It must be wonderfull experiencing life in a socialist country,that is returning to the old days of ***FINDLANDIZATION***!

I love the reverse psychology those scumbag politicians pull. We should be talking about LOWERING VAT, yet we wind up defending the 22% status quo, and sucking their dicks when they go only 23% instead of 25%.

Fortunately Finland will NEVER have the balls to go above 25%. (unless Sweden or Denmark does it first) They’d never be a leader in anything like that.

Now what they SHOULD be doing is CUT FUCKING $PENDING!!!!

I wonder if meals prices in the restaurants will go down…

In France since some months ago they benefit from the lowest rate of tax – in France’s case 5.5 per cent instead of normal 19.6 per cent.And finally restaurant owners didn’t change the prices of the meals.

Here in ameriKKKa,our economy is in a crisis..
***BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA***.a Neo-MARXIST,socialist,statist,lying bastard,has many avowed socialists,communist,and corrupt criminals,that he has brought in that are destroying the foundations on which this country was founded….
The country’s deficit spending is totally out of control.
All the states are cutting services and every tax is being raised by levels never before seen.
We all know what is coming on the economic horizon.***BHO***
promised us little people he would not raise taxes at all…
***HE LIED*** we will see further massive tax increases
as our ameriKKKa makes a fast transformation into a socialist,repressive government…
Shame on all the fools who voted for ***BARACK THE MARXIST SNAKE***!

One problem with tax is that business have been letting taxes eat into their profits to keep prices from rising too high. So when taxes go down, the businesses keep some – so that they can pay it to the Government as either income tax, dividend tax or whatever. So don’t worry about restaurants dropping prices, the Government plans to get their(your) money anyway.

As for news of raising VAT, this has caused huge problems for me because we are trying to buy a business in Finland. I am not sure who the Government is screwing more, the business owners or the potential buyers.

My wife (who found the business for sale) is not telling me to forget it because the Government will try to get VAT up to 25% and there is no way that people selling their businesses are going to adjust their asking prices based on this scenario.

These high VAT rates remind me of the night club scene in the mafia movie ‘Goodfellas’. Don’t make a profit? F.U. Pay me. These rates are obscene. And for some reason, if a company wanted to make a 25% profit, that’s evil. But it’s OK for the Government to take 22% off the top. And that is with money that the person earning it just paid tax on.

Time for recurrent ***MARTIANS GO HOME!*** entertainment break!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-YVbiYLdFU&feature=related

Is it a ***GREEN PLANET*** or a ***RED PLANET***!?
VOL. 2 ***MARTIANS GO HOME***
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NBsZtt_5OU

Part 3 ***MARTIANS GO HOME!***
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCvBMUCS3W4&feature=related

Oh yeah, cutting spending, what they’re taking 13 billion more debt this year.

I’ve simply never seen any rationale to taxing food or housing. We’re talking about essential needs. As far as I’m concerned, anyone who touches these fully deserves to be called an usurious jerk.

I am just going to leave this message about immigration here. The other post had too many notes:

Alot of Somali refugees are moving to the USA. I am posting this video I found on youtube that shows a gang of Somali refugees humiliating a gay man who is white:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfW9inRkTpU

Alot of refugees and immigrants from the Middle East, India and Pakistan are deeply prejudiced against people who are not their background. Many Muslim, Middle Eastern, or Indian refugees are deeply racist against other minority groups. Refugees cry about white people discriminating against them. Yet when hispanics, or non-middle eastern minorities step into refugee owned stores, there is alot of drama and humiliation.

Careful with your percentages. It’s not a “1% hike” but a “1 percentage point” hike.

A 1% hike would (I think) make increase it from 22% to 23.22%.

And what was the value added tax again for a visit to the opera…?

This is such horseshit. Remember when they dropped alcohol taxes? Did bar prices drop? NO. If they drop the food VAT, will food prices drop? NO. These dumbasses in eduskunta can just eat me.

This seems like some sort of reward system to the supermarket conglomerate — congratulating them for keeping prices so ridiculously high.

We will never see prices go down, at least due to this move.

Just so you know Phil, 25% is upper limit mandated by EU. You can’t go higher.

Well, once they hit 25% they can go back to raising your income taxes!

One more thing, since the Government controls alcohol sales through ALCO, the tax on those goods is much higher given that in addition to the VAT and Alcohol tax, ALCO marks up the price of goods sold their to make a profit. That profit goes to the Government no differently than tax. And since there is limited competition for those willing to travel outside Finland for their alcohol shopping, they price these goods like only a monopoly can.

