by Wing Lee Cheong
In his 1996 National Day speech, Prime Minister Goh said, “People often want the government to assume the full burden of the cost of medical care and provide treatment free to Singaporeans. Because of the painful lessons learned in other countries we have not done this. All the countries which have done this—Britain, France, Germany, Canada, and Communist China—have failed. Their systems break down as people overuse so-called ‘free’ health care, which they actually pay for indirectly through higher taxes. Their health services deteriorate. Waste and inefficiency become endemic. Now these countries are forced to cut back on services, introduce cost controls, and reform the system.”
Cartoon by Wing Lee Cheong
Singapore leaders have repeatedly spun the notion that Singaporeans pay one of the lowest tax in the world. It is a myth for in reality Singaporeans pay much higher taxes than other developed countries like Canada.
Consider a person making $6,000 a month in Singapore and a person making a similar amount in Canada. Let us say the person in Singapore pays zero tax and the person in Canada pays his maximum without any deduction of 29.7% tax. Assuming both have a working life of 40 years and a life span of 85 years.
The person in Singapore pays nothing since we assumed his tax to be zero.
The person in Canada would have to pay based on annual salary of $72,000 at 29.7% = $21,384. Based on a working period of 40 years the Canadian would have to pay a total of $855,360. It should be less if deductions are taken into consideration but we give the advantage to Singapore to minimize arguments. The Canadian tax does seem high to Singaporeans. However when all the cleverly hidden taxes are taken in consideration, Singaporeans are paying more in taxes but not getting the social benefits enjoy by Canadians:
List of Singapore hidden taxes that Canadians do not pay:
- COE – $60,000 every ten years assuming that a Singaporean changes his car every 10 years. In 40 years he needs to buy 4 COE = $240 ,000.
- Cost of car like Honda Civic – $75,000 in Singapore vs $25,000 in Canada. 4 cars in forty years at the difference of $50,000 = $200,000
- Road tax – $1,300 per year for 40 years = $52,000
- Higher petrol price – $100 extra a month for 40 years = $48,000.
- ERP – $100 extra a month for 40 years = $48,000.
- Maid levy – $300 per month for 20 years (assuming a family only has the maid for 20 years instead of 40 years or more) = $72,000.
- General medical bills for 85 years at $1,000 a year = $85,000. (less than $100 a month)
- Cost of housing, the difference between a similar house in Singapore vs Canada is $300,000 to as high as $1 million and more. We shall take the lower end of the difference = $300,000.
- The water/gas/electricity bills are only one-third of Singapore’s making a savings of at least $102,000 based on a saving of $100 per month x 85 years.
The total savings for a Canadian is at least $1,147,000 or more depending on how many cars, maids and children he has. This amount is more than adequate to offset the Canadian tax of $855,360 at 29.7%.
In addition the following is a list of social benefits that Singaporeans do not enjoy:
- “Milk money” of $250 each child receive a month from the government from the day the child was born until age of 18 years – $250 x12 x 18 years = $54,000 for one kid. Two kids = $108,000.
- Old age pension plus assisted income for retirees without any income, a retiree gets $1,250 or more a month until death. Assuming the retiree lives for 20 years = $300,000. A couple could get a combined retirement income of $2,500 a month even though they may not have been working. The total receivable for 20 years would be $600,000.
- Retirees travel for free on all public transportation with limited black out time on weekends, i.e. trains, buses, ferries. Some of the ferry rides cost more than $100 per trip. Assuming a retiree saves $150 a month for transportation – 20 years of retirement = $150 x 12 x 20 = $36,000.
- Retirees can study in universities for a token fee of less than $100 per year.
- Unemployment insurance which a citizen can claim when he/she is out of a job. It is common for a person to be out of job for 6 months in his 40 years of working life – $36,000.
- Free treatment of severe illness like cancel, liver or kidney failures – $200,000 or more.
Depending on the choice of lifestyles and individual health conditions, the Canadian tax system has an advantage of between $500,000 to over $1 million when compared with the Singapore tax system even though Singapore official tax rate is very low.
To illustrate the difference, let me provide the following analogy:
Two shops selling char kuay teow :
The Sinkee shop selling a plate for $2.00
The Candee shop selling a plate for $10.00
At a glance, shop Sinkee is a bargain at only $2.00 a plate. However when you order a plate, you get only a plate of char kuay teow and nothing else. If you want “hum” it is an extra $2. If you want chilly, it is another $1. If you want chop sticks, it is another $1, etc. Soon your plate of $2 char kuay teow with all the extras will cost you $15 or more.
On the other hand, at Shop Candee, the $10 a plate has all the extras included in the price and taste much better. The service and environment is also much better than the cocky service of Shop Sinkee.
In Canada, the service providers will try their best to guide and give you as much as possible. In Singapore, it is the opposite, the service providers will try their best to give you as little as possible. It is typical “kaisu” Singapore culture.
The moral of the story is that we should not be fooled by statistics and world rankings. Singapore is ranked third place by IMF in their 2010 report with a per capita of $57,238 vs Canada at eleventh place with a per capita of $39,033. Do Singaporeans really feel richer than Canadians when most Singaporeans have constant anxiety over inadequate savings for retirement, medical bills, being homeless, etc.
Most Canadians enjoy their retirement with a peace of mind whereas most Singaporeans dread retirement with doubts whether their CPF is sufficient to see them through or even if they live long enough to touch any of the CPF money.
