GST Refund? Try Again...

Whew, I survived another trip home. This one was pretty ok actually, I had good food, good rest, and even my first DOTA session with my brothers. Could have been more peaceful though, and I did my share of kitchen chores! More on the vacation later...

While I was waiting to board my flight to Indonesia, I overheard at least 3 conversation with this theme: "Not being able to claim the GST refund because the queue was long." So, I guess I will have to advise all my overseas friend to check in at least 2 hours early if they want to claim their GST refund. On top of that, I also better notify them about the fine print (somehow, the GST listed here is still 5%), so that things like this does not happen.

Despite the claim of low tax, anything that can be taxed, will be taxed (lots of hidden cost too). The only saving grace may be that the current system is not as convoluted as the one in the US (yet?). I'm still quite befuddled about how the taxation applies to Unit Trust and Foreign Derived Income. The IRAS website seems to say that they are exempt from tax, but not in a way that is clear enough for the average tax payers.

A good way to motivate me to spend less too.
As it is now, something that is priced at $100 is actually $107. (This is what my baseline annual expenditure is at)
Add the lowest income tax bracket (3.5%), and it becomes $110.88. Why is this higher than $110.50 (7% + 3.5% = 10.5%)? Because in this case, the GST is applied on post-taxed income, which turns it into double taxation.

At 5.5% tax: $100 -- $113.23
At 8.5% tax: $100 -- $116.94

This would be what goods will cost for any income spent over the $20,000 bracket. I'm glad that I am still well within the "safety" zone.

The ultimate (so far) seat chopper!

In Singapore, we have this concept of "chope-ing" seats. Basically, it is an informal style of seat reservations in the crowded economy food eateries (Hawker Centres and Food Courts) where there are no waiter/resses to take your order and no 10% service charge that do not actually get employed to provide service. I have yet to see this be used in a fast food eatery such as KFC though.

The general tool for this reservation is the non-exciting pack of tissue paper. A table with a tissue paper on it is treated as if it has "reserved" stamped (chopped, in singlish) on it. Although I myself have never used it, I do wonder who started the trend. Quite a useful system I think, from the perspective of a single guy who tends to eat out alone. It is tough to queue for food, look out for seats, and hope that the ones you find would still be available by the time you reach there.

Now, here is the amazing episode. It has got nothing to do with eateries though. I was on a crowded bus one day, heading for my class. It even had people standing at the second level (where I was seated, and no, they are not supposed to do that.) 2-3 rows behind me, there was a guy who had his bag occupying half of the available seat. He appeared to be so engrossed with his PSP (Play Station Portable), that he managed to completely ignore another guy who was standing right beside the seat. (I think the standing guy tried to say something, which I did not catch) 10 or so minutes later, his phone rang and he answered briefly in a kind of annoyed tone before going back to his game. 2-3 minutes later, a gal came up the stairs, walked pass my seat, and plonked herself beside the guy (whom had somehow removed his bag). Turns out that he was reserving a seat on the bus for her, and they managed to time the boarding somehow.

I was like "..."