User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: The Rising Cost of Food

最近我收到两个文章介绍食品价格上涨，因为作者是练习生专家，所以内容是也说胡说八道的对吧？ 哈哈。 

Posted on: A Rarely Washed Car

Baba

‘partial transliteration'

Given the standard of many transliterations I would be prepared to give both 胎 and 呔 a pass mark and call them transliterations of the English 'tyre'. :)

Incidentally I see that on mdbg 呔 is also shown as a transliteration of tie (necktie). Who would have thought anyone wore ties in HK? Must be all that air conditioning.

Posted on: A Rarely Washed Car

Baba

I think that you are quite warm - the word 呔 is also used for tyre (seems likely to be a transliteration), and that is listed in my dictionary as 粤语; it seems to me that a lot of English words came into Chinese via 粤语 because that is where the cultures rubbed against each other.

Posted on: Taxable Salary

'这不是什么大问题。一般来说，去税务局开发票要交的发票税由你来承担的话，房东都会同意的。'

This part of the 对话 suggests to me that the employee goes to the 税务局.

Posted on: Taxable Salary

Hi Connie

Then my understanding is wrong. You are agreeing that the company takes a false receipt to the tax office and obtains a 发票? (I thought that it was the taxpayer that does that.) In that case how does the taxpayer pay the tax on the 发票? Does he reimburse the company?

If it is the company that goes to the tax office with the false receipt signed by the landlord, I don't see this is in the dialogue.

Posted on: Taxable Salary

It may be closer to the Australian system than you have described. I was confused too (see above) and I work in the system here. My employer doesn't do this dodgy deal for me. :) My taxable income is reduced by an amount described as a rent allowance (rent allowances aren't taxable). That is legal. But I don't have to produce receipts, to the tax office or to the employer - another reason I was confused by the dialogue. I get the allowance regardless. In my case I receive considerably more cash than my actual rent, and this also reduces my tax liability. I don't know whether this practice of paying an allowance regardless of how it is applied, for the purposes of reducing your tax, is legal in China.

I believe, however, that something fraudulent is at the heart of the dialogue. There is a big reduction in tax paid by virtue of a fraudulent 'receipt'. The receipt indicates rent of 6000 a month (who really pays that anyway?) The guy only pays 2500 a month rent - presumably that is his allowance paid by the employer (I don't think we're told). The false receipt is used to reduce his taxable income, hence reduce his tax liability. I think that in fact the taxpayer has to obtain the fraudulent 'receipt' - it is issued by the tax authority. So the taxpayer takes a false receipt signed by the landlord to the tax office, and receives an official receipt for the same amount from the tax office. This false receipt is then used by the employer to reduce his tax liability. That's what I get from the dialogue. As I say, I don't do that.

Posted on: Lots of Musical Instruments

I've only just learnt about 同学们 (embarrassed - I need one of Tal's red-faced emoticons.) I've been teaching here more than a year and it didn't occur to me that you could address a student this way (the English got in the way). It is so cool - if you forget a student's given name you can just say X同学 - eg. 王同学，张同学，刘同学 ...

I love ChinesePod - always learn something.

Posted on: Taxable Salary

I think we are just quibbling about the English here; Jason uses the word reimbursement but what is going on here goes beyond reimbursement (as usually understood in the West.) He does get reimbursed for his rent, but the 发票 is made out for an amount in excess of this, to reduce his taxable income.

Actually the longer you're in China the more variations you hear. Chinese employers do like to think in cash - I went with someone to collect their pay recently and noted that the tax was calculated but paid out to the employee by the employer - is that clear? Like a taxable amount of 8000 may incur tax of say 1000 (I've forgotten the scales) - the employer should deduct 1000, give the employee 7000 and send the 1000 to 税务局. In this case they paid the employee 8000 and (presumably) sent 1000 to 税务局. I say presumably because I saw the company's books with the tax calculated and recorded against the employee's name.

Posted on: The Rising Cost of Food

There is one significant long-term factor accounting for food prices in China; that is the policy for almost 60 years of regulating prices to benefit the city dweller (read: industry.) For nearly 60 years the Government has taken this approach, with the result (intended or not) of impoverishing the farmers. It is only since about 2006 (say 4 or 5 years ago) that attitudes have changed and these regulations have gradually been eased. City people have been voicing their displeasure at having their cosy subsidy removed since that time.

In the past 12 months another factor has been drought (the worst on record in my province) - this raised farming costs substantially and there has been a general increase in fresh food prices as a result.. We have noticed a subsequent fall in prices over the past few months as conditions have improved.

It is interesting to see the impact of Government policy at the restaurant table - not only have the farmers subsidised the city with regulated prices, restaurants are largely staffed by people with little influence in labour markets, often the so called floating-population. Government policy in this area effectively subsidises the city as well. So restaurant prices are lower than they should be for reasons of structural subsidies.

For what it is worth - in Hangzhou four years ago I used to eat a large bowl of noodles with meat at a restaurant for 5 rmb. This is still the standard price I pay here, four years later. This is partially explained by pressure from consumers, resisting price rises. The food/restaurant sector absorbs some of the cost increases and is further impoverished as a result.

Although comparisons are difficult (difficult to compare like with like), fresh food prices in China are roughly 1/10 of Western prices. The Chinese consumer has the benefit of very low wages paid to people in the farming and restaurant sectors.

One final note - this is one area of Chinese industry that has benefited from technology transfer from Australia. A long-term study led to reforms in the the industry from growing through picking, packaging and transport with some significant gains for the Chinese consumer.

Posted on: The Rising Cost of Food

Wow - so many points in one paragraph - I'm completely lost. But, working backwards, your last point (rhetorical question?) 'Guess who owns China right now?' - I guess you meant to say 'Guess who owns the US right now?' Otherwise the previous sentence doesn't make sense.