I was both relieved and very impressed when David Parker, Attorney General announced last week that he believed that the Rotorua Council Representation Bill could not go ahead because it is undemocratic. As it stands, it would have given Maori voters in Rotorua more valuable voting rights than non-Maori, and therefore could not be justified in a democratic society, where the principle of ‘one person, one vote’ is sacrosanct.
Well done David Parker. A win for democracy, as well as common sense. Maybe he is not so bad after all.
Unfortunately, my admiration for him didn’t last long.
Revenue Minister David Parker will introduce a bill which would set out principles of fairness in the tax system.
Speaking at the Victoria University in Wellington, Parker said authorities had “virtually no idea what rate of tax is paid by the very wealthy”.
“We do know the rate paid by wage and salary earners and by small business owners.”
Let me just stop you right there, Mr Parker. Yes, you do know the rates of tax paid by the very wealthy – or at least, you could work it out. Each year very wealthy individual and every entity owned by them is required to file a tax return. Individuals pay a tax rate of 39% on all income over $180,000. Companies pay a flat rate of 28% on all income. Trusts pay 33% on all income. It is quite possible for some of those ‘kids’ in the Treasury to work out the earnings of wealthy individuals, including the earnings of all their entities. Dividends, interest and other investment income are taxed at source. And before you talk about overseas income, all New Zealand residents pay tax in NZ on their world income. Foreign trusts can only be operated by non-residents. Anyone not declaring any of the above is a tax evader.
Okay. Enough Tax 101… but you get my drift.
The new bill, to be called the Tax Principles Act, was part of Parker’s work over the past few years looking into the wealth levels of the richest New Zealanders and how much tax they pay.
“I believe the tax debate in New Zealand has become mired in unnecessary controversy and I have some fundamental work underway to address that.”
”The information collected will be securely held separately from Inland Revenue’s other systems. Only officials working on the project will have access to the individualised information, which will be destroyed at the end of the project,” he said.
“What it will do is allow any future tax policy development to be based on solid evidence.”
And therein lies the rub. This is all about the development of new tax policy – aimed specifically at fleecing the rich.
Of course, Labour is hogtied. They promised not to introduce a Capital Gains Tax during Jacinda’s tenure and now they do not want to be seen to backflip. But in reality, it is probably the only thing they have left… unless they want to introduce even higher rates of tax for wealthy individuals, which will probably send our smartest people offshore. They are very limited in what more they can do.
In reality though, once again, it is really all about landlords – the group of business owners that have been hammered repeatedly by this government, but it is never enough… never enough.
He also used the speech to criticise the National Party, sayings its economic policies wouldn’t help people struggling to make ends meet.
“National is proposing a return to what even the OECD has described is New Zealand tenants subsidising taxes for their landlords,” he said.
Stuff
Yeah… and just look where Labour’s policies have left those ‘struggling to make ends meet.’ Too many people are struggling to pay their rent, as a direct result of landlords selling up and leaving the rental market in droves because being a landlord is now simply too hard.
If we had cut landlords even a little bit of slack, such as allowing interest deductibility on rental mortgages (as National is proposing), maybe there would be a few more rental houses. But it is too late now. The government is now required to house thousands more people than they used to… and yes, you’ve guessed it… many of those are housed in motels.
When will Labour realise that the politics of envy simply do not work? That we need wealthy people to build businesses that create jobs, to build properties that create jobs and to allow people to aspire to succeed in life, without the constant threat of being fleeced by the taxman?
Instead, we have a government forced to pay out a fortune in taxpayer dollars in housing the homeless and paying out housing subsidies to those who simply cannot afford to pay rent and eat as well.
Still… that is much better than pandering to ‘rich pricks’, isn’t it, David?