Government Propaganda: Corrected
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- Date published:
12:30 pm, May 21st, 2010 - 20 comments
Categories: budget 2010, class war, spin, tax -
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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…
1. Average income household
Mark and Emma are in their late 30s and jointly earn the average household wage of $76,000 – Mark works full-time earning $50,000 a year and Emma works part-time, earning $26,000. They have two children and also receive Working for Families. They pay $300 a week in rent, and save what they can, in the desperate hope they might make it onto the poperty ladder some day. Under Budget 2010 changes, Mark and Emma get a household tax cut of $45.85 a week and pay an extra $21.14 in GST. But their landlord had to put the rent up $20 to cover his closed tax loophole, and their pre-schooler’s 3 days at childcare just went up $15 per day, as the government cut $400m in ECE funding.
| Mark and Emma weekly income | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Regular income | $1461.54 | $1461.54 |
| Total taxable income
|
$1461.54 | $1461.54 |
| Income tax | $265.77 | $222.88 |
| Working for Families | $55.60 | $58.56 |
| Disposable income
|
$1251.37 | $1297.22 |
| Change in disposable income due to tax changes | $45.85 | |
| Extra GST | $21.14 | |
| Extra rent | $20.00 | |
| Extra childcare | $45.00 | |
| Change in net income
|
-$40.29 | |
| Annual change in net income
|
-$2095.08 | |
13. Unemployment beneficiary
Scott is 25. He lost his job last year and receives the Unemployment Benefit. He pays $80 a week rent as he lives in a shabbier flat than the government suggests because he can’t get by on $130 for all his food and bills. Under Budget 2010 changes, he gets a $3.92 a week increase in his benefit, but pays GST on all his non-rent income, plus the $10 he borrows from his money so pays an extra $4.10 in GST. Overall, he would only be slightly worse off. Except he also spends on the never-never, contributing to the country’s large private-sector debt, getting him in trouble with credit companies, and yes, paying more in GST. Oh, and his landlady can’t get her tax rort anymore, and has to get her money from somewhere, so his rent’s gone up $10.
| Scott weekly income | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Net Benefit | $194.12 | $198.04 |
| Accommodation Supplement | $36.00 | $36.00 |
| Disposable income | $230.12 | $234.04 |
| Change in disposable income due to indexation | $3.92 | |
| Extra GST | $4.10+ | |
| Extra Rent | $10.00 | |
| Change in net income | -$10.18+ | |
| Annual change in net income | -$529.36+ | |
Oh, and there seemed to be one that was missing:
16. CEO
John lives with his wife and two children and runs a company that pays him $400,000 per year. His wife Bronwyn doesn’t work and they have paid off their mortgage. He doesn’t pay any more GST than the $120,000 example because he finds it difficult to buy much more that isn’t an investment. In fact he buys shares and companies, and as we don’t have any capital gains tax, joins Sam Morgan in not paying much tax on a big slice of income – only paying on the dividends.
| Peter and Jane weekly income | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Income | $7692.30 | $7692.30 |
| Income tax | $2722.11 | $2363.84 |
| Disposable income | $4970.19 | $5328.46 |
| Change in disposable income due to tax changes | +$358.27 | |
| Extra GST | $31.64 | |
| Net change | +$326.63 | |
| Total per year | +$16984.76 | |
.
As an aside, most of the examples in the press seemed to presume you spent a fix portion of your income, and thus we are all hit equally by GST. This is not true. Those on the lowest incomes were paying 14.5% of income in GST as they spend more than their incomes – that’ll now rise to 17.4%. Those on high incomes only spend about 6-7% on GST (that’ll now be 7-8%). GST is a very regressive tax – the poor pay a higher percent than the rich. This can be reduced by exemptions on basic needs like food, or counter-balanced by a very progressive income tax system – something we sadly no longer have.
