The Standard » tax

English on the economic turmoil

Anthony R0bins — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 21:20:23 +0000

As most of the headlines this morning focus on the crumbling world economy, it was interesting to hear Bill English on RNZ. Among various inane comments there was one interesting gem, when English called for higher taxes...

Tax Working Groupthink

John A — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:25:36 +0000

The Tax Working Group’s summary presentation at their December seminar came from a senior partner from one of the Big 4 accountancy firms, Price Waterhouse. One scenario for the preferred ultimate outcome aligned income, trustee and company tax at 27%, paid for by increasing GST to 15%. At the top: Big change The graph tops ...

“An indecent assault on numeracy”

all_your_base — Thu, 14 May 2009 03:05:19 +0000

Over at Public Address Keith Ng has a great post up on Labour and National’s tax regimes. Pretty graphs, accessible analysis and a DPF slap-down – what more could you ask for?

Who’s zooming who?

the sprout — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 22:32:53 +0000

The Herald reports: Last week John Key used poor United States sales of the new BMW 7-series – 10 were sold in February, compared with more than 1500 in the same 2008 month – as an example of how much other countries were hurting in the economic crisis. But New Zealand… sales of the top-of-the-line ...

Running the lines

all_your_base — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 21:01:15 +0000

No surprise to see The Herald editorial still running National’s lines. Now that Key’s equivocating on National’s planned tax cuts Granny’s right in behind him – despite their previous convictions. From October last year, an editorial from The Herald titled Overdue, but tax cuts timely: If [the tax cuts are] viewed widely as overdue and ...

Even Granny’s patience can wear thin

Steve Pierson — Sun, 25 May 2008 21:47:06 +0000

With a loving smack that would have brought a smile to Bob McCoskrie’s face, the Herald‘s editorial today rebukes John Key in the strongest terms it can. Now that the Budget is behind us, the National Party has less excuse for indecision on most of the important economic issues facing the country at the coming ...

Commentators on the Budget

all_your_base — Thu, 22 May 2008 04:30:09 +0000

From John Armstrong in The Herald: Is it enough? Michael Cullen has given it his best shot. He has been about as generous as he could be. He and his Labour colleagues will not die wondering what might have been had the Finance minister’s tax cuts been bolder. He could not have been bolder without ...

On the distribution of income

Steve Pierson — Mon, 19 May 2008 22:57:42 +0000

See that line that says minimum wage? Nearly half of kiwis earn less than that. Seven months ago, that was me. I was working removing asbestos contaminated glue from the floor of an office building along with half a dozen other guys. Now, asbestos is pretty dangerous stuff, inhaling a single thread of it can ...

ACT: tax cuts for the rich, please

Steve Pierson — Tue, 13 May 2008 03:34:50 +0000

Rodney Hide is calling for the Budget’s tax cuts to take the form of raising the thresholds to account for inflation since 1999, removing of the 39 cent bracket, and a $10,000 tax-free bracket. What would ACT’s tax cuts entail for New Zealanders? Hide says the average cut would be $50 a week, so we ...

Put it on the kids’ tab

Steve Pierson — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:00:33 +0000

Some may have noted an odd series of questions in Parliament and press releases from Bill English around government borrowing over the last month. The questions purposely conflated the idea of maintaining current debt levels with increasing debt. We noted this at the time and Tane correctly picked the strategy: First, sow confusion about debt ...

7 reasons why cutting GST on food will not help

sparkie — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:00:00 +0000

Scrapping GST is a classic, populist issue that sounds delicious in times of high food prices but at closer inspection – it doesn’t taste good at all and isn’t the best way to help those struggling to buy food. The cost of food and fuel has dominated the media over the long weekend and there ...

Dunne: feathering his own nest

all_your_base — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:40:26 +0000

Peter Dunne is once again touting his plans to introduce income splitting. It’s a policy aimed at helping out the wealthy. New Zealand Institute of Economic Research senior economist Patrick Nolan tells us that “80% of the tax gains of income-splitting would go to the top 20% of taxpayers”. Dunne was reportedly “not bothered” by ...

I’ve got a solution, what’s the problem?

Steve Pierson — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:44:12 +0000

The junior doctors’ strike is a difficult issue. On the one hand, these are highly valuable workers whom we can’t afford to lose overseas and they do work long hours in difficult conditions. On the other hand, the pay rise they want would cost $50 million and is well above what other medical professionals have ...

National’s tax cut dilemma

Steve Pierson — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 21:45:18 +0000

If National are so keen to cut taxes and so critical of the Government for not doing so earlier, why are they being so tight-lipped about how they would cut taxes and even the size of their cuts? Because the Budget has them trapped. Labour plans to announce its tax cuts in the Budget, probably ...

The 50 cent tax cut

Steve Pierson — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:33:46 +0000

This morning on Breakfast, John Key repeated his line that capping the size of the core public service (that includes planning staff for health, prison guards, and the human rights commission) at current levels would ‘save $500 million over three years that could be used for more â€˜frontline’ staff and tax-cuts’. Leaving aside that it’s not ...