Looking at the impact on you
THOSE behind the amendment placing a goods & services tax back on the Budget table are attacking Policy & Resources’ plans from numerous angles, not least the ‘impact on you’, an area where P&R has been decidedly woolly from the off.
As the committee said: ‘80% of the less well-off will be better off…’ Pardon?
This quickly begged the question – how can ‘80% be better off?’ No, it’s 80% of lower-earners. But what’s a lower earner? ‘Easy, it’s those in the bottom quartile of the equivalised gross household income percentiles.’
The chart on today's front page, prepared by treasury officials at the States, hopefully explains it better, and shows the GST alternative.
And then when the ‘average’ family – on a combined income of £90,000 – find out that they’ll only be better off under the income tax plan if they spend more than £440 a week on GST in-scope items, the whole package feels even more expensive.
Messrs Roffey and Ferbrache don’t want to see the merit in the short-term income tax plan – they find enough reasons to criticise it in the helpful notes to their amendment.
But sadly, so many things across both these packages don’t feel right for Guernsey, whether that’s the cost implications, timings, practicality, preparation or sales techniques (or lack of them). Which will make the debate and the decision all the tougher.