Steen Videbeck: Daylight robbery

I was very disappointed with the recent housing announcements. Partly because they will increase my rent. But mostly because I want to be a part of a world-leading country. I want transformational new taxes, not a Capital Gains Tax with a trendy new name.

Also, if you are going to rush through last-minute legislation, with no oversight, by slipping it into an omnibus bill, together with tax write-offs for cow diseases, you might as well have some fun.

How? Now, I don’t want to be too definitive, but all you need is a crisis and some aspirational new ideas for taxes.

The next crisis is obviously the rental crisis.

And the answer is obviously a Window Tax.

Frank Newman: Submission to the Tax Working Group

Tax Working Group Secretariat

PO Box 3724

Wellington 6140

submissions@taxworkinggroup.govt.nz.

30 April 2018

From Frank Newman (frank@newman.co.nz)

In summary, my submission is that:

Daniel Mitchell: Emmanuel Macron Is Surprisingly Pro-Market for a Socialist... Sometimes

In last year’s French presidential election between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, I joked that voters should choose the socialist over the socialist, but made a serious point that Macron—despite having been part of Hollande’s disastrous government—was preferable since there was at least a hope of market-oriented reform.

…the chance of Macron being good are greater than zero. After all, it was the left-wing parties that started the process of pro-market reforms in Australia and New Zealand. And it was a Social Democrat government in Germany that enacted the labor-market reforms that have been so beneficial for that nation.

NZCPR Weekly: Tax Competition

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week, ahead of the Budget, we make the case for lower taxes, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Professor Richard Epstein from the US outlines the sweeping tax reforms announced by President Trump, and this week’s poll asks whether you think taxes should be reduced in Thursday’s Budget.

*To read the newsletter click HERE.
*To register for the NZCPR Weekly mailing list, click HERE.  

NZCPR Newsletter: Taxing Commercial Charities

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we look at whether commercial charities should pay their ‘fair share’ of tax, our NZCPR Guest Commentator, Lord Richard Balfe of Dulwich, shares his thoughts on charity reform in the UK, and our poll asks whether for-profit commercial charities should pay tax on income that is not directly used for charitable purposes.

*To read the newsletter click HERE.
*To register for the NZCPR Weekly mailing list, click HERE.  

Frank Newman: Taxing landlords

There's a general election coming up so landlords can expect to receive more than their fair share of attention from politicians this year. They will, of course, be portrayed as greedy and unscrupulous, and the cause of homelessness, pestilence, and plague. 

We have been told countless times - and no doubt will be told many more times - that property investors receive favourable tax privileges they don't deserve. All of these condemnations are of course built on half-truths and envy. But the lie has be told so many times that many are happy to accept it as fact, buying into the idea that the punishment for those foolish enough to admit they own a rental should be public flogging and tomato throwing.

Michael Gousmett: Fixing an Anachronism - the Veterinary Services exemption from Income Tax

INTRODUCTION

In 1955 the government of the day granted an exemption from income tax to veterinary services bodies in recognition of the importance of the work being undertaken by veterinary professionals in helping New Zealand’s post-war economy to develop.  

The exemption was backdated to 1951 and, 65 years later, remains in place.