Daily review 30/08/2022

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, August 30th, 2022 - 25 comments
Categories: Daily review - Tags:

Daily review is also your post.

This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

25 comments on “Daily review 30/08/2022 ”

  1. alwyn 1

    I hope people aren't relying solely on their Kiwisaver for their retirement income.

    Our "kind" Government are going to slap a new levy on people's savings. They are just slipping it in without having announced it. The announcement only talked about a trivial reduction in a possible fringe benefit charge if your employer is subsidising your use of public transport.

    The massive jump that will hit your fees, and hence final savings, in your Kiwisaver account wasn't mentioned in the Government announcement. I'm sure it was just an accident.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/government-quietly-introduces-103-billion-tax-on-kiwisaver/OZTZMO6QKJJQOTUL5DG7UFEWA4/

    • bwaghorn 1.1

      As long as they spend it wisely ,allgood , but unfortunately the spray and walk away payment labours chucking every where has me doubting it,

    • Joe90 1.2

      0.05% of an estimated $2196B balance. Oh noes!

      /

      • Cricklewood 1.2.1

        Doesnt matter, if the narrative turns into the govt wants to dip into your Kiwisaver it'll be electorally very damaging.

        • Nic the NZer 1.2.1.1

          I mean at that rate your retirement savings will be halved in just 140 years time (if they are invested in a zero growth fund).

      • Poission 1.2.2

        Kiwisaver and other superfunds have depreciated (aka lost) 12 billion since december.

        Savers are penny wise as their properties (wealth ) will also depreciate by around 25%.and mortgage holders having substantive rises.

        Next year with the budget blowout Robertson et al are going to have a hard sell with the increase in income tax ( sold as an insurance policy) and a large reduced balance sheet due to asset depreciation.

        From the beginning of september the FED starts quantitative tightening (reducing the balance sheet by 95b a month) the ECB starts in October.The days of easy money are over.

      • alwyn 1.2.3

        Would you like to try recalculating that figure?

        0.05%? Hmm. Your arithmetic seems to be as bad as Robertson's.

        • joe90 1.2.3.1

          Last I heard $103B is near enough to one half of one percent of $2196B

          • alwyn 1.2.3.1.1

            Well the last I heard was that 0.05%, which you provided, is actually one twentieth of one percent rather than the one half of one percent that you seem to have learnt at school.

            Then we have the minor fact that one half of one percent of 2196 is about 11 rather than the 103 that you seem to think it is.

            In fact $103B is about 4.7% of $2196B which is "near enough" to 5%.

            What is a little factor of 100 between friends though. Robertson would probably call it a rounding error.

    • Muttonbird 1.3

      It's not a levy on people's savings, it's GST (Goods and Services Tax) on fees, a service, which I assumed was applied anyway.

      We are also getting GST on Uber and AirBnB which should not be exempt either.

      • Graeme 1.3.1

        Exactly, but no one is saying boo about the fees the banks and other institutions are dredging out of everyone's KiwiSaver.

    • Ad 1.4

      Putting in a new tax out of budget cycle is simply democratically wrong.

      Hope it hurts them.

      • Belladonna 1.4.1

        Minimum wage employees at work were spitting tacks over this. It came over on the radio, and there was a discussion over what it meant. And real anger over yet another 'tax' (I don't care whether it really is, that's what it feels like to them) – when money is already tight and getting tighter (a regular topic of conversation is the price rises at the supermarket, and what they aren't buying this week)

        These are people who had to be persuaded that Kiwisaver was a good thing (it's tough when it's a percentage off the lowest income – there are always other things that you think you could/need to be spending on).

        Taking additional money off them is electorally really bad news.

        Really, I wonder what the benefit was, that the Govt felt this was an essential change to make right now. Especially as IRD warned them that the change would be passed on in increased fees – so they knew it would hit the workers, rather than being absorbed (ha! fat chance) by the funds.

        • joe90 1.4.1.1

          I wonder what the benefit was,

          An across the board rate for all vehicles has been in the works for some time.

          Easy enough to offset any burden on lower income earners via contributions should it become an election issue.

          • Belladonna 1.4.1.1.1

            Well, given that no party (National or Labour) has been willing to set differential benefits/contributions for lower earners into Kiwisaver, forgive my scepticism over the possible remedy.

            Chances between fat and thin.

      • bwaghorn 1.4.2

        They seem determined to lose the next election!!

        The ridiculous living payment, followed by this shit, taxing kiwisaver more!!!

        They should be giving kiwisaver tax breaks.

        Dummer than a sack full of hammers 🔨

        • Populuxe1 1.4.2.1

          You're assuming the financially vulnerable all have Kiwisaver. They don't.

          • bwaghorn 1.4.2.1.1

            I've got one, apart from some cheap life,trauma insurance kiwisaver is all I have , guessing that makes me vulnerable.

      • mikesh 1.4.3

        GST is not exactly a "new" tax.

  2. roy Cartland 2

    Not a fraction as much as the banks and providers help themselves to in "management" fees. Except funds like Simplicity, of course.

    Oh whoops, sorry about the name error!

  3. aj 3

    I expect a company like Simplicity may absorb a 15% surcharge on it's fees and not pass this cost on to investors. This will put pressure on other Kiwisaver providers to do the same.

    But yes, there will be a massive scare campaign come what may.

    • Drowsy M. Kram 4.1

      surprise Oh Noo, Noo woo – or 'Xenu'? "You couldn't make it up." – if only.

      The Empty Man and the return of the cult classic [9 Sept 2021]
      What begins as a grim mystery soon balloons out of proportion as Lasombra follows a trail leading him to a cult modeled on the Church of Scientology, led by its own L. Ron Hubbard type (Stephen Root). This cult traffics in esoteric, vaguely Eastern spirituality in service of a grand cosmic vision: “They don’t have five-year plans,” as one character explains. “They have 500-year plans.” But the nature of those plans quickly becomes convoluted, requiring an appropriated mystical vocabulary — here, terms such as “noosphere” and “tulpa” make their appearance — to convey the existence of a conspiracy that seems to involve weaponizing universal consciousness to bring a transdimensional entity into our own plane of reality.

      Keep calm… we have nothing to fear but the sky falling on our heads.