John Key rules out a Capital Gains Tax. Yesterday, Bill English ruled it in. Key said back in September that Capital Gains Taxes were “inefficient” and “did not achieve the objective of stopping a housing boom . . . in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom.” Carefully avoiding using the words “family home,” Billy Bob indicated yesterday however that Capital Gains Taxes on investment property – which means everything other than yours and Bill’s family homes, wherever they might be – are just the release of a taxation report away.
For a pair who supposedly know what they’re doing (yeah, right) these two can’t even get their stories straight . . . and English just can’t avoid his eyes gleaming at the prospect of a new tax.
D’you remember which mainstream party it was who went into the election on a platform of tax cuts? Turns out they’d rather break their promises to you than consider cutting their own profligate spending.
And yes, there are still idiot economists around who will be applauding this – what Lenin used to call “useful idiots” – the sort who think the way to “fix” NZ’s economic woes is a whole raft of new taxes. By their applause shall ye know them.
12 comments:
You just can't turn your back on old 21% for five seconds and he's thinking up new ways to fleece us. Pass the hat round and we'll buy him a one way ticket to Dipton.
The 'idiot economists' remark is right on target. Every mainstream economist I have read has been positively bullying the government into a CGT. All they know to fix the existing tax distortions in the market, is to create yet more tax distortions, and belabour us all, including business, even more - if there was any group seriously in need of some philosophy, especially regarding personal freedom, it is that group.
I haven't seen one such economist state that the problem is the size of government, and it's huge great jackboot stomping through every single aspect of our economy. I would have thought Gareth Morgan would have been leading that, but Infometrics seem to be one of the main cheer leaders for yet another lot of taxing.
NZ needs some Austrians. I've been told we have some, but I seen on one article in the MSM written by an economist from that view point.
Our Income Tax Act, and all the other taxing acts, are now so complex, it's so easy to miss something, no matter how good you are, you'd have to be retarded to take the risk working in a job that was trying to administer it - unfortunately, call me retarded (with panic attacks about 4.00am every morning - and I'm not kidding on that). And now we're probably going to have another 50,000 word addition. Hooray.
I'm so tired of all this BS, and to have a 'crackdown' served up by the biggest rorter, English, is just about too much.
'I've gotta get out of this place,
if its the last thing I ever do' has been going through my head all morning. Who sung that? Anyway, no way to live. /rant off.
That's '... I've seen not one article in the MSM ...'
"I haven't seen one such economist state that the problem is the size of government..."
Shouldn't be rocket science, should it, but they're all still 'underconsumptionists' -- they all think consumption is "the engine" of the economy, so when consumption falls the government has to pick up the slack.
Which as a few minutes of thought should tell you is a pile of steaming horse shit.
"Who sung that?"
That was The Animals.
But David Johansen did it way better. :-)
Who sung that Mark? The Animals. There's a joke in there, you know ...
It's timely to remind National voters in particular that this time last year -- EXACTLY this time last year -- we were being told that we'd be $50 better off per week. :/
I wonder who is? (Motorcyclists need not answer).
Mark, you stated that every mainstream economist I have read has been positively bullying the government into a CGT. Is this including Bernard Hickey? I noted that spend a bit of time over at his blog trying to educate readers over there about less government and that's good. Is Bernard Hickey an economist or a journalist? These are 2 are supposed to be different. He seems to want to be both or perhaps he wants to be an economist wannabe.
Hickey is a journalist, his background is Reuters.
I was referring to the guest economists who post articles to his blog, mainly Infometrics (and their posts have been to the last one an eye opener, and not in a good way), but also bank economists, and the odd politician.
How much sleep do you get 'accountant'?
Thanks for the Animals Peter and Sus, I might make that song the morning theme music in my office.
Oh, but yes, Hickey is beside himself over NZ's need for a CGT or land value tax (I can see that second option happening if National get a second term).
This childishness about property investment goes all the way back to the Norman Kirk government.
Personally I have never been attracted to real estate as an investment but do not see why various governments' seek to stop people earning a profit from doing so.
If they really wanted to 'solve' the property investment 'problem'; assuming there was such a problem, it would be most effective to simply remove the tax deduction from interest payments on real estate. Problem solved in about five minutes.
Mark, we already have a land value tax - we call it "rates", and look at what they fund - a bunch of thieves worse than central government, whose spending rises as a multiple of the CPI year after year. Adding central government rates to local government rates isn't going to help anything. Neither is a CGT, but don't expect the troughing pigs to see that.
Elijah, I think you probably know that property is only seen as an investment because people believe real estate will just keep rising in price. The fix for this is not a tweak like removing the deductibility of mortgage interest, but instead to remove restrictions on land development and to remove town "planning". Less intervention, not more...
Yup. It is time to start looking for better opportunities overseas. Let this lot sink in their own quagmire.
LGM
LGM - you have hit the nail on the head and some of us are busy doing it.
New Zealand will never change; the 'attitude' problems manifested in Governments have been the same throughout my entire life and I doubt, short of the Libz winning the next election, there will be an improvement.
To earn vast profits you need to look abroad to the Orient or Australia.
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