"The taxation review has been trumpeted as being all about 'fairness.' But how fair is it to tax the residual value of a business which has had to survive in an unsympathetic, highly regressive & often ideologically-hostile environment ... only to find that at the end of a difficult journey, a rapacious government will requisition 33% of their realisation, in the name of 'fairness'?" Bonus #QotD

"Our Prime Minister assures farmers and small business owners that they have 'nothing to fear’ from a proposed capital gains tax.
    "But they have much to fear.
    "Why? Because small businesses already have to deal with an overwhelmingly onerous, highly regressive, taxation compliance regime, to which they must conform, at considerable cost ,with significant financial and personal penalties if they do not.
    "These include: company tax; income tax on salaries and drawings; fringe benefit tax; goods and services tax(GST); ACC levies; resident withholding tax on investments or dividends such as a shareholding in a partnering business; imputation tax issues; employer subsidy contributions; the cost of filing annual returns; franchise fees. The list goes on and on.
    "The cost of complying with these government requirements is already astronomical for small businesses. The Cullen-led Tax Working Group appears to be both ignorant of and unsympathetic to the fact that these compliance costs are hugely regressive. The cost of compliance as a proportion of turnover is far higher for small businesses than for larger businesses.
    "Small businesses account for 50-60%of all employees. They provide us with personal services, shops, restaurants, and trades, to name just a few.
    "Imagine your community without these facilities? ...
    "The taxation review has been trumpeted as being all about 'fairness.'
"But how fair is it to tax the residual value of a business which has had to survive in an unsympathetic, highly regressive and often ideologically-hostile environment requiring owners to expend huge personal effort, time and money over many years, only to find that at the end of a difficult journey, a rapacious government will requisition 33% of their realisation, in the name of 'fairness'?" 

~ Professor Martin Devlin, emeritus professor of management from Massey University, from his post 'Small Businesses Beware'.