Tax relief is on the way (hurrah), but help for the wine industry draws attention to the issue of corporate welfare
From one part of the Beehive comes a reminder that tax relief will be delivered next week.
From another comes a reminder that this government is no less willing than its predecessor to dispense the taxes it does collect to provide corporate welfare.
The proud ministerial announcements of the government (a) making a smaller dip into taxpayers’ pockets but (b) taking taxes from productive businesses to help others are included in the…
Latest from the Beehive
Speech
26 JULY 2024
The Government’s goal is for all New Zealanders to have timely access to quality healthcare, to improve life expectancy and quality of life. Primary care is key to the health system and has an important role in helping us achieve the Government’s health targets and ultimately improving the health of New Zealanders.
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts.
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson.
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024.
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced.
The good news for taxpayers came from Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts.
They are assuring us that New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will benefit from changes in tax policies that take effect from Wednesday next week.
Delivering this tax relief to employees requires more than 242,000 employers and more than 120 payroll providers to be ready, Willis says.
“Inland Revenue has ensured they know what to do and are ready to go. I’m advised by IRD that Digital Service Providers across New Zealand are well on track with development and testing of their changes in final stages.
“This means Kiwi workers can have confidence they will get the tax relief that is owed to them.
“IRD have worked with payroll providers, government agencies, large entities, tax intermediaries, and employer associations to ensure they have the relevant information to update their payroll systems in time.”
More information about the changes and what employers need to do is available at ird.govt.nz.
94 per cent of Kiwi households will be better off when the tax package comes into force next week, Willis said.
She advised us to find out how much we and our families will benefit by using the tax calculator at Budget.govt.nz.
Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson had the job of telling us about the opening of an experimental vineyard with financial help from the government.
The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions.
“The research that will be produced at the Experimental Future Vineyard will help ensure New Zealand’s wine sector is prepared for challenges such as changing weather patterns,” Patterson says.
“The Coalition Government is focused on growing the economy, doubling the value of our exports, and ensuring our regions are supported to developing their unique growth opportunities through strategic investment. This state-of-the-art facility enables research to futureproof the sector, ensuring it continues to thrive while protecting and enhancing New Zealand’s $2.4 billion a year in wine exports.”
Marlborough is New Zealand’s largest wine region, contributing $637 million a year to GDP. It produces 80 per cent of the country’s export wines, and directly employs more than 2900 people and many more seasonal workers.
Plant & Food Research will operate the Experimental Future Vineyard and will work closely with the Marlborough Research Centre, the wider wine industry and will provide industry training.
The vineyard was funded with $900,000 from a $3.79m loan from Kānoa – Regional Economic Development & Investment Unit to the Marlborough Research Centre.
This announcement did not sit well with the Taxpayers’ Union, which says the Government should be pruning corporate welfare, not championing it.
Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said:
“The Government is loading the risk of this experiment onto taxpayers while allowing private businesses to reap any benefits. If winemakers and viticulturists aren’t willing to stump up their own money to fund this experiment, why should taxpayers?
“Corporate welfare like this sends a message to the private sector not to bother funding their own research and innovation, taxpayers will fund it for them.
“This will create a lot of sour grapes from other industries who are successful in their own right without government handouts. Corporate welfare to special interest groups only invites more lobbying and develops a culture of handouts for wealthy commercial interests that should have been left in the 1980s.”
The Taxpayers’ Union says it is hearing through the grapevine that government ministers are divided over the issue of corporate welfare.
It insists that those in favour must come forward and explain how New Zealanders are better off by taking money from productive businesses “and handing it to those who can’t stand on their own two feet.”
Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton
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