12.5% VAT to be added to computers, tablets etc

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

http://www.cs.tt/blog/value-added-tax-v ... ry-1-2016/

Value Added Tax (VAT) of 12.5% to be added to Computers, Tablets and related peripherals in Trinidad and Tobago from February 1 2016

The Finance Bill of 2016 which was presented to the Trinidad and Tobago Parliament on Monday 11th January, 2016 proposes amendments to Schedule II of the VAT Act 75:06. The Ministry of Finance has published the new VAT list on its website.

According to the list of items that will be standard VAT rated are:

29. The items contained in the First Schedule to the Customs Act under Tariff Heading No. 84.71, being automatic data processing machines and units thereof, magnetic or optical readers, machines for transcribing data onto data media in coded form and machines for processing such data, not elsewhere specified or included.

30. Computer peripherals and mouse pads, not including audio compact discs of Tariff Subheading 8523.40.40 and digital versatile discs (DVD’s) of Subheadings
8523.40.60 and 8523.40.70.

30A. Terminal equipment or other equipment to be installed or used for a public telecommunications network or telecommunications service or radio communications service and certified as such by the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago.

Which appears to cover any computer desktop, laptop or tablet and related computer peripherals and mouse pads (with the exception of CD and DVDs). VAT on computers was removed in the late 1990s.

The changes to the VAT schedule is scheduled to become effective February 1 2016 with the new rate of VAT to be 12½%

[uncle sam]

"with the exception of CD " come on.. CD's? That ain't obsolete yet? At least allow flash memory storage

[gencon]

this really womps!

[S_2NR]

This is fackin sheit

[shake d livin wake d dead]

let's do this

[Les Bain]

There's a positive to everything.
All my red & ready social media contacts silent now.

[abbow]

oh f@ck...backward forever forward never.......

[10-01]

There's a positive to everything.
All my red & ready social media contacts silent now.

they mouth full with tax ... so dey cant talk ...

[S_2NR]

At this rate.. Bring back Kamla yes..

[10-01]

At this rate.. Bring back Kamla yes..

5 years to wait by that time trinidad gone tru ....

[ismithx]

I guess we gonna start having to bring down parts in yuh luggage yes

[iM@st@1]

Nerds are not pleased....

I think we should petition against this.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

http://technewstt.com/govt-tax-tech/

Government to tax books, computers

The Government of Trinidad and Tobago has released its revisions to the Value Added Tax regime in order to meet shortfalls in revenue.

The PDF listing all of the items, primarily food, is downloadable from the Ministry of Finance.

Surprisingly, the Government has chosen, in a retrograde step, to add books, computers and computer peripherals to that list, ending an almost two decade long moratorium on those items, which also led directly to an explosion in, specifically computer use, placing this country in the lead for consumption of information on the Internet (though that consumption is primarily Facebook and YouTube).

The relevant listings come at the end, as items 22, 29 and 30, as follows…

Books namely literary works, reference books,directories,collections of letters or documents permanently bound in covers, loose-leaf books, manuals or instructions whether complete with their binder or not, amendments to loose-leaf books even if issued separately, school work books and other educational texts in question-and-answer format with spaces for insertion of answers, children’s picture and painting books, exercise books, other paper and paperboard of a kind used for writing, printing or other graphic purposes (Heading No.
4823.90.30)

along with…

The items contained in the First Schedule to the Customs Act under Tariff Heading No. 84.71, being automatic data processing machines and units thereof,magnetic or optical readers, machines for transcribing data onto data media in coded form and machines for processing such data, not elsewhere specified or included.

and finally…

Computer peripherals and mouse pads, not including audio compact discs of Tariff Subheading 8523.40.40 and digital versatile discs (DVD’s) of Subheadings 8523.40.60 and 8523.40.70.

Terminal equipment or other equipment to be installed or used for a public telecommunications network or telecommunications service or radio communications service and certified as such by the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago.

Taxing an established resource waiting to be properly exploited is a surprising step backward for a government aware that it has to diversify. The significant installed base of computers, tablets and smartphones in T&T need to be leveraged to another level, perhaps through a national campaign to encourage the learning of coding and other Internet based development tools.

