tax

Categories under tax

capital gains (104)
gst (55)

Taxing debate

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 3:50 pm, August 3rd, 2009 - 78 comments

Treasury’s man on the tax reform working group, Professor Norman Gemmell, has laid out some changes that Treasury would like to see: GST up to 15%, the top tax rate down to 30%, and a capital gains tax. In my first draft, at this point I droned on about right and left-wing economics taxation theory […]

Tax cuts, one-off payment, or something better?

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 12:45 pm, June 27th, 2009 - 46 comments

Budget papers just released reveal that Treasury recommended a package of measures to reduce debt including an 8-year suspension of the Cullen fund contributions, new operating allowances of $1 billion, rather than $1.75 billion and cancelling the tax cuts and giving New Zealanders $1billion worth of one-off payments instead. This either would have taken the form […]

Rhetoric and reality

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 11:58 am, June 2nd, 2009 - 45 comments

Tax cuts are the right wing’s favourite answer to every question. Before the election, National were promising us that tax cuts were the key to economic growth: Key: “National will deliver an ongoing programme of personal tax cuts. Fundamentally, National believes in the growth-enhancing power of tax cuts. Labour does not.” English: “… all the […]

Government waste

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 3:11 pm, May 29th, 2009 - 16 comments

There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth from the right when Labour and the Greens filibustered the other week to draw the public’s attention to the supercity bill being rammed through Parliament. ‘Think of the cost”, they cried, which makes me wonder why they don’t propose getting rid of Parliament altogether to save a […]

Quote competition

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 1:15 pm, May 29th, 2009 - 19 comments

So, in the light of yesterday’s budget, I propose a quote competition. Post your favourite Nat quotes! We could start with two categories. First, foolish tax cut promises. Here’s some starters: Key, quoted here: “Under National, personal tax cuts are a priority. New Zealanders will be able to believe in our tax cuts, they will […]

Herald preaches class warfare

Written By: Tane - Date published: 2:00 pm, May 1st, 2009 - 39 comments

If you’d told me the Herald would use International Workers’ Day as an opportunity to preach class warfare I wouldn’t have believed you. But there’s really no other way to describe today’s editorial. We all know the Government is running a large deficit at the moment. Of course, the deficit would be much smaller (about […]

Jarring

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 2:03 pm, April 29th, 2009 - 49 comments

Today Phil Goff’s question to Key is: “Does he agree with the statements in the House by his Minister of Finance on 16 December 2008 that ‘Yes, I can confirm that National will not be going back on any of those promises, as we fully costed and funded them’?” His angle is obviously going to […]

We deserve better

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 9:30 am, April 29th, 2009 - 12 comments

Duncan Garner on TV3 News According to the poll, 52.6 percent of voters agree the cuts should be cancelled, 37.9 percent say they should go ahead regardless and 9.5 percent did not know…. …But these results tonight will reassure Mr Key that voters understand he has to abandon the promise, and he is unlikely to […]

What a joke

Written By: Tane - Date published: 3:30 pm, April 28th, 2009 - 48 comments

This shows how meaningless tax cuts are. From last night’s TV3 poll: When you receive tax cuts this month [they began on April 1], do you think you will be most likely to spend it, save it, pay off debt or other? *Spend it 25.3 per cent *Save it 30.1 per cent *Pay off debt […]

Budget 2009: Why not tax the rich?

Written By: Tane - Date published: 2:00 pm, April 27th, 2009 - 56 comments

With the Government openly preparing the public for spending cuts in the upcoming Budget, No Right Turn reminds us that there are alternatives – rather than cutting services and harming the poor, we could always raise taxes on those who can most afford it. The state of New York is doing this, hiking state income […]

The tax cut bandwagon

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 5:58 am, April 14th, 2009 - 29 comments

For the last two election campaigns we had to put up with National, aided and abetted by many commentators, dominating the agenda with its incessant calls for tax cuts. Last year they promised “meaningful cuts”, “North of $50”, a promise repeated even in the face of the emerging economic crisis. As previously discussed here those […]

Who’s zooming who?

Written By: the sprout - Date published: 11:32 am, April 5th, 2009 - 27 comments

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 […]

The spun praising the spinner

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:58 am, April 4th, 2009 - 6 comments

Falling for a politician’s tricks – that’s gullibility Seeing those tricks for what they are – that’s nous Seeing them for what they are but falling for them anyway and praising the politician – what’s that? colin espiner 1 April – …the PM was overjoyed by the success of the Twitter story. It may have boomeranged, […]

Mana enhancement – fail

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:45 am, April 2nd, 2009 - 28 comments

To further enhance their mana Te Ururoa Flavell and Rahui Katene spent their questions in parliament yesterday asking patsies to National. ‘How will the government’s tax cuts benefit people on low incomes?’ they asked allowing Key and English to talk about the wonderful new $10 a week Independent Earners’ Rebate and claim Labour never cut […]

Regurgitating rubbish

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 9:04 am, April 2nd, 2009 - 10 comments

On his blog Colin Espiner rejects the argument that National’s tax cuts are “unfair because they give more to those who earn more” saying “I’m afraid that’s the nature of progressive taxation”. That’s what National politicians say too. It’s wrong. There are infinite tax cuts one could devise that don’t give more to the well off. Cut the […]

Happy tax cut day?

