Soper on Jacinda on tax
Barry Soper writes:
Bill English, who’s essentially been pulling the public purse strings for the best past of a decade, has been doing his best to rattle the loquacious Jacinda Ardern, who for the most part’s been hiding behind the taxation working group she’s planning to set up after the election, if she gets the chance.
But she does herself a disservice by continuing to declare what’s hot and what’s not when it comes to tax, with her group’s options being diminished by the day.
The latest tax to come off their drawing board’s inheritance and that follows capital gains on the family home and the land that lies beneath it, even if the property’s owned by a trust.
Possible increases to the top income tax rate were canned after the Government’s books were opened, and even though she said it’d take days to analyse the figures on that one, it took a couple of hours.
Then there’s the wishy washy water tax that’s as popular as a wet, mouldy blanket down on the farm.
The more taxes she takes off the table, the greater the impression is that she knows exactly what she wants to do with the system and that creates the uncertainty.
Voters have the right to know how much tax they will be paying if the vote for a particular party.
There are two acceptable options for Labour and one unacceptable option. The options are:
- Be upfront with New Zealand and tell us that there will be a capital gains tax and/or a land tax and how much they’ll be. That is an acceptable option. Voters can them make an informed choice.
- Give a commitment that any tax changes recommended by the Tax Working Group will not be implemented until after the next election. That is an acceptable option.
- Their current policy of refusing to say what they will do, but reserving the right to implement billions of dollars of new taxes if elected. That is unacceptable