.
 
oronte said:
In principle great, in practice difficult to apply - textbooks for languages include general fiction how do you fairly and practically apply that? Also a large percentage of people who purchase academic books are quite wealthy. Poorer students will buy second hand usually. And must academic books purchased are not prescribed books but used in research (and they're already quite expensive). Reality is it's difficult to apply. As for public schools the government should offer a rebate system to school libraries and parents since schools have to raise additional funds for books they want - 0 rated vat wouldn't work here either still impractical.
Click to expand...

There are 2 approaches:

1) Universities publish a list of prescribed books every year. Take that list and say "0% VAT on all of these".

2) Universities publish a list of prescribed books every year. Take that list and apply 0% VAT at the point of sale for anyone able to demonstrate that they are a student. You then refund right up the line for X number of books coming from each supplier up to the point of import. Complicated and difficult to implement at first sure but definitely not impossible. I mean... people do keep records of this sort of stuff.

In the case of No.1 sure you're not going to snag every single book used for academic purposes but it is a trade-off to make it practical.

Poorer students may buy second hand but even the price of second hand books are influenced by the VAT.
 
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