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Sunday, February 8, 2015

Mike Butler: Focus on tribal tax exemption


The Taxpayers' Union is querying Labour Party leader Andrew Little's comments at Waitangi that New Zealand should consider allowing Maori to make their own laws, including tax laws, in reference to rules applicable to Native American tribal lands.

Little’s comments represented a parting shot of Waitangi Day 2015 that featured expert-on-everything Gareth Morgan telling five-generation New Zealanders of British ancestry to stop being ignorant about Maoris.

Jordan Williams of the Taxpayers' Union said: "Like many New Zealanders, Mr Little may be surprised to learn that iwi do not currently pay income tax, even on profits of their commercial investments."

"New Zealand is quite unique in the Commonwealth in allowing a type of group defined by blood to qualify as 'charitable' and therefore not pay income or company tax."

"New Zealand's taxation regime is even more generous to iwi than the rules applicable to Native American tribes. Here, iwi pay no tax regardless of how income is derived while for Native American tribes only some types of income (usually those derived on native lands) are exempt from paying federal tax."

"There are arguments that the public-good iwi provide justifies the charitable exemption to tax. How that can be extended to commercial entities such as Shotover Jet, owned by Ngai Tahu, is another question entirely."

The New Zealand Centre for Political Research has highlighted this little-known tribal tax exemption at http://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.co.nz/2013/04/mike-butler-tolerating-tribal-charities.html and http://www.nzcpr.com/tax-payer-subsidised-charities-and-their-business-activities-time-for-change/ and http://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.co.nz/2013/07/mike-butler-tribal-charity-review-needed.html and Manipulating Charities.

Waitangi Day 2015 also included Prime Minister John Key’s “all is good” dawn service sermon at the upper marae plus yet another instalment of the ritual nonsense that takes place at Waitangi’s Te Tii lower marae, possibly called “lower” because marae administration is so dysfunctional that it is under court-appointed functionaries (2) and is dominated by the all-too-frequently-convicted Harawiras.(3) (4) (5)

Sources
1. Memo to Little: Iwi already pay no tax - Taxpayers' Union, https://nz.news.yahoo.com/election/a/-/26222568/memo-to-little-iwi-already-pay-no-tax-taxpayers-union/
2. Waitangi Day disturbances expected after appointment, http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/65640335/waitangi-day-disturbances-expected-after-appointment
3. Haka brawl rivals unite to remember. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10569951
4. Titewhai Harawira: Nana or Bully? http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10864470
5. Beating victim followed inside, http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/8528102/Beating-victim-followed-inside-court-told

2 comments:

paul scott said...

Andrew Little is a guaranteed failure as was Goff. Shearer, and the utterly ludicrous Cunliffe.
It is almost unbelievable that a leader of politic say that 5% of the Country have race privilege over the rest of us.
What is very bad is that mfailure morons like Little give Key an easy ride.

paul scott said...

Anyone who wants to consider further should look at Trust tax papers.Do this, seriously. It is amazing to read the racism sanctioned by this Government. I think its IR4
I said to my daughter, you do know your Grandmother had brown eyes, and skin, and we had a Marae in the garage.
She said Dad you are being stupid again, Mother often wonders why she married you .