Herald on Tax

The Herald reports:

The cuts are likely to reduce personal tax rates from 38c, 33c, 21c and 12.5c in the dollar to 33c, 19c and 10c.

That would be good.

Mr English said at the weekend that he expected the focus on Budget day to be on people’s cash positions.

“But that is not the purpose of it – to make them a bit better or worse off in cash terms, although of course that is important,” he said.

“The point of the tax package is whether four or five years down the track we can influence the choices that people make.

“What we want to do is tilt the economy. It’s not shock treatment. It’s changing the choices that peoplehave and changing the way theythink about those choices.”

This is what Labour never wants to talk about. To them tax is only about redistribution. And of course that is part of it.

But tax is also about incentives and encouraging people to work and save.