================================================= Expat Worlds Bi-Monthly Digest ================================================= 22 December, 2004 Vol. 6, Issue 21 .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== THE STORY =================== -=Taxing Matters=- ==== OTHER EZINES ================ ==== EW SPECIAL ================== -=The W.G.Hill 'PT" Collection on CD-ROM=- ==== HUMOR, TRIVIA, NEWS AND MORE... == -=Trivia=- -=News Story=- -=Traveller's Tales=- -=Jokes=- ==== THE RESOURCE TIP ============= -=Christmas ScreenSavers!=- ==== INSIDE THIS MONTH EXPAT WORLD == -=Table of Content=- ==== MESSAGE ================================== To all our readers Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Your Expat World Digest Team ==== THE STORY ================================== TAXING MATTERS THE FLAT TAX -- ITS TIME HAS COME NOW THAT THE SYSTEM HAS BEEN TESTED In the U.S., newly re-elected President George W. Bush has talked of simplifying the tax code, words taken by some as meaning a flat tax. And in countries such as the U.K. and Germany, there have been calls for flat taxes. More countries are looking seriously at a flat tax as they analyze the results of the countries of Eastern Europe that have already instituted a flat tax system and the impressive results. FLAT TAX LANDS Let's take a tour through the flat-tax-lands of Eastern Europe. Tiny Estonia, which has a flat rate of tax of 26 percent for individuals. And how have government tax receipts been holding up? According to the Bank of Estonia, government revenue for 2003 was 48 billion kroons ($4.06 billion). That compares with 42 billion kroons in 2002, and 36 billion kroons in 2001. As you can see revenue has risen steadily. Fly south to Slovakia you find that this country introduced a flat tax of 19 percent for individuals and companies. The system came into effect at the start of this year (2004). So how's it working out? Well, this month the government of Slovakia said tax revenue will probably exceed its forecasts for the year by 700 million koruna ($23.6 million). As a result of that, it said the budget deficit would be smaller than originally forecast. Again, the flat tax seems to be producing higher revenue than a progressive system. Now let'shead over to Russia. They introduced in 1991 the lowest flat tax rate in the European theater of 13 percent. Has it been beneficial to the state? Yes, Pretty well. After adjusting for inflation, personal income tax revenue increased 25.2 percent in 2001, 24.6 percent in 2002, 15.2 percent in 2003, and is predicted to total more than 16 percent in 2004, according to Andrei Grecu, who completed a study on flat taxes for the London-based Adam Smith Institute recently. Grecu drew attention to the Russian model in advocating a flat tax for the U.K. ``Four years after the implementation of the flat personal-income tax, total real receipts from the personal income tax have more than doubled,'' Grecu wrote. INCENTIVES FOR THE TAX DODGERS This constant expansion of the government tax revenue is the result of less tax evasion and increased incentives to work, save, and invest. Flat taxes work for simple reasons. They are straightforward, thus eliminating costly collection. Because they are low, they reduce the incentive for tax evasion and complex planning (why go to all that trouble to save yourself 20 percent?). And they stimulate economic growth, making everyone better off. DIFFERENT STROKES FOR DIFFERENT FOLKS In different countries, flat taxes would produce varied outcomes. Still, there is no escaping the evidence. Where they have been introduced, flat taxes are yielding impressive results. Alos relevant is the fact that in small, less-developed economies where the system of tax collection may be weak, low and simple taxes that people actually pay work better than high and complex taxes that they don't. In more-developed economies, with tougher tax collectors, that may not be true. In any event more and more countries are standing up and paying attention to streamlining their tax system. More and more are considering a flat tax system. In Germany, a panel of economic experts set up by the Finance Ministry this year put forward a plan for a flat tax. The panel was headed by Wolfgang Wiegard, who also heads Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's five-member council of economic advisers. In Spain, Miguel Sebastian, economic adviser to the ruling Socialist Party, has advocated a flat tax. In Italy, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has just secured an agreement to simplify the tax system. The number of tax brackets will be cut to four from five next year, then come down to two or three perhaps in 2006, he said. That's not a flat tax, yet it is a significant step away from a progressive tax system. Flat taxes in countries such as Italy and Germany may seem unrealistic right now. Yet don't rule it out in the next decade or so. After all, high, complex taxes haven't delivered spectacular results. Most of the major European economies suffer from weak growth and chronic budget deficits. No where else needs a flat tax system to overcome the unbelievable complexity, understandability and bureaucratic inefficiencies of the tax system then the United States of