Bunji
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- Release: Growing pressure to scrap Section 7AA Repeal Bill
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- Green Party condemns the passage of Treaty Principles Bill
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- Stand Up for Te Tiriti
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- Release: Over 15,000 sign Labour’s open letter to Luxon
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- Greens join King’s Counsel in calling for Treaty Principles Bill to be abandoned
The Prime Minister must answer the call from a group of senior lawyers of the King’s Counsel to abandon the divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...1 week ago
- Chris Hipkins’ apology statement to state and faith-based care survivors
...1 week ago
- Release: Labour formally apologises to state and faith-based care survivors
Labour joins with the Government in unreservedly apologising for the abuse, neglect and trauma including torture in state and faith-based care and for ignoring the voices of survivors for too long. ...1 week ago
- Green Party stands in support of survivors of abuse in care
Today, the Green Party stands alongside the survivors of abuse in state care and faith-based care as the Government issues an historic apology. ...1 week ago
- Green Party calls for conscience vote on Treaty Principles Bill
The Green Party has written to the Speaker of the House requesting he enable a personal vote on the Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
- Govt move to exclude journalist risks chilling effect
The Green Party is alarmed by the Government’s move to exclude a journalist from covering this week’s apology for the survivors of abuse in state and faith-based care. ...2 weeks ago
- Without action, an apology will be empty air
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- Release: Concerns remain over tobacco interference
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- Release: Poroporoaki: Ta Robert (Bom) Gillies
Kua hinga te manawa kairākau o Te Rua Tekau Ma Waru Tiwhatiwha te po! Kakarauru i te po! Ka rapuhia kei hea koe kua riro! Haere e te Ika a Whiro ki o tini hoa kua ngaro atu ki te Pō ...2 weeks ago
- Labour, Greens and Te Pāti Māori call on the Prime Minister to block the Treaty Principles Bill
The opposition parties stand united for an Aotearoa that honours Te Tiriti, rather than seeking to rewrite it. Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori are working together against the Government’s divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Labour, Greens and Te Pāti Māori call on the Prime Minister to block the Treaty Principle...
The opposition parties stand united for an Aotearoa that honours Te Tiriti, rather than seeking to rewrite it. Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori are working together against the Government’s divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
- NZ must pursue independent foreign policy
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- Record number of submissions received on granny flat proposal
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- Appointments strengthen Predator Free 2050
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- New facility in Christchurch will improve the lives of young New Zealanders
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- Driver safety screens to be installed on Auckland buses
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed news from the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) that bus driver protection screens will be installed across Auckland’s bus fleet by 2026.“The Government is committed to improving the safety of working environments for bus drivers, and Budget 2024 allocated $15 million of Crown funding over ...4 hours ago
- Government action provides Southland farmers more time to meet plan requirements
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- Bill reaffirms Government’s commitment to crack down on serious youth offending
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- Critical milestones for earthquake buildings review
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- State of the art radiology machine for Auckland
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- Foreign Minister to visit Europe
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- First arrests made under gang patch ban
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- Better support for victims of sexual violence
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- Government moving forward with Regional Deals
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- MSA pilot participant update
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- Government continues work to reinstate livestock exports by sea
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- Speech to the National Quality Forum 2024
Tēnā koutou katoa – it is a pleasure to be here today. I would like to begin by acknowledging the important leadership role you all play in ensuring a quality health system New Zealanders can trust. There is enormous clinical expertise in this room covering a wide range of disciplines. ...2 days ago
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- Latest Quarterly Investment Report released
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- New Zealand supporting loss and damage fund
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- Gang crackdown begins at stroke of midnight
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- LGFA increases borrowing capacity to support high growth councils
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- Temporary Traffic Management costs revealed
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- Police stats show promising change
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- Minister to consider 7AA select committee report
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“Those on the lowest incomes were paying 14.5% of income in GST as they spend more than their incomes that’ll now rise to 17.4%. ”
And where, pray tell, do these low income people get the ‘more than their incomes’ to spend?
If it from gummint top ups then that is income. To suggest someone pays 14.5% of their income on GST when the GST rate is 12.5% has a pythoneque ring abo0ut it.
[lprent: You should really avoid words that put you straight into auto-moderation. Then I have to extract you from it, and my fingers naturally lean towards the ‘spam’ button when I see people with an apparent inability to spell who are wasting my time. ]
Adolf.
It’s called ‘dis-savings’ in economic speak. You and I call it living in debt.
The poor end up spending more than they earn and hence paying GST at higher % of their income.
The wealthy, in contrast, do not spend most of their income and so face GST at lower % of their income
Mr Guest. Those figures cannot be true. I have it on good authority from Mr Key and Mr English that no one would be worse off. Why would they lie? The experts on radio and TV applaud these changes, so Mr Guest you must have it all wrong! 🙂
You just don’t get it do you Ianmac. The changes make an even greater incentive for Scott to get a job, so he can aspire to be Peter and spend his tax cut on another trip to Hawaii.