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 11:07 am, April 1st, 2009 - 58 comments

The tax cuts that National are implementing today are more generous to high income earners, and less generous to low income earners, than the tax cuts that they cancelled (Labour’s already legislated for package, see for example here, here, here and here). That’s business as usual for National, stiffing those with genuine need to take […]

Herald: You’re too poor to exist

Written By: John A - Date published: 9:26 am, April 1st, 2009 - 41 comments

What’s missing here? Oh yeah. Half the population. Everyone on less than $25,000. According to The Herald if you’re not rich you don’t even exist.

Brits aim assistance to the low income

Written By: Dancer - Date published: 8:23 am, March 30th, 2009 - 22 comments

The irony of this article struck me when this week the well-off get the biggest boost to their wallet. From the Guardian : The chancellor is preparing to channel cash to poorer families in his budget as part of a mini-fiscal stimulus to kick-start the economy and protect the vulnerable. Senior cabinet figures are backing […]

Tax cuts for some

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:30 pm, March 29th, 2009 - 47 comments

The Weekend Herald’s front page proclaims ‘$2 billion more in the pocket“. The article goes on to say “the average worker will get $15.66 a week”. But who is this ‘average worker’? The Herald has used the average wage, which is $47,500 a year, but that’s not what the typical employed person earns because the […]

Douglas gets it

Written By: Tane - Date published: 2:16 pm, March 25th, 2009 - 15 comments

Roger Douglas in a press release today: National’s goal of a top personal, company and trustee tax rate of 30 cents in the dollar is laudable – but it must remember that there is no such thing as a free lunch, ACT New Zealand Finance Spokesman Sir Roger Douglas said today. “It is pointless setting […]

Thanks, I guess

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 5:38 am, March 25th, 2009 - 25 comments

Growing up I always knew the rich had it better than us. It’s only now that I’m one of the wealthy that I realise how much we’ve got it in our favour. Next week the government is giving me, for no reason I can work out, another $1110 a year in tax cuts. That goes […]

Redistributing the wealth

Written By: Tane - Date published: 3:27 pm, March 20th, 2009 - 104 comments

In a speech to the International Fiscal Association Conference today, Revenue Minister Peter Dunne said the Government’s goal over the next 18 months is to start moving towards a top personal tax rate of 30%. This would be a whopping 9% cut from the current top tax rate, almost exclusively going to the rich, and […]

Tory charity

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 7:18 am, March 19th, 2009 - 138 comments

According to the Herald John Key has declared people should spend their tax-cuts on charities and wants an American “culture of giving” to the needy. I’m just stunned. His plan is to take money out of the pockets of low income New Zealanders to create tax cuts for the rich and then encourage those low-income […]

Running the lines

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 10:01 am, March 2nd, 2009 - 2 comments

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 […]

Tax cuts no help for those worse off

Written By: Dancer - Date published: 7:59 pm, February 24th, 2009 - 73 comments

According to RNZ: Official papers confirm low income families will be worse off under the National Government’s tax cut package, compared with Labour’s. Radio New Zealand‘s political editor says papers obtained under the Official Information Act, also show higher earners will be better off. From April 2011 a person with children earning $40,000 per year […]

Keith Rankin: Controversy over National’s Tax Cuts

Written By: Dancer - Date published: 2:18 pm, December 12th, 2008 - 5 comments

If you’re feeling lost in the discussion around National’s tax plans there’s handy analysis from Keith Rankin who point out: … persons earning between $14,000 and $24,000 will receive annual tax cuts of less than $100. They will receive nothing before 2011. This contrasts with Labour’s already legislated for tax cuts, from 2010, which target this group […]

Tax increases into law

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 11:15 am, December 11th, 2008 - 46 comments

The tax bill has just been passed into law. The Maori Party voted for it. They also voted against the Cullen amendment that would have created a tax credit to cancel ou the tax increase on low income workers. Te Ururoa didn’t show up to Backbenches. I haven’t heard a single Maori Party MP defend […]

The prideful cowards

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 3:00 pm, December 10th, 2008 - 24 comments

So far, the Maori Party has refused to take its opportunities to contribute to the debate on the tax bill before Parliament. They have just sat meekly and voted for National/ACT’s Bill. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t see anything ‘mana-enhancing’ (to use a phrase from the National-Maori support agreement) about voting for a […]

CTU calls for fairer tax cuts

Written By: Tane - Date published: 12:19 pm, December 1st, 2008 - 50 comments

The Council of Trade Unions is calling on National to re-jig its tax package to give it more balance. And fair enough too – despite the media narrative about National’s ‘moderate’, ‘centrist’ policies the figures show its tax package is actually incredibly regressive. In fact, you could argue it’s been explicitly designed to divert money […]

‘Become a nation of savers’

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 11:52 am, November 27th, 2008 - 35 comments

That’s Finance Minister Bill English’s message to Kiwis. So, that would be why he is cutting our Kiwisaver nesteggs in half to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy, eh?

All the facts

Written By: Tane - Date published: 11:52 am, November 25th, 2008 - 81 comments

National’s David Farrar has been running a series for some time trying to paint NZ Labour as out of step with Labour Parties around the world when it comes to their attitude on tax cuts. His intention, of course, is to portray Labour as extreme left and his mates in National as centrist and middle […]