Should healthy food be GST-free?

[Pseudonym]

The Maori Party is putting a bill into Parliament next week. They want to remove GST from healthy foods. They define "healthy foods" as including fruit and vegetables, bread and cereals, milk (but not cream) products, lean meats, and legumes.

What do you reckon? Should healthy food be GST-free?

[Dubble_D]

It would help me as a student obviously and all those of use trying to save money. It may also promote healthy choices!

However, it wont curve the trend of both childhood and adult obesity.

[weener lad]

It should be GST free BUT it's a nightmare for a government to administer so it's never going to happen. I hope I'm wrong though :nod:

[knock knock]

It's good in theory but not so practical, especially when it comes to doing the bookwork for business. GST is currently a simple tax, this could open a can of worms and make it a nightmare. Cheaper food is always good though!

[BarBrother]

If the intention is too promote healthier food over bad food then i think it will work in theory but not practice. Already if you look, fresh fruit, veges, meat can be found cheaper than other crappier options, in the end its moire about convenioence rather than price, someone would much rather buy fast food then cook steak brocoli and rice

[nate225]

Surely the debate between Elite & others highlighted that one person's 'healthy food' is another person's 'junk'. Who gets to make the call? Some poor recovering anorexic is going to be disadvantaged when buying burgers to maintain a healthy weight! Silly example but you get the point! :nod: And the high fat diet camp will go bankrupt!

I like the oncept & apparently a study done supports this as effective (only heard on TV!) but sounds like a nightmare to administer.

[Dubble_D]

Administration wise, to make it easier. Why not keep GST on such items but allow the government to subsidize a wide range of healthy options instead? kind of like paying back the GST received by the goods.

Again, trying to get the government to achieve such things is wishful thinking.

[Pseudonym]

Quite apart from the administration nightmare, I just don't think it would work.

There's a massive profit margin on junk food (the markup on Coke for instance is obscene). At the first sign of people choosing healthy options over the junk, the junk food companies would simply drop their prices. And given their profit margins, I'm sure 12.5% (or 15%, as it soon will be) is a cut they could make quite comfortably.

We're told that Australia and Britain already have no GST equivalent on certain healthy foods. Well, it doesn't seem to have done much for them. Look at the OECD Health Data 2008. There's not a lot separating them and us - we've got 26.5% obesity, and they've got 24.8% and 24% respectively. If we want to pick a country to emulate, perhaps Japan would be a better option - just 3.4% of their population are obese.

[teamfatboy]

:ditto: What they said :grin:

Although modern sales systems might make it easier to adjust the rate of GST, I could see issues with it, like:

a. the frozen foods industry would howl blue-murder if only fresh vegetables/fruits/ meats were cheaper;

b. other lobby groups would find huge scientific studies to back the fact that their products are "healthy" - "Supersize Me", anyone ?; and

c. other cultural/ social groups would object if their staples were excluded from the cheap rate.

Australia's a case in point - when it was introduced, there were stories along the lines that a whole chook was cheaper than chicken bits, or whatever. If we were to do it, you could expect some similar glitches. You could call them "teething troubles" and expect it to settle down after a while, but politicians tend to run for the safe option of doing less.

As for subsidies, again, it gets hard to administer, because of the issues about what qualifies...

[Mr_Krabs]

Its a nice idea and would be cool if it got through in some form, my biggest question though is who decides whats healthy and whats not Im sure theres a lot of foods on the cusp of such a line who makes the call and makes it fair to producers etc?

[agent86]

It won't make any difference because people buy junk food because they like it not because of expense. It is cheaper to buy a cooked chicken and some rice or potatoes than to buy Mc Donalds or KFC for the family but they prefer the taste of takeaways and the convenience.

If vegetables wer 15 percent cheaper would fatties buy it? Of course not they want the enjoyment of crap food.

[rimma]

McDonald's are going to be saying, look, our Weight Watcher's healthy options should be GST free! :roll:

It would be an absolute nightmare trying to distinguish between what is healthy and what is not.

About the only thing that might be feasible (and worth doing) is

a: Regulating supermarket markup on fresh fruit and veges.

b: Removing GST on fresh fruit and veges ONLY.

No frozen, no canned, no mixtures. Just straight up fresh, vegetable produce. Should be a lot simpler and make some difference at least.

2c

[morattigirl]

McDonald's are going to be saying, look, our Weight Watcher's healthy options should be GST free! :roll:

It would be an absolute nightmare trying to distinguish between what is healthy and what is not.

About the only thing that might be feasible (and worth doing) is

a: Regulating supermarket markup on fresh fruit and veges.

b: Removing GST on fresh fruit and veges ONLY.

No frozen, no canned, no mixtures. Just straight up fresh, vegetable produce. Should be a lot simpler and make some difference at least.

2c

What he said :nod:

[marteen68]

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[Gym rat]

I also think it is a good idea for all healthy food to be GST -free and it would be a good to save extra money food when buying food from the supermarket and when going out for a meal as well.I hope it dose happen but we will have to wait and see and hopefully the goverment gives it the go ahead :pray:

[honor8]

The Maori Party is putting a bill into Parliament next week. They want to remove GST from healthy foods. They define "healthy foods" as including fruit and vegetables, bread and cereals, milk (but not cream) products, lean meats, and legumes.

What do you reckon? Should healthy food be GST-free?

In the real world this bill is ridiculous. If it ever was passed it would pose to many taxation difficulties for traders. For example if we were to look at gst claims on store rental or building lease; we would have to consider the percentage of which a supermarket or diary stores healthy food compared to non healthy food, and a formula would have to be use to claim back gst on rent etc. It would just becoming an accountancy nightmare.

Personally, I think that this bill uncovers the Maori party's lack of big picture thinking.

[honor8]

No!

In the real world this bill is ridiculous. If it ever was passed it would pose to many taxation difficulties for traders. For example if we were to look at gst claims on store rental or building lease; we would have to consider the percentage of which a supermarket or diary stores healthy food compared to non healthy food, and a formula would have to be use to claim back gst on rent etc. It would just becoming an accountancy nightmare.

Personally, I think that this bill uncovers the Maori party's lack of big picture thinking.

[genetic freek]

pfft maori party plolicy, now thats a joke.

people need to decide to eat healthy because they want to, not because it is cheaper, mmm $3 loaf of bread less gst =$2.55, f*ck me 45c now thats a bargin!

And then with the loss of revenue we can just borrow some more money, put it on the bill Phil

[Luigi]

why is this coming from the maori party ? if they wanted to save maoris money shouldnt they stop gst on pokies, kfc, smokes and alcahol ?

[genetic freek]

post of the month!