America. Even the IRS doesn't understand it! And of course if the US did go the way of the flat tax they would put a serious number of tax lawyers out on the street again as ambulance chasers. The flat tax would also corral all the basically honest small businessmen who are tired of being accountants and let them get on with running successful small business instead of wasting time in finding out and implementing all the legal means necessary to avoid all the taxes possible. The results coming through from flat-tax-lands in the next few years will keep the flat-tax debate very much alive. When ideas clearly work, they are copied -- even by politicians. ==== OTHER EZINES =============================== ASIAN TIMES ONLINE Asia most trusted source for news, business,commentary and analysis from throughout Asia and our world. (www.atimes.com). ----- Subscribe now to the "Timely Time Management Tips" newsletter. Free tips sent to you to help you get more done in less time, with less stress. Send your email now to: mailto:timemanagement-subscribe@topica.com ----- japan-guide.com Extensive, up to date online guide on Japan living and travel related information. http://www.japan-guide.com/ ==== EW SPECIAL ================================= THE W.G.Hill 'PT" COLLECTION ON CD-ROM Expat World has a five book set, all on a single CD, written by W.G. Hill of "PT" fame. This "Hill CD" will tell you things even your lawyer won't tell you even if he knew! The 5 books on the CD are: * PT (Perpetual Traveler, Past Tax-payer, Prepared Thoroughly, etc.) * The Passport Report * PTO - Portable Trades and Occupations * The Invisible Investor * How to Become an Honorary Consul General For details and book excerpts go to or website at or directly to the info page at ==== HUMOR, TRIVIA, NEWS AND MORE... ================ NEWS STORIES Santa to get crack fighter escort SANTA Claus is coming to town ... and in these uncertain times, he's being offered a jet fighter escort. Canadian pilots seconded to the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) who normally spend their nights scouring the skies for intruders, will scramble on Christmas Eve for a special mission. "Santa has communicated to NORAD that he intends to begin his journey at 3am, December 24," the Canadian armed forces said in a tongue-in-cheek statement. Two CF-18 Hornet interceptor fighters based in Quebec were on standby to meet the festive visitor when he crossed into Canadian airspace over eastern Newfoundland and Labrador, the statement said. Another pair of warplanes based in Alberta would see Santa off as he crossed Canada's west coast, presumably en route to Asia, the statement said. NORAD plans to use special 'SantaCams' to track the gift-laden sleigh pulled by Rudolf and his reindeer cronies across the night sky. "At Santa's request, millions of curious children will be able to closely follow his progress and view near real-time updates through special digital photographs and technical information compiled by NORAD," the release said. Pictures and Santa's progress will be posted on a radar map on a website (www.noradsanta.org) available in French, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese and English. NORAD, jointly operated by the United States and Canada, has been tracking Santa for 50 years, ever since a newspaper in Colorado mistakenly printed a number for a "Santa Hotline". The number turned out to be the operations hotline for NORAD headquarters in the state where tense radar operators were hunched over their radar screens on a cold night at the beginning of the Cold War. "Needless to say, the military personnel on duty were very surprised to hear small children's voices on the operations hotline asking to speak to Santa," the release said. The senior officer told childrens he could see Santa heading south from the North Pole, starting a tradition that has now endured for half a century. --- Santa Claus is real, says Germans JAWOHL Viktoria, there is a Santa Claus. That's what a couple of German state parliaments have said after being asked to consider a motion that the American-style is "nothing more than a fraud without any historical significance." Peter Hahne, the curmudgeon who asked the state parliaments to ban the American-style Christmas icon - a "Coca-Cola product" - in favor of the old Saint Nicholas of German legend is clearly in the second of the three ages of man, in which: He believes in Santa Claus. He doesn't believe in Santa Claus. He is Santa Claus. The parliament in the state of Hesse said it was impossible to debate the subject in "an objective manner" and that it would be impossible to banish the old gentleman in a realistic fashion. "I'd have to hide from my four-and-a-half year-old daughter if she found out that I had voted for the abolition of Father Christmas," said deputy Peter Beuth. The deputies of the city state of Berlin said they "refused to participate in the exclusion of Father Christmas from public life, or to interrupt him in the exercise of his mission." By the way, the American-style father Christmas was invented by a German, the Landau-born Thomas Nast, who was also responsible for the elephant and donkey symbols of the US political parties. --- Ten Things Not to Buy for Christmas GENEVA (Reuters) - Christmas