More On The “Grind and Screw” Tax
Saw Keeping the Faith on Sunday…not a bad movie – 3.5 jaffas, bordering on 3 (http://www.geocities.com/acwellen/jaffas.html).
The point I want to make, however, is that I had to pay $10.40 for a student ticket. (Adult tickets are a ridiculous $13.70). Before the GST, student tickets were $9 (this was at Greater Union, btw). Now, I fancy myself pretty good at maths, but I still don’t get how $9 plus 10% GST becomes $10.40. It just doesn’t compute…could someone explain?
Now before anyone mentions hidden costs and taxes etc., I want to point out that all that other stuff is, supposedly, being removed, thus if it is taken into account items should be cheaper than “Old price + 10%”. (Not that I ever expected this to happen – it is obvious that any business will notch the price up by 10% anyway, even if it got huge cost cuts, and just increase its profit margins).
Speaking of hidden taxes, music CDs formerly had about 100% tax on them all up, and an album cost ~$30. Does this mean with the GST it will cost $16.50? I don’t think so, for some reason, I really don’t.
</whinge>
— Victor
Why were Greater Union student tickets in Canberra $1 cheaper than in Sydney? And no, I don’t see how $9 * 1.1 = $10.40, either. Someone call the ACCC. The thing I can’t understand is that when tax rates are replaced by the 10% GST, the effect is always “dampened”. The 22% wholesale sales tax on computer hardware gets replaced by the 10% GST and thus prices should drop by over 10%, right? But they only drop by about 4-5%. Why? And does anyone else find it ridiculous how receipts are now called “Tax Invoices”?
7:40pm (GMT +10.00) 