The writer is currently living in Vancouver. He has given up his Singapore citizenship and is now a happy Candian retiree.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/world/africa/31classwar.html?_r=1&hp
are we going the way of egypt, most likely…..
think of the unemployed and underemployed, the rich and the middle class, not counting the poor yet…
sure, we’re going that way…
YOU HAVE ALL MISSED THE POINT !!!
eaglefly
actually, you are the one who missed the point… since the ‘point’ is decided by the letter. If you want to start a ‘point’, write your own letter and ask T0C to publish.
p.s Mubarak is quite a clever s.o.b to have cultivated relationships with Israel and US, so now they are in a bind as to who to support.
For goodness sake iamWORLDBESTTraveller, eaglefly, tone down the rhetoric.
No one is saying that Singapore is the cheapest or best — like our government likes to do — but I think the opinions of the other posters here (esp. those with Canadian experience) are interesting.
I would rather trust cogently argued facts (that I can fact-check) rather than heated rhetoric. As many posters point out, they choose Canada not because it’s cheaper but because there’s a perceived higher quality of life. The article only compares monetary costs, which many think is an inaccurate way of doing things.
A side note:
And yes, all of us Singaporeans who do not automatically bash our gahment are PAPies who lurk on this site. (rolls eyeball).
Please give your fellow Singaporeans more credit than that lah.
I have many, many grouses with my government (Mas Selamat, minister pay, housing costs, income divide, etc.), am likely to vote opposition next election, but the criticism needs to be fact-based.
This is why TOC is often great. If you just want heated complaints on *everything*, please feel free to head over to TR.
n his 1996 National Day speech, Prime Minister Goh said, “People often want the government to assume the full burden of the cost of medical care and provide treatment free to Singaporeans. Because of the painful lessons learned in other countries we have not done this. All the countries which have done this—Britain, France, Germany, Canada, and Communist China—have failed. Their systems break down as people overuse so-called ‘free’ health care, which they actually pay for indirectly through higher taxes. Their health services deteriorate. Waste and inefficiency become endemic. Now these countries are forced to cut back on services, introduce cost controls, and reform the system.”
Err I don’t think these systems have failed with the exception of China. The healthcare systems in these countries rely on people’s needs for these services. Not on your ability to pay.
PaperD 31 January 2011
For goodness sake iamWORLDBESTTraveller, eaglefly, tone down the rhetoric.
…………….
toned down? why? you cannot handled the GODamnTRuth?
be a man..if you are stupid..let me point it out YOUR stupidlity…
why do you bothered to be so highly tutionised and endup bein an idiot somemore as a TRUEbred singapoorium…
than again a truebred singapoorium well 66% of them are just liked you..
good to look..inside ley..mpty coconut shell…
bytheway..when i was in londno..anybody says bad thing bout bein a singaporean..i would challenged them in QUEENS legal english…
the worst part was..
when you mentioned SINGAPORE..the 1st thinggie they know is leekingyou…
~sigh~
lobo76
U daft fool. I said COE was meant to control car population, but where in my post did I say it worked perfectly?
…………..
so basically you are implyin..
NO GUARANTEED card provided…
till today still sellin COEs…
so who is a daft fool
how can you include things like maid levy. in that case you also have to include a maid in your calculations for living in canada. now if you employ a maid there (mind you.. no such thing as foreign maids). you have to pay them minimum wage.
you simply can’t take road tax from SG, and not have similar road tax not counted in canada (in this case. similar would be fuel tax).
right?
It is all rubbish to say that Singaporeans pay less tax than Canadians.
Most of the taxes which Singaporeans are paying are hidden ones, e.g. COE, GST, huge office and shop rentals, petrol tax, and huge medical bills. The Canadians also have GST, but such non-luxury expenses like surgical operation to cure cancer are GST-exempted. In Singapore you pay GST for even a life-saving operation!
JhonTan
surgical operation to cure cancer are GST-exempted. In Singapore you pay GST for even a life-saving operation
…………….
in singapoor..the sicks(includin YOURS truly)the poors/the umployed pay 7% GST to cancerlee temasickfunds where its does nothin..not even to the xtend of usin the REAL owners cps fund$ to pay for medicine$ and poor pea$ant$ liked us 1/2 dead still paid a gang$ter protection fee$ ju$t to be treated?
when i was in london..got into a winter weather accident..pickup by ambulance..midnight emergency treatment
walkout with a pair of crutches..ZERO pound$ were even seek from me pocket with ^FREE^ (national insurance fund which was already deducted thru your weekly income taxes) follow up…
let alone VAT/GST bein seek…
OMFG WHAT DO I NEED AND HOW DO I MIGRATE TO CANADA?!!?!?
RED BEAN BUN:
Check out the Canada Immigration website
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/index.asp
And do the skills assessment test to see whether you can each score 67 points or more….note by taking a short converational course in French can earn them two more points.
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/skilled/assess/Education.asp
The writer is currently living in Vancouver. He has given up his Singapore citizenship and is now a happy Candian retiree.
Yeah right!
Probably not declaring his world income, and claiming for exemption from MSP etc…..
Happily ripping off the Canadian welfare system.
Without contributing anything to it.
Who wouldn’t be happy?
Good mind to tip off the CRA.
My goal in life is to be able to save enough money working in Singapore to be able to migrate to somewhere else before the age of 35.
Just some wrong numbers you’re giving:
“Milk money” of $250? You’re wrong – it’s just $100
unemployment for 6 months – $36,000 – that’s 6k/month – you’re far from truth – max is $1800
Wake up, you’re not living in heaven and don’t make Canada look like one. It is not.
Minorities are abused here, law system is shitty and criminal are walking free, immigrants are slaves, working extra hours without being paid and so on.
trying getting a maid in Canada ! If you could get a maid at 400 sing dollars per month then you’re probably dreaming !
Sorry. I stand corrected !
You should be ! Also if you want to stay in the land of the big freeze then you should be prepared to pay more in PUB : )