gift buyers should avoid coral jewelry, crocodile skin and Beluga caviar if they want to enjoy a guilt-free holiday season, the nature protection group WWF said Tuesday. The Swiss-based body, the World Wide Fund for Nature, included the three on a list of 10 items whose commercial exploitation was endangering animal and plant species already threatened with extinction. Well-wishers imbued with the Santa Claus spirit should also avoid buying tiger products or tigers for pets, it said. "All international trade of tiger products, whether used in traditional Asian medicine, as souvenirs or for good luck charms, is illegal," the WWF declared in a statement. Ivory in any form should also be avoided, it admonished, because the ivory trade was threatening the survival of elephants whose tusks are its primary source. Caspian Sea sturgeon, the source of Beluga caviar, face extinction due to illegal plunder and should only be bought in jars certified by CITES, the United Nation's agency fighting trade in endangered species, the WWF warned. High fashion shahtoosh scarves woven from the hair of Tibetan antelopes should be avoided altogether. "To obtain the wool, the antelope has to be killed," the WWF said. Many cactus species are banned from international trade. "There is a flourishing illegal trade which is wiping out native populations, particularly from Mexico," WWF warned. Finally, the WWF advised shoppers to avoid buying appliances like televisions and stereos that consume large amounts of electricity while on standby, arguing that the drain on energy they present was another threat to the environment. ----- TRAVELLER'S TALES FLAT FEES: Mooncake makers in China are slipping free gifts into their sweet boxed pies, including pearls, bottles of whisky and even apartments. These enhanced packages of lotus-paste-and-egg tarts, known as "mooncake sets," cost up to $40,000--far more than the few dollars a pie usually costs. What's the point? Under Chinese law, officials are not allowed to accept cash bribes of any sort, but can accept mooncakes, the BBC reported. It's amazing how appetizing the ghastly stodgy pies become once you find them wrapped in the deeds to a 100-square-metre flat. ----- Oxymoron: Historical Current Event ----- Christmas is a time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell the government what they want and their kids pay for it. -- Richard Lamm ----- There has been only one Christmas - the rest are anniversaries. -- W.J. Cameron ----- Santa vs. system admins The similarities between Santa and System Admins 1. Santa is bearded, corpulent, and dresses funny. 2. When you ask Santa for something, the odds of receiving what you wanted are infinitesimal. 3. Santa seldom answers your mail. 4. When you ask Santa where he gets all the stuff he's got, he says, "Elves make it for me." 5. Santa doesn't care about your deadlines. 6. Your parents ascribed supernatural powers to Santa, but did all the work themselves. 7. Nobody knows who Santa has to answer to for his actions. 8. Santa laughs entirely too much. 9. Santa thinks nothing of breaking into your $HOME. 10. Only a lunatic says bad things about Santa in his presence. ----- Signs You Bought a Lousy Tree 8. Two feet tall, forty feet wide 7. Salesman's opening line: "You're not a cop, are you?" 6. It looks suspiciously like a broom handle with a lot of coat hangers 5. While you sleep, it gets liquored up and takes the family caravan for a joy ride. 4. Each branch has "Duraflame" printed on it. 3. It's very small and says "air freshener" on it. 2. Rabbis have better Christmas trees than yours. 1. Constantly bragging about its "trunk size" ==== THE RESOURCE TIP ============================ Christmas ScreenSavers! Seasonal Screen Savers to brighten up your desktop! Hundreds of free Christmas related screensavers listed with descriptions, ratings and thumbnail previews. Get it at . ==== INSIDE THIS MONTH EXPAT WORLD =============== EXPAT WORLD NEWSLETTER (VOL.16 ISSUE 10) Table of Content: - BIG BROTHER & PRIVACY IN A COMPUTER-LINKED WORLD - BIG BROTHER VS THE COMMON PEOPLE - COVERING YOUR TRACKS ON THE INTERNET - BITS & PIECES - GETTING UNHITCHED - FINANCING YOUR FOREIGN PROPERTY INVESTMENT - EXPAT WORLD'S "BUSINESS WORLD" - HOW CHINA IS PUTTING THE US OUT OF BUSINESS - THE CHINA PRICE - CHINA TAKING OVER THE WORLD ECONOMICALLY - EXPAT WORLD'S WORLD OF TRAVEL - INTERNATIONAL SNIPS AND CLIPS - TAXING MATTERS - THE FLAT TAX -- ITS TIME HAS COME NOW THAT THE SYSTEM HAS BEEN TESTED - FLAT TAX LANDS - INCENTIVES FOR THE TAX DODGERS - DIFFERENT STROKES FOR DIFFERENT FOLKS - FREE, FREE, FREE - THE FREEWORLD OF EXPAT WORLD - CRAPPER RAPPER - FARTS - THE LONG AND LOUD HISTORY OF FLATULENCE YOU MISSING SO MUCH Each week the EXPAT WORLD DIGEST gives you just a smattering of what you can find in the EXPAT WORLD newsletter that we produce once a month. Why not get the whole story and subscribe now to our electronic version for just US $30 per year. Go to our website: www.expatworld.net to sign up. ********************************************************************* EXPAT WORLD - the newsletter of international living URL - http://www.expatworld.net Email - office@expatworld.net ---------- End of Expat World Digest --------------------------------