Posts by anjum rahman
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oops, maybe i should have said taxation 101, cos that's where the gst usually goes. actually, come to think of it, i don't think they do teach you how to fill out IRD forms at uni. i had to learn on the job and i still struggle! just for some light entertainment, you can look through some of the hundreds of forms at the IRD here: http://www.ird.govt.nz/forms-guides/number/.
who says accountants don't work hard for their money!
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ok, kyle, you'll need to do accounting 101, cos it's going to take too long for me to explain. your comment shows you've never had to fill out a two monthly gst return, accounting for every item you've purchased and every item you've sold in the last two months. most commonly done using a bank statement and analysing every item on that bank statement ie every cheque, eftpos transaction, cash deposit etc etc. best if you sit down with your local dairy owner and watch them calculate one.
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Whether you agree or not with the removal of GST from certain basic food items isn’t it just a little depressing to hear the same reasons trotted out by those against that: that it would be too difficult? You mean the finest minds of the economics graduates in Treasury and elsewhere couldn’t think laterally and find a workable way?
ok, think of it like this. you have a corner dairy. every week (or usually twice a week) you go to gilmore's. on each invoice, there will be at least 50 items purchased.
you would also go to pak'n'save, on average about 4 times a week. each docket would have on average 25 entries.
the way an accounting system works, a cheque from gilmores is fully assessable. one calculation, total amount divided by 9. takes a second. what you're asking is that the dairy owner sit there with the gilmore's bill and goes through each item to check off whether or not it has gst. 50 calculations for the gilmores bill; 25 for the pak'n'save. that's 200 calculations in a week on those two companies' bills alone, as opposed to 6. and there will be plenty of other bills like that.
and that's just the purchasing side. then there's the sale side. no dairy has a scanning system like the supermarkets do. most of them don't even run till tapes. so how exactly are they going to keep track of each item sold, as to whether it's shampoo (gst), bread (no gst), toilet rolls (gst), milk (no gst)... again, you're asking them to make hundreds of calculations, as opposed to a few.
it is an administrative nightmare; australians hate it and are having real difficulties. i'm not sure how other countries manage, but i guess there's a reason why nz is always rated highly on ease of doing business. this is not a problem that treasury can solve; maybe the accounting software companies could have a go.
but until all invoices are provided in an electronic format similar to banklink, there is no way around having to sit there and analyse each item on each bill. that might not be too far away (say 5-10 years). but getting electronic capture of each item sold is many years way from being affordable or practical for small businesses. having to do it manually is too difficult and it's not how our businesspeople want to spend their time, nor shoud they. it's an inefficient use of human capital. if they have to pay accountants to do it, it'll cost heaps and that cost will be passed straight on to the consumer.
and the administrative issue is only one of the reasons why this is a bad idea.
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The problem with a word loaded with perjoratives is that people can interpret them in a way that is unintended.
then maybe you shouldn't use it, and save yourself and us a lot of trouble. it's a nasty, sexist word and unnecessary. whatever your aim might be, your choice of words is intended to convey meaning to others. we don't know what's in your mind when you say "witch", but we do know the overtones the words carry, we know what meaning people will take from it. i just don't think it's acceptable.
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and in an absolutely wierd coincidence, world watch today had a piece about people from said island of lesbos, taking a court case to try and stop a gay-rights group from using their island's name to refer to gay women. the link is http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/national/mdr/world_watch18, and it's at the end of the clip. apparently, if they're successful they plan to take on the rest of the world.
mr wishart must be proud of them. perhaps he can send off a percentage of the profits from his book to help cover thier legal costs!
(oh, and i'd prefer dudess to dude, if you didn't mind...)
**REPLY:** Sorry about that! For some reason, in my mind, 'dude' is non-gender specific. No offence intended, I assure you! -- DH
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have to agree with everyone else here. brilliant post, very funny.
were you also trying to win the award for the longest header?
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Could you even imagine that happening today?
i guess we just use the 'off' button these days. i didn't watch any of the coverage, so wasn't outraged by it. however that does still leave the question of whether or not it should have been aired at all. it's a bit like the problem with wishart's book - you have to consume the material before you can make a detailed complaint. most people are just not that interested.
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showing Maurice Williamson looking like he had in fact swallowed a dead rat
i'd say he was probably annoyed that he didn't get to make the announcement given it was his portfolio. at least a joint announcement at a press conference might have let mr williamson feel like he was a part of it all.
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meh. you guys are worrying about the rugby and i'm sitting here at work listening to the maddening sound of those *#%@ing cars driving round and round the race track. it is truly giving me a headache, and i'm a good 3 blocks away from the whole thing.
i am however going to watch my first ever live rugby match this evening (chiefs & crusaders), which might spark an interest in our national sport. or it might not.
re the report: is it really likely to change anything substantial? doesn't sound like it.
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actually, i had a boss who believed that you had to be very gentle and sweet with the technology in order to make it work. he'd stroke a computer, say sorry to it for harsh words said by the previous speaker, then gently murmur sweet nothings.
wouldn't you know it, the damn machines would always work correctly after this treatment.