A cheaper Porsche makes for a happier taxman – The Porsche 911 Index
The Porsche 911 index – The Cheaper your Porsche, the happier your Taxman
Assume all you ever wanted us to own a entry level Porsche 911. Assume you will be paying personal income tax in whichever city you are in. Assume you dont need to rent or buy an apartment and am content to live in a tent. Where should I relocate to buy my Porsche?
To have a fairer reflection of the market, I used the 3 year old 2010 Porsche 997 C2 as a model to adjust for the general high depreciation in the first years of ownership.
Here we go – from cheapest to most costly (in SGD terms). This just includes for simplicity the price of the car and does not consider petro, road tax and insurance.
Porsche 911 Index
US S$86,000
UK S$95,000
Germany $S$115,000
HK S$160,000
Malaysia $204,000
Australia S$211,00
Japan S$220,000
Singapore S$320,000 (rebates of up to SGD100,000 at end of year 10)
You will be able to get the cheapest Porsche ride in the US. Buying one is Singapore will set you back by 3.72 times more.
Assume you earn $500,000 p.a. Hong Kong’s tax regime is the lowest at an effective 15% and benefits the higher income. This is slightly slower that Singapore’s 15.7% whose progressive structure kicks in at a higher tier. Malaysia has a 26% rate from MYR100,000 onwards. A big leap next to the “Developed” countries in the 40-50% bracket (US 39% after USD400,000, Japan 50% after SS233,766, Australia 45% at AUD 180,000. UK 50% at GBP150,000 and finally Germany 45% at EUR250,000.
The choice is pretty clear. Either HK or I’d stay put in Singapore and pay the premium for the car versus the alternatives, funded by IRAS tax savings of about S$150,000 per annum versus the competition (or lack of). At least, the taxes paid is not lost into the system but and is put in “forced savings” in the ARF rebates. That’s just for the first year of purchase. From the second year on, I get to enjoy low personal income taxes thereafter.
This works perfect. Now where can I find a good tent?