@14 I can’t get too worked up about alcohol taxes, when you consider the external costs borne by society. If only they had the same policy for the jazz tobacco.

“Now what they SHOULD be doing is CUT FUCKING $PENDIN”

No, that’s literally the exact opposite of what you do in a recession, and one of the few things most economists agree on.

Well, if not cut spending, change what it is being spent on.

Most of the spending is going down a rat’s hole. How about spending on something that will give back over the years.

That is the US problem at the moment. The Democrats are going to spend as much this one year as Bush spend in the last four. That is no small feat given that Bush was fighting two wars at the time. What are we getting for all this money? Nada other than payoffs. Cash for clunkers is a perfect example of that. How many perfectly good cars were destroyed with that idiotic program.

geee guys, just look at what Tax you paid, subtract it from what you made, and write a check for the difference to the State. (Or me)

after all you DO live in a NANNY STATE

free healthcare, free dental….. gee its all free and nobody pays

now quit complaining and send in more tax money.

you know this country never ceases to amaze me… then you wonder why it is the laughing stock of the world and just about everyone is unhappy.

In its infinite wisdom we now have this

http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2009/08/experts_hope_sugar_tax_will_curb_cravings_for_sweets_958006.html

A higher tax on sweets and candies. WTF, so now my 1.5l coke is going to cost me an extra 20 cents or so… like that is going to curb consumption at all

If they’re gonna tax sugar, let’em tax unhealthy fats too. Wot the heck. If it’s a drug that targets cravings, from the time of hunring & gathering, tax it as a drug. Works for me. Just don’t tax my mämmi.

They cannot tax sugar, it’s against EU regulations. So they settled to tax all candy and soda, sugarfree and xylitol varietes included.
The taxes are sold as “sin taxes”, but in reality they are just a convenient way to collect money from the consumers to the government. No saving grace included.

“WTF, so now my 1.5l coke is going to cost me an extra 20 cents or so… like that is going to curb consumption at all”
– Right, especially since the damn soda costs over 2 Euros to begin with. (or 5 Euros at the airport!)

They will just be bringing more coke from Estonia just like they are doing with beer. All this movement of alcohol across all of Europe is doing wonders for the environment…..

“Cash for clunkers is a perfect example of that. How many perfectly good cars were destroyed with that idiotic program.”

Actually, it was part of the energy initiative to downsize huge gas guzzlers for more energy efficient vehicles. It’s also helped to give the auto industry a little shot in the arm.

“downsize huge gas guzzlers for more energy efficient vehicles”

Too bad that building the new cars will create more damage to the environment than simply driving the old ones till the end.

It was a foolish program that America’s poor will pay for with inflation. Consumer prices go up, but incomes always go up more slowly.

Wally-Mart employees still make only $9/hr. America’s new war-president just screwed ‘em with new inflation.

“Actually, it was part of the energy initiative to downsize huge gas guzzlers for more energy efficient vehicles. It’s also helped to give the auto industry a little shot in the arm.”
– How much gas is saved when people drive these cars more because it is cheaper per mile. Many of these gas guzzlers were not driven so much to begin with. Not only that, but the worst offenders, the trucks, the buyers only needed to buy a car with 1 mile per gallon better efficiency. Not for anything but congress has stopped using the ‘this was for the environment’ explanation for this and switched to ‘aiding the auto industry’ excuse. As Nancy Pelosi proclaimed: ‘This incentives has saved jobs, jobs, jobs!!!!!!!’
– Watch the demand for cars tank in the coming months.

#26: It’s also helped to give the auto industry a little shot in the arm.

Yes, it did and not so little. I’m just not convinced that it is a great idea to allocate common funds into medicating a dinosaurus after the asteroid has hit the earth.

@cash for clunkers: yes and they set the bar way WAY too low (for mileage improvement), that’s probably why the money got used up in a snap

“Yes, it did and not so little”
“Many of these gas guzzlers were not driven so much to begin with.”

I live in Detroit, the unemployment rate is close to 20%, the homes in my neighborhood are now valued at about $25,000 from about $90,000. I am fairly certain that if it were going on in your backyard you’d feel a lot differently. As for gas guzzlers not being driven so much, ummm…the only cities that I know of where there are viable public transit systems are NY or maybe Chicago. Cities like Detroit involve long drive times to get just about anywhere, my commute to work is 40 minutes one way. That’s typical.

I’m not saying that the auto industry hasn’t screwed itself and the consumer with years of bad decisions but at this point given all of the abandoned homes in my neighborhood and people out of work for a year of longer I’ll take any crumbs thrown to us.