$50b more tax paid

John Key has just pointed out that the amount of cumulative extra tax paid since Labour came into office has been $50 billion. Think if taxation had been kept steady, then the average household would each have around $25,000 more money.

In 1999/2000 total taxation was only $34B. Over the previous nine years this had increased 25% from $26B in 1990/01. On the current forecast under Labour tax revenue over nine years will reach $55B in 2008/09, which is a massive 69% increase.

NZ is (I think) the only country in the world in recent years which has increased tax rates, not decreased them.