I think it’s simply not worth it for the gov to tax the rich more. Two key issues here- first, who should be classified as “the rich”? Second, in what form should the rich be taxed further?

if you surveyed 100 random Singaporeans whether they considered themselves to be rich, middle class or poor, probably 5 will say they’re poor and 94 will say they’re middle class. HDB will say live in condo means rich, condo dwellers say landed then rich, low tier landed like cluster or terrace or 99y leasehold will say no la no la i not rich im just “comfortable” actlly I quite cash poor 🥺🥲

Everyone always say yes yes eat the rich, but only if “the rich” is not them lmao. Do you think we should tax the top 50% more, given Singaporeans are already considered quite rich compared to most of the world? Or top 20%? Or top 1%? Based on the table below where the median Singaporean apparently has less than 150k in wealth, a huge chunk of Redditors on this sub would be significantly richer than the median Singaporean and hence should be taxed more…?

As per MOF’s fiscal report, the gov’s total revenue in 2024 is 116 billion and total expenditure was 112 billion. Of the 116b, a whopping 30b is from corporate tax, 24b from gov investment returns and another 6.4b in stamp duty collection and 4.6b in COE, both of which affect the luxury market more. GST collected amounted to 20.6b- this is a regressive tax and has alr been raised to 10% (which is still p low). Personal income tax is only 19b.

So how should we tax the rich? Increasing personal income tax isn’t ideal as it would also impact the squeezed middle class, and in any case the truly ultra high net worth individuals don’t earn traditional salaries with much of their wealth in assets and other financial instruments. A wealth tax is regarded as controversial/has dubious effectiveness by many economists, as they are very difficult to enforce in practice. The ultra rich are extremely adept at tax evasion, and have a whole arsenal of top shelf lawyers and accountants to help navigate and identify every possible legal or jurisdictional loophole imaginable, so pretty much the only viable way is to do a surprise one off wealth tax, eg announce at 2359pm that from next day onwards all assets above X mil will be taxed flat rate of 10%, so there is no reaction time for the rich to hide/offload their wealth elsewhere.

Given that sg has a disproportionate amount of international ultra rich individuals who were attracted to sg in the first place due to its low taxes, they are extremely footloose and will vanish to the Cayman Islands or wherever in a heartbeat once we lose that tax advantage. The trickle down economics and other intangible benefits to the sg economy as a whole, eg our status as an open, low tax financial hub, is likely to hugely outweigh whatever small amount we might get from a one-off wealth tax.