tax

Tax Swindle Graph

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 8:34 am, September 30th, 2010 - 30 comments

Danyl over at DimPost has produced an excellent graph of the gains from National’s Tax Swindle.  It uses the Government’s figures, it is generous in showing average rather than median incomes…

And it doesn’t look good for average kiwis.

Spinning while the economy burns

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 1:12 pm, September 23rd, 2010 - 54 comments

The latest GDP figures are awful. the Reserve Bank had predicted 0.9% growth in the June Quarter. It came in at 0.2% – far worse than anyone expected and slower than population growth. The Key Government’s reaction? Deny there’s a problem and spin, spin, spin.

Key’s crocodile tears for teachers & doctors

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:59 am, September 20th, 2010 - 31 comments

John Key says he supports the teachers and junior doctors’ claims for a pay rise ‘but we simply don’t have the money’. Yet Key who is borrowing half a billion dollars this year for tax cuts for the wealthiest 9%. It isn’t a question of what the government can afford. It’s who matters to National – the rich do, teachers and doctors don’t.

An economic plan for Christchurch

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 8:34 am, September 7th, 2010 - 59 comments

Christchurch needs a more ambitious rescue package than has been announced. Relying on EQC and insurance payouts is not enough. I would cancel the top bracket tax cuts due to come into force in a month saving half a billion dollars for a real economic revival plan The first step would be to grant emergency bridging funding to businesses closed by the quake so that they can continue to pay their workers

Income splitting – all bad?

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 11:41 am, August 25th, 2010 - 26 comments

Can income splitting be made to work? Funding people to stay at home with children isn’t such a bad idea…

Dunne: 80% of families will pay for income splitting & get nothing

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:28 am, August 17th, 2010 - 41 comments

Peter Dunne admits that income splitting will be available to only 310,000 families. The other 1.3 million will get nothing and be left to pick up the bill. Even of the lucky 19%, only a fraction will get big tax cuts. Most will get squat but a few families with big disparities between the partners’ incomes win big. Key has voted himself $22K of tax cuts so far, this would be another $9K. Will he be tempted?

I’m So Dizzy

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 8:00 am, August 9th, 2010 - 44 comments

The rate at which National have been spinning of late is giving me nausea. It can’t be long until they get to the Hitch-Hiker’s Guide scenario of declaring black to be white and getting run over on the nearest zebra crossing.

Money for tax cuts for rich, none for doctors’ pay

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 12:22 pm, June 21st, 2010 - 9 comments

Tony Ryall, like Anne Tolley, is facing a big fight over wages. The health budget is chock-full of cuts as it is and Ryall says there simply isn’t any money to give doctors pay rises as they and other workers face nearly 6% inflation next year. The government can find billions for tax cuts for the rich but not to pay doctors and teachers. Priorities.

From the ‘that’s never going to fly’ file

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 5:49 pm, June 11th, 2010 - 13 comments

Press release by Te Matarahurahu Hapu. A Ngapuhi tribal leader will be insisting at the Waitangi Tribunal hearings next week that a special tribal tax be imposed on all residents living within Ngapuhi boundaries. David Rankin, the Chairman of the Matarahurahu hapu…is proposing a flat tax rate of 9 % be applied to every person living within Ngapuhi’s tribal territory.

Clamping down on trusts

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 10:55 pm, June 7th, 2010 - 33 comments

One of the most popular uses of trusts is to hide income for tax avoidance or evasion. So, I was happy to read about the IRD’s success in a recent court case against two surgeons. The court found these two very rich men had used trusts to avoid tax to the tune of $168,000. The case will have big ramifications, potentially shutting down one of the biggest tax rorts in the country.

The tax swindle, visualised

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:13 pm, May 25th, 2010 - 75 comments

Here’s a graph of tax week’s tax swindle. I can’t do the property tax/rent increase part but here’s the net weekly effect of the income tax changes and the GST hike. These numbers match up with those provided by Treasury. The first 1.2 million taxpayers get less than a dollar a week. The first 3 million (of 3.4 million) get an average of $4.24 a week. The top 100,000 average $105 a week.

Tax cuts don’t cause growth

Written By: r0b - Date published: 6:51 am, May 24th, 2010 - 30 comments

Tories claim that tax cuts “cause growth” in the economy – they “grow the pie”. But it’s rubbish. No honest review of the long term historical picture can sustain the claim. Tax cuts don’t cause growth.

Domesticated

Written By: r0b - Date published: 6:27 am, May 22nd, 2010 - 38 comments

Amongst all the budget reaction, there is a group of people that I don’t understand. They are the small group who are very well off, and who are nevertheless exulting about tax cuts that give them a few tens of dollars a week. Is your allegiance really purchased so cheaply?

Government Propaganda: Corrected

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 12:30 pm, May 21st, 2010 - 20 comments

There’s some useful scenarios to look at on the beehive’s tax site. They show how we all pay less tax, even after GST, and somehow the government also gets more tax. I love maths like that. But some of them seem to have something missing, so I thought I’d correct a couple of them…