News source Stuff has reported almost 100 wealthy New Zealanders have signed an open letter to the government to say they want to pay more tax.
Said to be inspired by global initiative Millionaires for Humanity, 96 wealthy individuals have told the government they recognise the current tax system is unfair, allowing wealthy people to pay less tax, while other New Zealanders who struggle day-to-day pay more.
Those who signed include Sir Ian Taylor, Phillip Mills, of gym chain Les Mills, company director Rob Campbell, actress Robyn Malcolm and Dame Susan Devoy.
The letter says they recognise the benefits of tax; that it “funds everything from the teachers who give our children a great start, to the Department of Conservation rangers who look after our environment, through to healthcare professionals on whom we all rely”, and it asks the government to fix the tax system.
The letter begins.
“We write as people who are frustrated with how much tax we pay. We want to pay more.
“As people leading financially comfortable lives, we might be expected to be anti-tax. But we recognise tax as a shared contribution to our collective success.
“As Cyclone Gabrielle has made horribly clear, the cost of responding to the climate crisis, repairing the public realm and future-proofing our infrastructure will only increase. And that will require a bigger tax contribution from those who can afford it.”
The letter goes on to state that they are “ready to pay our fair share” and willingly pay more tax “to help lift families out of poverty and ensure everyone thrives – an investment that would pay off many times over”.
According to Infometrics, one in seven children lives in poverty, leading to an economic burden, including in health, of at least $10 billion a year.
“Some of us have built businesses from scratch and celebrate profit when it serves the public good. But we know that in our working lives, we have benefited from the infrastructure paid for by the taxes of past generations: the roads, the hospitals, the schools,” the letter says.
“We want to pay that forward, to replenish the collective pool of resources from which we have drawn, so that future generations can have the same opportunities,”
Les Mills executive director Phillip Mills said the current tax system was “broken”.
“We’ve been focused too much for too long on paying lower and lower taxes. We need to focus more on having a world-class education system and not having people living in poverty and children coming to school not having enough to eat.”
He would be in favour of both a capital gains tax and wealth tax.
“Those who can afford it should be paying significantly more taxes.”
He says it is “bad for the economy to be tax-advantaging asset classes like residential property”.
ACT leader David Seymour has an answer for this group. He says if a group of wealthy New Zealanders wants to pay more tax, ACT will share the IRD’s bank account number with them, so there’s no need for them to force their values on other New Zealanders.
“The most tiresome humblebrag comes up in tax debates around the world every few years, ‘I’m so rich I want to pay more tax’,” he says.
“Wealth doesn’t entitle someone to a greater say about public policy. But it does enable them to voluntarily give more money if they want to. The IRD accepts extra contributions, so I guess their problem is solved.
“A further issue this group seems to miss is that tax is applied equally to all under the law. A capital gains tax applied to houses, such as the Greens promote, will apply to Mum and Dad property investors as well as the super-rich, although I doubt the humblebraggers thought that through.
“New Zealanders have made clear they don’t want a capital gains or wealth tax. It’s anti-aspiration and will do nothing to make us a more successful country”.
“Some people are obsessed with dividing, rather than creating, wealth. But simply shuffling wealth around will not help us retain our status as a first world nation.”
Meanwhile social researchers like Max Rashbrook and Kushlan Sugathapala, who have featured in the media calling for tax reform because they see the present tax system as very “unfair”, have failed to offer specific solutions to the problem.
“Tax the rich” may sound easy to do, but it almost certainly would produce less revenue than those who want social “justice” could imagine. The imposition of wealth and/or a capital gains tax might have the effect the opposite of what might be expected, for example in undermining the economics for NZ’s main export industries through lessening the incentives in farming.
Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton
The letter says they recognise the benefits of tax; that it “funds everything from the teachers who give our children a great start, to the Department of Conservation rangers who look after our environment, through to healthcare professionals on whom we all rely”, and it asks the government to fix the tax system.
The letter begins.
“We write as people who are frustrated with how much tax we pay. We want to pay more.
“As people leading financially comfortable lives, we might be expected to be anti-tax. But we recognise tax as a shared contribution to our collective success.
“As Cyclone Gabrielle has made horribly clear, the cost of responding to the climate crisis, repairing the public realm and future-proofing our infrastructure will only increase. And that will require a bigger tax contribution from those who can afford it.”
The letter goes on to state that they are “ready to pay our fair share” and willingly pay more tax “to help lift families out of poverty and ensure everyone thrives – an investment that would pay off many times over”.
According to Infometrics, one in seven children lives in poverty, leading to an economic burden, including in health, of at least $10 billion a year.
“Some of us have built businesses from scratch and celebrate profit when it serves the public good. But we know that in our working lives, we have benefited from the infrastructure paid for by the taxes of past generations: the roads, the hospitals, the schools,” the letter says.
“We want to pay that forward, to replenish the collective pool of resources from which we have drawn, so that future generations can have the same opportunities,”
Les Mills executive director Phillip Mills said the current tax system was “broken”.
“We’ve been focused too much for too long on paying lower and lower taxes. We need to focus more on having a world-class education system and not having people living in poverty and children coming to school not having enough to eat.”
He would be in favour of both a capital gains tax and wealth tax.
“Those who can afford it should be paying significantly more taxes.”
He says it is “bad for the economy to be tax-advantaging asset classes like residential property”.
ACT leader David Seymour has an answer for this group. He says if a group of wealthy New Zealanders wants to pay more tax, ACT will share the IRD’s bank account number with them, so there’s no need for them to force their values on other New Zealanders.
“The most tiresome humblebrag comes up in tax debates around the world every few years, ‘I’m so rich I want to pay more tax’,” he says.
“Wealth doesn’t entitle someone to a greater say about public policy. But it does enable them to voluntarily give more money if they want to. The IRD accepts extra contributions, so I guess their problem is solved.
“A further issue this group seems to miss is that tax is applied equally to all under the law. A capital gains tax applied to houses, such as the Greens promote, will apply to Mum and Dad property investors as well as the super-rich, although I doubt the humblebraggers thought that through.
“New Zealanders have made clear they don’t want a capital gains or wealth tax. It’s anti-aspiration and will do nothing to make us a more successful country”.
“Some people are obsessed with dividing, rather than creating, wealth. But simply shuffling wealth around will not help us retain our status as a first world nation.”
Meanwhile social researchers like Max Rashbrook and Kushlan Sugathapala, who have featured in the media calling for tax reform because they see the present tax system as very “unfair”, have failed to offer specific solutions to the problem.
“Tax the rich” may sound easy to do, but it almost certainly would produce less revenue than those who want social “justice” could imagine. The imposition of wealth and/or a capital gains tax might have the effect the opposite of what might be expected, for example in undermining the economics for NZ’s main export industries through lessening the incentives in farming.
Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton
1 comment:
mr seymour is slightly mistaken - they need the account number of the treasury, not ird. i think kiwiblog has already shared that :)
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