More Labour tax confusion

Radio NZ reports:

Labour Party leader Jacinda Ardern has ruled out introducing any tax which would hit either the family home or the land it sits on, saying that’s “completely off the table”.

It’s not that simple.

What if the family home sits on farm land?

What if the family home is a lifestyle block?

Labour’s former CGT policy would have applied to rural land, which a family home is on.

It is not as simple as saying a land tax would not apply to land a family home sits on.

She’s now gone further, saying she’d instruct the working group to stay away from any policies which would affect the home or the land on which it is built.

“My message will be very clear to them – do not bring me any recommendation that includes the family home or the land that a family home sits on.”

Ms Ardern said the tax working group could still consider the possibility of a land tax, but not one which would hit the land underneath a family’s house.

Which means a land tax would be useless and apply mainly to rural land. Another great whack at the productive sector.

A land tax is actually a good idea, so long as it applies to all land, and was used to reduce income taxes. But Labour keep making up policy on the hoof.

Earlier today, Ms Ardern said Labour’s target was not the family home.

But when pressed by reporters, she suggested that guarantee only covered the building itself and not the land.

“Yes, that’s the complication of those various iterations,” she said.

“That’s why I’m saying to the tax working group – ‘I want the family home to be off the table, please work through the options that remain available to address home ownership and to address affordability and to make sure our taxation system is fair’.”

Ms Ardern was then asked again if she was leaving open the possibility of taxing the land on which the home sat.

“I’m saying that I don’t want there to be taxation applying to a family home,” she said. “The rest is for the working group to work through.”

Clear as mud.