Monday 30 April 2007

Clark and co must pay $194,000 'arrogance surcharge' says Darnton

The Labour Party has finally -- about time! -- repaid the $800,000 they stole from the taxpayer to help fund their election campaign, but Libertarianz leader Bernard Darnton says there's still something more to be paid: An "arrogance surcharge." He explains in yesterday's press release:
"Of course, with the pledge card spending retrospectively legalised last year, there was no legal debt to be paid. The payment must therefore be a gift."

Greens co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons agrees. When the Greens handed $87,000 over to the Parliamentary Service in February she said the payment was "a gift, not a debt." [1]

Darnton added, "A gift of this magnitude must be subject to gift duty." Using Inland Revenue's gift duty guide (IR 194), Darnton calculated the gift duty Labour owes as just under $194,000.

"This is a mess of their own making. If they'd just admitted that they'd taken the money illegally and paid it back in the first place there would be no question of this extra charge but they refused to admit they did wrong and then went and changed the rules. This $194,000 is really an arrogance surcharge.

"I expect Labour to announce that they will take their tax obligations as seriously as they demand other, more productive, New Zealanders to."
Bravo Bernard! This is the sort of thing real opposition leaders should be doing. If you like what Libz leader Bernard Darnton is doing, then you really should consider becoming a Libertarianz member and helping him out. Far better than sitting still for this vapid drivel from John Boy.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Vapid drivel from Key, indeed. Lots of cutesy phrases which said nothing. Specially loved this:

'We will encourage innovation and hard work by taxing people and business fairly'.

Is that a bit like a rapist promising to be gentle? Ouch.

He's no different to that fool Pete Hodgson whom I had the misfortune to see when he opened a health conference I attended in Wellington last week. Arrived late, cracked a weak joke and spent ten minutes saying nothing before leaving as inconspicuously as he arrived. "No, we haven't done what we promised to do last year (for Alzheimers Disease, like he could ever 'do' anything anyway, the dumbfuck), but rest assured that I haven't forgotten you!" Oh, for God's sake.

Left or right: No answers, no morality - just more of what doesn't work.

Hey, but it's a great job if you can get it, eh!