It’s ill-considered and shortsighted to think that money harvested from book and computer purchases will somehow improve the country’s revenue earning prospects faster than encouraging those technology owners to press that computing power to interesting and productive use.

Only people who don’t understand the transformative power of technology move to restrict its use and acquisition through taxation.

[allrotor]

Lord put ah hand...

[iM@st@1]

Wow books too, government like they really going backwards yes

[j.o.e]

Nerds are not pleased....

I think we should petition against this.

Nerds out there 2 questions

1) Do you realize how bad our revenue position is right now?
2) How many computers, laptops, tablets do you buy per calendar year?

[playerskrew]

Blame Kamala

[Allergic2BunnyEars]

Nerds cyah be serious bout the beatup. Still no customs duties. Spending hundreds of US on items but beating up on 12.5%? Gladly would pay the sales taxes in US if shopping abroad?

[bluesclues]

At this rate.. Bring back Kamla yes..

oh gosh nah.. ah go pay d tax.

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

This is a stab in the back, it would seem ZR was right, Kamla was better after all even with all the sheit they do. Not only we paying vat but we also paying 6% Amazon tax to shipping to Florida.

Pandey said he removed vat from computers because it is a learning tool, this was to encourage people to become computer literate in this country. It was for a noble cause, but this government seems more focused on keeping people backward. And Vat on BOOKS? really? Books?

If you see how quiet all the PNM people on facebook get with this one.

[teems1]

Nerds cyah be serious bout the beatup. Still no customs duties. Spending hundreds of US on items but beating up on 12.5%? Gladly would pay the sales taxes in US if shopping abroad?

Since 2014, if your Skybox address is in FL like most Trinis, you've been paying US sales tax.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/05/01/amazon_and_sales_tax_the_online_retailer_began_collecting_sales_tax_in_florida.html

[bluesclues]

Nerds are not pleased....

I think we should petition against this.

Nerds out there 2 questions

1) Do you realize how bad our revenue position is right now?
2) How many computers, laptops, tablets do you buy per calendar year?

collecting more tax will not do anything to hamper a recession that is driven by 2 quarters ... now 3 quarters of decline in our primary export commodity. that is how we get our revenues. through export.

our problem is in the shortfall of foreign exchange currency in light of the fact that we are EXPORTING LESS THAN we are importing.

thus, the solution lies in increasing export to gain foreign revenues. not taxing the people to death to build a stupid rail and taking more loan from the imf to do.. who gonna blank you because it not satisfied with your revival strategies and rather keeps its money to help other countries that rely need it instead of yours who have the money but doing shyt with it and playing big shot.

well bigshots does have investment strategies. and bigshots dont get caught with their pants around their ankles in a recession. big shots always have a plan, a backup plan, a backup-backup plan and a recovery plan. sometimes ALL RUNNING AT ONCE! when times good, big shot know to invest in savings for when times bad. we have endured pointless spending by this same government.. granted a different leader over the period.

but you cannot tax the shyt out of the people to get out of this kind of recession. note our recession is narrowed down to a cause in ONE SECTOR. oil and gas. that is the only reason for an official recession to be reported. before we even get to productivity and efficiency the major cause of this.. has been political policy. and only political policy can change it. and that means a change in political policy to place a greater emphasis on diversification for more sources of foreign INCOME. instead of infrastructure for simple circulation and asset growth through taxes. the only issue really, is trinidad's current debt. if we didnt have the debt, doubles would still be $1. not exaggerating.

[10-01]

Nerds are not pleased....

I think we should petition against this.

Nerds out there 2 questions

1) Do you realize how bad our revenue position is right now?
2) How many computers, laptops, tablets do you buy per calendar year?

collecting more tax will not do anything to hamper a recession that is driven by 2 quarters ... now 3 quarters of decline in our primary export commodity. that is how we get our revenues. through export.

our problem is in the shortfall of foreign exchange currency in light of the fact that we are EXPORTING LESS THAN we are importing.

thus, the solution lies in increasing export to gain foreign revenues. not taxing the people to death to build a stupid rail and taking more loan from the imf to do.. who gonna blank you because it not satisfied with your revival strategies and rather keeps its money to help other countries that rely need it instead of yours who have the money but doing shyt with it and playing big shot.

