Monday, September 03, 2007

"Personal Income Tax" is Coming to Kuwait

There it is, in black and white! Everything everyone's dreaded since the demise of the late Emir, Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah (May he rest in Peace). Income tax, as reported by His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed, is coming to Kuwait, for the first time since the establishment of the State of Kuwait back in the early '60's.

No surprise, really. I've always argued that Taxation is the best thing for a consumer-oriented society like Kuwait. When we travel overseas and find how nice and neat the parks and roads are, and how efficiently the housing development projects turn out to be, or how efficient the utilities are to the consumers, it comes as a shock to see similar levels of service being offered in Kuwait for free. Made me wonder "until when will we live in a tax-free environment AND enjoy free water & electricity?" I guess I just found my answer.

Let's hope the new taxation laws take into account the rising cost of consumables, the average increase of GDP income, the utilities shortages, and the lack of proper roadworks in town!

5 comments:

shosho said...

But the remaining problem is that Kuwaitis don't trust the governement anymore, how can they make sure that the tax they are paying will go to construction and services and not into someone's pockets?

Plus we have terrible inflation rates and people can barely make ends meet with their income as it is, and I don't think that they can afford paying taxes on top of that.

don_veto said...

Who will they tax? 95% of the workers are goverment employees, just reduce their salaries if you want to increase the treasury. No need to set up a tax authority, IRS, collection, etc.

Anonymous said...

I agree, Tax should be payed and Kuwait must learn to show some reponsibility. I know Kuwait is not perfect, flows here and there but I am always thanksful when i look at other nations, el7amdilla..

Anonymous said...

I do not endorse taxasion myself le anna marrat it's too much! but I do believe it's an efficient means to make people more aware of their spending and at the same time – instead of using idiotic traffic laws o freggin speed cameras to rip money outta us – taxes will be a very safe & understandable option by many of us – help enhance the defaux and in a way *crossing fingers* make people happier!

Anonymous said...

BULLSHIT! im against taxtion,

i totally agree with shosho.