Now that nice Mr Bollard is talking about interest rates going up sooner so that inflation doesn’t get out of control. Next year there will be clamouring to raise the tax thresholds because of tax creep.
Gooner, because a lot of low-income people spend more than their income. And what they spend this debt on attracts gst.
Im on 30,000 a year, and will be 16.00 a week better off, after gst is taken into account (approx. $10.00) I am $6.00 a week better off, thats still an increase, if small, so I will take it. I do like the idea of having more of my own money to spend even if items of need or luxury will cost more, maybe I wont buy as many energy drinks and drink water from home instead??
$6.00 a week better off, wow, that’s not even half a block of cheese, enjoy.
So how about the 2 parents with 2 kids on a total of $36k a year (one salary) with rent of $290py… /sigh.
You don’t exist in the National mindset. Sorry.
speaking of which, did anyone hear Fran O’Sullivan on the radio this morning saying the bottomw rate was now 17.5%? the 0-$14,000 band, which is over 1 million taxpayers doesn’t even exist to her.
Show me one major economist who argues that rents will go up by 15% as a result of the budget. Just one. That’s right you can’t.
Everyone’s saying they don’t know what will happen to rents. Except the landlords, who say they will be putting them up to maintain their returns.
What a wonderful basis to make public policy on.
At the end of the the long thread, and well after folks had moved onto other topics Mark made this excellent comment.
He makes the rather obvious point…that I wish I had thought of sooner…”Another thing I’d be curious to know is whether you think the same “supply and demand’ principles apply to the labour market and wages?”.
In other words if this Budget had for instance, imposed a new Compulsory Employer Superannuation contribution (like Australia’s 12%)…then we would have been reading arguments about how inflationary this was because employers would recovering the increased costs by raising prices.
Yet they don’t think landlords will do the same.
Let me do some very nominal numbers.
The unit is worth $400k. The building value is say $220k. The rent on it is say $320pw.
$4% depreciation on this building value is $8.8k. (And this is an absolutely conservative way of doing this.)
If this was deductable from other PAYE income at a 33% marginal tax rate then the decreased tax liability over the whole year is $2.9k. This would be something like $55pw or a 17% of the current rent.
Now at this point in time it’s not obvious to me what position most landlords are going to be in. It seems that if building depreciation is no longer permitted then most will be looking to restore the reduced cashflow by increasing rents in the range 10-20%
15% is a very feasible number.
Thanks for that example Red – I still believe the renoval of this ability to claim depreciation makes sense on an appreciating asset as it has always seemed like somewhat of a rort for the taxpayer to be subsidsing property development in this manner (disclosure I own several properties and have taken advantage of depreciation to considerable pecuniary advantage)
What is this “my own money”? This oversimplifies things when there isn’t that much fairness in how people get paid? For instance, most jobs that have traditionally been done by women get lower pay than sill & training level equivalent jobs traditionally done by men.
And none of the jobs would exist without the infrastructure that the government & society provides to enable businesses and other workplaces to thrive. And then there’s all the not-for-profit, NGOs, unpaid work that many people do that keeps the wheels ticking over.
And we need a lot of that infrastructure and services to participate in many of our non-work activities. Society is a cooperative enterprise, not just a number of individuals earning a living.
“my own money” is a superficial, red-herring kind of concept in retation to taxes & the workings of society.
money in my bank account is my own,
Glad Billy that you owe loyalty to no one. When my family was growing up it was our moneyand I had just a very few dollars per week for discretionary spending. And the Bank stole some of it too! Lucky Billy :).
Your CEO probably has a couple of kids in private school, at $15K each the GST increase on that alone is going to be $700 per year. Plus they are probably on their second or third marriage and paying a big chunk of cash to their ex-wife (or wives). Add the cost of a personal trainer, tennis lessons, golf club membership and at least two big fat overseas holidays a year and they are lucky to scrape by on $400K.
“Anyone saying that this is unfair to lower income earners is either really stupid or just greedy.”-Cynic
This is the quote that has been on the front page of the Herald all day courtesy of the Your Views section…
Ok he is still going to be worse off but ifs Scott’s rent goes up so does his Accommodation Supplement.