well bigshots does have investment strategies. and bigshots dont get caught with their pants around their ankles in a recession. big shots always have a plan, a backup plan, a backup-backup plan and a recovery plan. sometimes ALL RUNNING AT ONCE! when times good, big shot know to invest in savings for when times bad. we have endured pointless spending by this same government.. granted a different leader over the period.

but you cannot tax the shyt out of the people to get out of this kind of recession. note our recession is narrowed down to a cause in ONE SECTOR. oil and gas. that is the only reason for an official recession to be reported. before we even get to productivity and efficiency the major cause of this.. has been political policy. and only political policy can change it. and that means a change in political policy to place a greater emphasis on diversification for more sources of foreign INCOME. instead of infrastructure for simple circulation and asset growth through taxes. the only issue really, is trinidad's current debt. if we didnt have the debt, doubles would still be $1. not exaggerating.

well said bro ....

[j.o.e]

1) Taxing the sh!t out the population is an exaggeration, there are still zero rated items, plus taxes were reduced from 15% to 12.5% its a give and take
2) Diversification is a long term strategy but in the short term the country has to survive the low revenue period (remember the smelter that was vilified...would've come in real handy right now)
3) Rowley has already stated that as necessary as the rail is its just not likely to be practical based on the current situation (this was said in the address after Christmas)

[johnny123]

we are doomed...we red and ready...take it in allyuh rutoonks for d next 5years!!!
backwards ever foward NEVER....

[Habit7]

At this rate.. Bring back Kamla yes..

oh gosh nah.. ah go pay d tax.

[uncle sam]

So what is the predicted revenue per annum expected with this approach? Suppose it's a case of remove from here and add to there and they break even or create an even further deficit lol

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

we are doomed...we red and ready...take it in allyuh rutoonks for d next 5years!!!
backwards ever foward NEVER....

No all the red and ready people on my friendlist are suddenly no longer red or ready. They didn't expect this one in their rutoonk cootunks.

Now they have to hold back on their education, whatever extra book they might want to buy for some extra studies now they have to tighten their jockey shorts even more.

Just imagine ZR was right from the start, and he didn't even come up with anything new he does just copy and paste posts he made from manning PNM era on tuner some 7 years ago. Look how predictable PNM really is eh, whooooda thunk it?

[bluesclues]

1) Taxing the sh!t out the population is an exaggeration, there are still zero rated items, plus taxes were reduced from 15% to 12.5% its a give and take

it's just you say that like thats all it is and all the taxes done. we got other taxes on fuel and more to come. now taxes on computers and books. even educational books? its starting to get a little wild.

2) Diversification is a long term strategy but in the short term the country has to survive the low revenue period (remember the smelter that was vilified...would've come in real handy right now)

perhaps. but it depends on what we did with it. aluminium has been sliding on the markets for the past year. so we would have had the beauty of observing both our oil and aluminium export revenues declining at the same time. its all about perspective.

3) Rowley has already stated that as necessary as the rail is its just not likely to be practical based on the current situation (this was said in the address after Christmas)

well, "not likely" wasnt good enough for me. kill it dead dead dead. focus on increasing foreign revenue. then start a swift payment plan to getting out of debt as soon as possible. then we could talk about the rail.

[iM@st@1]

Nerds are not pleased....

I think we should petition against this.

Nerds out there 2 questions

1) Do you realize how bad our revenue position is right now?
2) How many computers, laptops, tablets do you buy per calendar year?

1. Yea I'm aware...books/computers are educational tools however, beneficial for our growth as we live in a digital age. If your in support of taxing these items ,no problem, you're entitled to your opinion. I don't agree with it because I think it's a step in the wrong direction, but politricks/economics is not my strong point, so what do I know....
2. I buy parts yearly, side hustle, so this will definitely affect me negatively as I would now have pass these costs to customers.

Nerds cyah be serious bout the beatup. Still no customs duties. Spending hundreds of US on items but beating up on 12.5%? Gladly would pay the sales taxes in US if shopping abroad?

Exactly, every cent adds up, don't know about you but I like to save a dollar any way I can.

Also with regards to computer parts I only shop online to avoid paying additional tax. Although Amazon charges it, there are other retailers that don't. #shopsmart